Editing Duel (section)

==History==

===Early history and Middle Ages===
{{Further|Single combat}}
[[File:Gerichtlicher Zweikampf.jpg|thumb|Depiction of a judicial combat in the Dresden codex of the ''Sachsenspiegel'' (early to mid-14th century), illustrating the provision that the two combatants must "share the sun", i.e. align themselves perpendicular to the sun so that neither has an advantage.]]
[[File:Sasaki Toyokichi - Nihon hana zue - Walters 95208.jpg|thumb|[[Minamoto no Yoshihira]] and [[Taira no Shigemori]] (Japan in 1159)]]
[[File:Manifesto disfida di barletta.jpg|thumb|Commemorative poster for the fourth centennial of the ''Disfida di Barletta'', the [[Challenge of Barletta]], fought on 13 February 1503 between 13 Italian and 13 French [[knights]] all shown wearing full [[plate armour]].]]

In [[Western world|Western]] society, the formal concept of a duel developed out of the [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[Trial by combat|judicial duel]] and older pre-Christian practices such as the [[Viking Age]] ''[[holmgang]]''. In medieval society, judicial duels were fought by knights and squires to end various disputes.<ref name="Dav">David Levinson and Karen Christensen. ''Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present''. Oxford University Press; 1st edition (July 22, 1999). pp. 206. {{ISBN|978-0195131956}}.</ref><ref>Clifford J. Rogers, Kelly DeVries and John Franc. ''Journal of Medieval Military History: Volume VIII''. Boydell Press (November 18, 2010). pp. 157-160. {{ISBN|978-1843835967}}</ref> Countries such as France, Germany, England, and Ireland practiced this tradition. Judicial combat took two forms in medieval society, the feat of arms and chivalric combat.<ref name="Dav" /> The feat of arms was used to settle hostilities between two large parties and supervised by a judge. The battle was fought as a result of a slight or challenge to one party's [[Honour|honor]] which could not be resolved by a court. Weapons were standardized and typical of a knight's armoury, for example longswords or polearms; however, weapon quality and augmentations were at the discretion of the knight; for example, a spiked hand guard or an extra grip for half-swording. The parties involved would wear their own armour; for example, one knight wearing full plate might face another wearing chain mail. The duel lasted until one party could no longer fight back. In early cases, the defeated party was then executed. This type of duel soon evolved into the more [[Chivalry|chivalric]] ''[[pas d'armes]],'' or "passage of arms", a chivalric [[hastilude]] that evolved in the late 14th century and remained popular through the 15th century. A knight or group of knights ({{lang|fro|tenans}} or "holders") would stake out a travelled spot, such as a bridge or city gate, and let it be known that any other knight who wished to pass ({{lang|fro|venans}} or "comers") must first fight, or be disgraced.<ref>Hubbard, Ben. ''Gladiators: From Spartacus to Spitfires''. Canary Press (August 15, 2011). Chapter: Pas D'armes. ASIN: B005HJTS8O.</ref> If a traveling {{lang|fro|venans}} did not have weapons or horse to meet the challenge, one might be provided, and if the {{lang|fro|venans}} chose not to fight, he would leave his spurs behind as a sign of humiliation. If a lady passed unescorted, she would leave behind a glove or scarf, to be rescued and returned to her by a future knight who passed that way.

The [[Catholic Church]] was critical of dueling throughout medieval history, frowning both on the traditions of [[judicial combat]] and on the duel on points of honor among the nobility. Judicial duels were deprecated by the [[Fourth Council of the Lateran|Lateran Council]] of 1215, but the judicial duel persisted in the [[Holy Roman Empire]] into the 15th century.<ref>In 1459 (''MS Thott 290 2'') [[Hans Talhoffer]] reported that in spite of Church disapproval, there were nevertheless seven capital crimes that were still commonly accepted as resolvable by means of a judicial duel.</ref> The word duel comes from the Latin ''duellum'', cognate with ''bellum'', meaning 'war'.

===Renaissance and early modern Europe===
During the early [[Renaissance]], dueling established the status of a respectable [[gentry|gentleman]] and was an accepted manner to resolve disputes. [[File:Dueling engraving.jpg|thumb|240px|Dueling remained highly popular in European society, despite various attempts at banning the practice.]]

