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The Court in the 17th Century

A new Court?
James I’s anti-duelling campaign
The Earl Marshal & reform of the court
The court under Charles I
Reay v Ramsey
The civil lawyers
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The collapse of the court
Charles I’s anti-duelling campaign
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The High Court of Chivalry in the early seventeenth century

Charles I’s anti-duelling campaign

Duelling was never an issue which appeared as pressing to Charles as it had done to his father, largely because there was no repeat of the clusters of deaths of leading courtiers which occurred in 1609 and 1613. But for a monarch who prided himself on an orderly and harmonious regime, the existence of duelling, particularly in the precincts of the royal court, was a cause for concern, and there were moments in his reign when the problem did threaten to get out of hand. One of these was the spring and summer of 1634 when news of a series of challenges between leading courtiers was reported by letter writers and Charles himself had to intervene to prevent a combat between Henry Percy and Lord Denluce. However, the incident which, perhaps, had most impact from the point of view of the Court of Chivalry was a quarrel of April 1633 in which the Earl of Holland challenged Jerome Weston, son of the Lord Treasurer, to duel in the king’s garden after Weston had opened his correspondence. Lord Fielding and the son of Lord Goring joined in, and Henry Jermyn, another leading courtier, was implicated in sending the challenge. Charles was livid. He gave all those involved a dressing down in front of the privy council, declared his resolution ‘herafter to prosecute all delinquents in this kind’ and drafted the submissions of the offending parties in person. Further action had to be deferred because of his summer progress to Scotland; but the issue had been pushed up the crown’s agenda and this no doubt helped to encourage Arundel and the civil lawyers when it came to pressing ahead with their claims to jurisdiction over scandalous words early in 1634.

But how effective was the court in fulfilling this function of curbing the practice of duelling? This is hard to answer because of the difficulty of making any sort of estimate of the amount of duelling that was taking place in early Stuart England. Historians have tended to rely on stray references in newsletters; however, it is clear from other sources that these are heavily biased towards combats involving courtiers and leading noblemen. Star Chamber and Court of Chivalry cases offer a better guide to the extent of the problem in the localities, but again it is apparent that the combats referred to the courts were only a small fraction of the total. Given these limitations, however, it is still possible to assess some of the ways in which the Court of Chivalry did have an impact on the problem.

Numerous litigants appealed to the court after receiving a challenge, often specifically citing James edict and proclamations. In such cases the Earl Marshal’s usual response was to send a messenger to detain the parties involved and then bind them over to good behaviour for substantial sums in the order of £500- £1000. This put an immediate stop to some duelling – mainly around the fringes of the royal court or at the Inns of Court, which were two of the main trouble spots – but it is doubtful whether it had much impact as a longer term deterrent. Bonds of £500 apiece did not stop Guy Moulsworth and William Gartfoote from continuing to taunt and provoke the two fellow Inns of Court students who had appealed against them to the Earl Marshal; and Robert Walsh, one of the habitual duellists who crop up in the court’s records, mocked and challenged Edward Gibbes, the son of a Warwickshire gentleman, in Westminster Hall in May 1639, in spite of having been bound over for 1000 marks the previous year to stop a duel over a horseracing bet. Where the court played a much more effective role was in providing disputants with an alternative means of settling their differences. There are numerous instances where gentlemen were able to sidestep challenges, or draw aside from quarrels likely to lead to a challenge, because they were confident that the court would vindicate their honour. In February 1639/40 William, Viscount Monson caught Robert Welch cheating at cards, and when he tried to cover up by giving him the lie and challenging him to fight, Monson felt able to hold back and the next day launch a Court of Chivalry suit. In such cases there was often a risk of being branded a coward for refusing to fight; but plaintiffs calculated that the benefits of being vindicated by the king’s representative, the Earl Marshal, and of inflicting a humiliating submission on their opponents outweighed this. In some cases wily disputants can be seen leading on opponents to the point at which they would provide a prima facie case for the prosecution. There was more than an element of this in the Monson case where the viscount baited Welch to the point at which he lost all self-control and, in front of witnesses, tried to force a fight. In Billiard v Robinson, two Northamptonshire gentlemen quarrelling in a Peterborough tavern appear to have known exactly what was at stake as each tried to manoeuvre the other into issuing a challenge. Billiard eventually came out on top, in spite of being the first to draw his sword. He was able to report to the court his sanctimonious response to challenge that Robinson was eventually provoked into making : ‘I will not meete you in the bushy close, but I will meet you in Star Chamber, or some other Court of Justice, where the lawe shall right mee, and I will not right myselfe.’

In spite of the crown’s efforts to curb the practice, gentlemen continued to boast of their prowess in duelling : Sir Kenelme Digbyes Honour Maintained (1641) (By permission of the British Library)

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