The first published ''[[code duello]]'', or "code of dueling", appeared in [[Renaissance Italy]]. The first formalized national code was that of France, during the [[Renaissance]]. From the late 1580s to the 1620s, an estimated 10,000 French individuals (most of them nobility) were killed in duels.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Englund |first=Peter |title=Den oövervinnerlige: om den svenska stormaktstiden och en man i dess mitt |date=2000 |publisher=Atlantis |isbn=978-91-7486-999-6 |location=Stockholm |pages=593 |language=Swedish}}</ref>

By the 17th century, dueling had become regarded as a prerogative of the [[aristocracy]], throughout Europe, and attempts to discourage or suppress it generally failed. For example, King [[Louis XIII|Louis XIII of France]] outlawed dueling in 1626, a law which remained in force afterwards, and his successor [[Louis XIV]] intensified efforts to wipe out the duel. Despite these efforts, dueling continued unabated, and it is estimated that between 1685 and 1716, French officers fought 10,000 duels, leading to over 400 deaths.<ref>Lynn, p. 257.</ref>

In [[Ireland]], as late as 1777, a code of practice was drawn up for the regulation of duels, at the Summer [[assize]]s in the town of [[Clonmel]], [[County Tipperary]]. A copy of the code, known as 'The twenty-six commandments', was to be kept in a gentleman's pistol case for reference should a dispute arise regarding procedure.<ref name="Hamilton 1829">{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/onlyapprovedguid00hami |title=The only approved guide through all the stages of a quarrel |publisher=Millikin |year=1829 |edition=([[Internet Archive]]) |location=Dublin |access-date=29 June 2009}}</ref>

===Enlightenment-era opposition===
By the late 18th century, [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment era]] values began to influence society with new self-conscious ideas about [[politeness]], [[Civil society|civil behavior]], and new attitudes toward [[violence]]. The cultivated art of politeness demanded that there should be no outward displays of anger or violence, and the concept of honor became more personalized.

By the 1770s, the practice of dueling was increasingly coming under attack from many sections of enlightened society, as a violent relic of Europe's medieval past unsuited for modern life. As England began to [[Industrial Revolution|industrialize]] and benefit from urban planning and more effective [[Metropolitan Police|police forces]], the culture of street violence in general began to slowly wane. The growing [[middle class]] maintained their reputation with recourse to either bringing charges of [[libel]], or to the fast-growing print media of the early 19th century, where they could defend their honor and resolve conflicts through correspondence in newspapers.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Death of Dueling |url=http://castle.eiu.edu/historia/archives/2004/Ellett.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107223937/http://castle.eiu.edu/historia/archives/2004/Ellett.pdf |archive-date=2014-01-07 |access-date=2014-01-07}}</ref>

Influential new intellectual trends at the turn of the 19th century bolstered the anti-dueling campaign; the [[Utilitarianism|utilitarian philosophy]] of [[Jeremy Bentham]] stressed that praiseworthy actions were exclusively restricted to those that maximize human welfare and happiness, and the [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] notion of the "Christian conscience" began to actively promote social activism. Individuals in the [[Clapham Sect]] and similar societies, who had successfully campaigned for the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]], condemned dueling as ungodly violence and as an egocentric culture of honor.<ref>David W. Bebbington, "The Evangelical Conscience," ''Welsh Journal of Religious History'' (2007) 2#1, pp 27–44.</ref>

===Modern history===
[[File:Mühlberg - Säbelmensur.jpg|thumb|300px|German students of a [[Burschenschaft]] fighting a sabre duel, around 1900, painting by [[Georg Mühlberg]] (1863–1925)]]

The former [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]] was killed in a duel against the sitting [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Aaron Burr]] in 1804. Between 1798 and the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] lost two-thirds as many officers to dueling as it did in combat at sea, including naval hero [[Stephen Decatur]]. Many of those killed or wounded were [[Midshipman|midshipmen]] or junior officers. Despite prominent deaths, dueling persisted because of contemporary ideals of [[chivalry]], particularly in the [[Dueling in the United States South|South]], and because of the threat of ridicule if a challenge was rejected.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/sfeature/dueling.html |title=The American Experience &#124; Dueling, American Style |publisher=PBS |access-date=2012-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111235400/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/sfeature/dueling.html |archive-date=2012-11-11 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |author=Drake, Ross |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |title=Duel! Defenders of honor or shoot-on-sight vigilantes? Even in 19th-century America, it was hard to tell |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |date=March 2004 |access-date=2012-10-22 |archive-date=2014-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107225246/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By about 1770, the duel underwent a number of important changes in [[England]]. Firstly, unlike their counterparts in many [[Continental Europe|continental nations]], English duelists enthusiastically adopted the pistol, and sword duels dwindled.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/techniques/pup_wd.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060422021753/http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/techniques/pup_wd.html|date=April 22, 2006}}</ref> Special sets of [[Duelling pistol|dueling pistols]] were crafted for the wealthiest of noblemen for this purpose. Also, the office of 'second' developed into 'seconds' or 'friends' being chosen by the aggrieved parties to conduct their honor dispute. These friends would attempt to resolve a dispute upon terms acceptable to both parties and, should this fail, they would arrange and oversee the mechanics of the encounter.<ref name="KEG">{{cite web |url=http://keepenglefieldgreen.org/page12.htm |title=The common is steeped in history, at Keep Englefield Green – The Heritage |publisher=Keepenglefieldgreen.org |access-date=2010-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726214658/http://keepenglefieldgreen.org/page12.htm |archive-date=2011-07-26}}</ref>

In England, to kill in the course of a duel was formally judged as [[murder]], but generally the courts were very lax in applying the law, as they were sympathetic to the culture of honor.<ref>Banks, S. "Very little law in the case: Contests of Honour and the Subversion of the English Criminal Courts, 1780-1845"</ref> Despite being a criminal act, military officers in many countries could be punished if they failed to fight a duel when the occasion called for it. In 1814, a British officer was court-martialed, [[cashiering|cashiered]], and dismissed from the army for failing to issue a challenge after he was publicly insulted.<ref>Hoptin (2011), pp.26-27</ref> This attitude lingered on – [[Queen Victoria]] even expressed a hope that [[James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan|Lord Cardigan]], prosecuted for wounding another in a duel, "would get off easily". The [[Anglican Church]] was generally hostile to dueling, but [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|non-conformist]] sects in particular began to actively campaign against it.

By 1840, dueling had declined dramatically; when the [[James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan|7th Earl of Cardigan]] was acquitted on a legal technicality for homicide in connection with a duel with one of his former officers,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Trial of James Thomas Earl of Cardigan before the Right Honourable the House of Peers, etc. |publisher=Published by order of the House of Peers |year=1841 |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QdYKAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> outrage was expressed in the media, with ''[[The Times]]'' alleging that there was deliberate, high-level complicity to leave the loophole in the prosecution and reporting the view that "in England there is one law for the rich and another for the poor," and ''[[The Examiner (1808–86)|The Examiner]]'' describing the verdict as "a defeat of justice."<ref name="examiner18040221">{{cite news |last=Staff |date=21 February 1841 |title=Defeat of Justice |newspaper=The Examiner |publisher=Albany Fonblanque |location=London |issue=1725}}</ref><ref>''[[The Times]]'' 17 February and 18 February 1841, quoted in Woodham-Smith (1953)</ref>

The last-known fatal duel between Englishmen in England occurred in 1845, when [[James Alexander Seton]] had an altercation with Henry Hawkey over the affections of his wife, leading to a duel at Browndown, near [[Gosport]]. However, [[Englefield Green#The last duel in England|the last-known fatal duel]] to occur in [[England]] was between two French political refugees, Frederic Cournet and [[Emmanuel Barthélemy]] near [[Englefield Green]] in 1852; the former was killed.<ref name="KEG" /> In both cases, the winners of the duels, Hawkey<ref>{{cite news |title=Trial of Lieutenant Hawkey for the Wilful Murder of Lieutenant Seton in a Duel |work=Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle |date=July 18, 1846 |location=Portsmouth, England |issue=2441}}</ref> and Barthélemy,<ref name="executedtoday" /> were tried for murder. But Hawkey was acquitted and Barthélemy was convicted only of manslaughter; he served seven months in prison.<ref name="executedtoday">{{cite web |url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2014/01/22/1855-emmanuel-barthelemy-duelist/ |title=1855: Emmanuel Barthelemy, duelist |work=Executed Today |date=22 January 2014 |access-date=25 October 2014}}</ref>

[[File:AntiDuelingPamphletEliphaletNott1804.jpg|thumb|left|An anti-dueling sermon written by an acquaintance of [[Alexander Hamilton]].]]
Dueling also began to be criticized in America in the late 18th century; [[Benjamin Franklin]] denounced the practice as uselessly violent, and [[George Washington]] encouraged his officers to refuse challenges during the [[American Revolutionary War]] because he believed that the death by dueling of officers would have threatened the success of the war effort.

In the early nineteenth century, American writer and activist [[John Neal]] took up dueling as his earliest reform issue,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kayorie |first=James Stephen Merritt |editor-last=Baumgartner |editor-first=Jody C. |chapter=John Neal (1793–1876) |page=87 |title=American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-4408-5486-6}}</ref> attacking the institution in his first novel, ''Keep Cool'' (1817) and referring to it in an essay that same year as "the unqualified evidence of manhood".<ref>{{cite magazine |date=February 1817 |title=Essay on Duelling |last=Neal |first=John |author-link=John Neal |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008696293 |magazine=The Portico |location=Baltimore, Maryland |publisher=Neale Willis & Cole |volume=3 (January–June 1817) |pages=132–133 |issue=2}}</ref> Ironically, Neal was challenged to a duel by a fellow [[Baltimore]] lawyer for insults published in his 1823 novel ''Randolph''. He refused and mocked the challenge in his next novel, ''Errata'', published the same year.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sears |first=Donald A. |title=John Neal |publisher=Twayne Publishers |location=Boston, Massachusetts |year=1978 |isbn=0-8057-7230-8 |page=55}}</ref>

Reports of dueling gained in popularity in the first half of the 19th century especially in the [[Southern United States|South]] and the states of the [[Old Southwest]]. However, in this regional context, the term ''dueling'' had severely degenerated from its original 18th-century definition as a formal social custom among the wealthy classes, using fixed rules of conduct. Instead, 'dueling' was used by the contemporary press of the day to refer to any [[melee]] knife or gun fight between two contestants, where the clear object was simply to kill one's opponent.<ref name="CAS">Cassidy, William L., ''The Complete Book Of Knife Fighting'', {{ISBN|0-87364-029-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87364-029-9}} (1997), pp. 9–18, 27–36: In some states the popularity of certain knives such as the ''Bowie'' and ''Arkansas Toothpick'' was such that schools were established to teach their use in knife fighting 'duels', further popularizing such knives and compelling authorities to pass legislation severely restricting such schools.</ref>

Dueling began an irreversible decline in the aftermath of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Even in the South, [[public opinion]] increasingly came to regard the practice as little more than bloodshed.

====Prominent 19th-century duels====
{{Main|List of duels}}
[[File:Hamilton-burr-duel.jpg|thumb|A 1902 illustration showing [[Alexander Hamilton]] fighting his fatal duel with Vice President [[Aaron Burr]], July 1804]]

====United States====
The most notorious American duel is the [[Burr–Hamilton duel]], in which notable [[Federalist Party|Federalist]] and former [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]] was fatally wounded by his political rival, the sitting [[Vice President of the United States]] [[Aaron Burr]].

Another American politician, [[Andrew Jackson]], later to serve as a [[General Officer]] in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] and to become the [[List of Presidents of the United States|seventh president]], fought two duels, though some legends claim he fought many more. On May 30, 1806, he killed prominent duellist [[Charles Dickinson (historical figure)|Charles Dickinson]], suffering himself from a chest wound that caused him a lifetime of pain. Jackson also reportedly engaged in a bloodless duel with a lawyer and in 1803 came very near dueling with [[John Sevier]]. Jackson also engaged in a frontier brawl (not a duel) with [[Thomas Hart Benton (politician)|Thomas Hart Benton]] in 1813.

In 1827, during the [[Sandbar Fight]], [[James Bowie]] was involved in an arranged pistol duel that quickly escalated into a knife-fighting [[melee]], not atypical of American practices at the time.<ref>Edmondson, J. R. (2000), ''The Alamo Story-From History to Current Conflicts'', Plano, Texas: Republic of Texas Press (2000), ISBN 1-55622-678-0</ref>

On September 22, 1842, future [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]], at the time an [[Illinois]] state [[legislator]], met to duel with state auditor [[James Shields (politician, born 1810)|James Shields]], but friends intervened and persuaded them against it.<ref>[http://www.historynet.com/abraham-lincoln-prepares-to-fight-a-saber-duel.htm "Abraham Lincoln Prepares to Fight a Saber Duel"], originally published by ''Civil War Times'' magazine</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Carnegie |first=Dale |author-link=Dale Carnegie |title=How to Win Friends & Influence People |publisher=Pocket Books |year=1982 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/howtowinfriendsi00carn/page/9 9] |isbn=978-0-671-72365-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/howtowinfriendsi00carn |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In 1864, American writer [[Mark Twain]], then a contributor to the ''[[Sunday Mercury (New York)|New York Sunday Mercury]]'', narrowly avoided fighting a duel with a rival newspaper editor, apparently through the intervention of his second, who exaggerated Twain's prowess with a pistol.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.classicauthors.net/Paine/twainbio/twainbio46.html |title=Mark Twain, A Biography by Albert Bigelow Paine: Part I A Comstock Duel |publisher=Classicauthors.net |access-date=2010-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611095708/http://classicauthors.net/Paine/twainbio/twainbio46.html |archive-date=2010-06-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://twain.classicauthors.net/autobiography/autobiography8.html |title=Chapters from my Autobiography by Mark Twain: Chapter VIII |publisher=Twain.classicauthors.net |access-date=2010-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704042345/http://twain.classicauthors.net/autobiography/autobiography8.html |archive-date=2010-07-04}}</ref><ref>[http://www.twaintimes.net/page4.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080202005156/http://www.twaintimes.net/page4.htm|date=February 2, 2008}}</ref>

====France====
In 1808, two Frenchmen are said to have fought in balloons over Paris, each attempting to shoot and puncture the other's balloon. One duellist is said to have been shot down and killed with his second.<ref name="smithsonian">{{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |title=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonianmag.com |access-date=2010-05-30 |archive-date=2014-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107225246/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/duel.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On 30 May 1832, [[France|French]] mathematician [[Évariste Galois]] was mortally wounded in a duel at the age of twenty, cutting short his promising mathematical career. He spent the night before the duel writing mathematics; the inclusion of a note claiming that he did not have time to finish a proof spawned the [[urban legend]] that he wrote his most important results on that night.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Galois/ |title=Évariste Galois, MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive}}</ref>

In 1843, two Frenchmen are said to have fought a duel by means of throwing billiard balls at each other.<ref name="smithsonian" />

====Ireland====
Irish political leader [[Daniel O'Connell]] killed John D'Esterre in a duel in February 1815. O'Connel offered D'Esterre's widow a pension equal to the amount her husband had been earning at the time, but the Corporation of Dublin, of which D'Esterre had been a member, rejected O'Connell's offer and voted the promised sum to D'Esterre's wife themselves.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqlxAAAAMAAJ&q=city+fathers+rejected+the+offer+and+voted+the+promised+sum+themselves |title=The Duel: A History of Duelling |first=Robert |last=Baldick |publisher=Chapman & Hall |year=1965 |access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref> D'Esterre's wife consented to accept an allowance for her daughter, which O'Connell regularly paid for more than thirty years until his death. The memory of the duel haunted him for the remainder of his life.<ref>Dennis Gywnn, ''Daniel O'Connell: The Irish Liberator'', Hutchinson & Co. Ltd pp 138–145</ref>

====Russia====
The works of Russian poet [[Alexander Pushkin]] contained a number of duels, notably Onegin's duel with Lensky in ''[[Eugene Onegin]]''. These turned out to be prophetic, as Pushkin himself was mortally wounded in a controversial duel with [[Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès|Georges d'Anthès]], a French officer rumored to be his wife's lover. D'Anthès, who was accused of cheating in this duel, married Pushkin's sister-in-law and went on to become a French minister and senator.

====Germany====
In the 1860s, [[Otto von Bismarck]] was reported to have challenged [[Rudolf Virchow]] to a duel. Virchow, being entitled to choose the weapons, chose two pork sausages, one infected with the roundworm ''[[Trichinella]]''; the two would each choose and eat a sausage. Bismarck reportedly declined.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Rudolf Virchow |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=1480–1481 |date=2012-05-24 |pmc=2603088 |last1=Schultz |first1=M. |doi=10.3201/eid1409.086672}}</ref> The story could be apocryphal, however.<ref name="StrozierFlynn1996">{{cite book |last1=Strozier |first1=Charles B. |last2=Flynn |first2=Michael |title=Genocide, War, and Human Survival |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6QuMS4hOB0cC&pg=PA195 |access-date=27 February 2014 |date=1996-01-01 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8476-8227-0 |page=195}}</ref>

====Scotland====
In Scotland, [[James Stuart (1775–1849)|James Stuart of Dunearn]], was tried and acquitted after a duel that fatally wounded Sir [[Sir Alexander Boswell, 1st Baronet|Alexander Boswell]]. [[George Buchan of Kelloe|George Buchan]] published his own examination of arguments in favour of duelling alongside an account of the trial, taken in shorthand.<ref name="Buchan">{{cite book |last1=Buchan |first1=George |author1-link=George Buchan of Kelloe |title=Remarks on duelling; comprising observations on the arguments in defence of that practice |date=1823 |publisher=Waugh & Innes |location=Edinburgh |pages=[https://archive.org/details/remarksonduellin00buch/page/n219/mode/2up 1]-161 |url=https://archive.org/details/remarksonduellin00buch/page/n7/mode/2up}}</ref> Other duels have been fought in Scotland mostly between soldiers or the gentry with several subsequently brought to the law courts.<ref name="Anderson">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/scottishnationor03ande |chapter=The Stuarts of Dunearn |title=The Scottish nation: or, The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland |volume=3 |first=William |last=Anderson |author-link=William Anderson (Scottish writer) |publisher=A. Fullarton & co. |year=1877|page=[https://archive.org/details/scottishnationor03ande/page/376/mode/1up?q=duel 537], et passim}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>

====Canada====
The last known fatal duel in [[Ontario]] was in Perth, in 1833, when [[Robert Lyon (duel)|Robert Lyon]] challenged [[John Wilson (Ontario politician)|John Wilson]] to a pistol duel after a quarrel over remarks made about a local school teacher, whom Wilson married after Lyon was killed in the duel. [[Victoria, British Columbia]] was known to have been the centre of at least two duels near the time of the gold rush.  One involved a British arrival by the name of George Sloane, and an American, John Liverpool, both arriving via San Francisco in 1858. In a duel by pistols, Sloane was fatally injured and Liverpool shortly returned to the US. The fight originally started on board the ship over a young woman, Miss Bradford, and then carried on later in Victoria's tent city.<ref>''The Old Cemeteries Society'' (Pioneer Square) pp. 7–9.</ref> Another duel, involving a Mr. Muir, took place around 1861, but was moved to a US island near Victoria.

===Decline in the 19th and 20th centuries===
Duels had mostly ceased to be fought to the death by the late 19th century.

By the start of [[World War I]], dueling had not only been made illegal almost everywhere in the [[Western world]], but was also widely seen as an anachronism. Military establishments in most countries frowned on dueling because officers were the main contestants. Officers were often trained at military academies at government expense; when officers killed or disabled one another it imposed an unnecessary financial and leadership strain on a military organization, making dueling unpopular with high-ranking officers.<ref>Holland, Barbara (2003). ''Gentlemen's Blood: A History of Dueling''. New York.</ref>

With the end of the duel, the [[dress sword]] lost its position as an indispensable part of a gentleman's wardrobe, a development described as an "archaeological terminus" by [[Ewart Oakeshott]], concluding the long period during which the [[sword]] had been a visible attribute of the free man, beginning as early as three millennia ago with the [[Bronze Age sword]].<ref>R. E. Oakeshott, ''European weapons and armour: From the Renaissance to the industrial revolution'' (1980), p. 255.</ref>

====Legislation====
[[Charles I of Austria|Charles I]] outlawed dueling in [[Austria-Hungary]] in 1917. Germany (the various states of the Holy Roman Empire) has a history of laws against dueling going back to the late medieval period, with a large amount of legislation ({{lang|de|Duellmandate}}) dating from the period after the Thirty Years' War. [[Prussia]] outlawed dueling in 1851, and the law was inherited by the {{lang|de|Reichsstrafgesetzbuch}} of the [[German Empire]] after 1871.<ref name="Liszt">Franz Liszt, ''Lehrbuch des Deutschen Strafrechts'', 13th ed., Berlin (1903), [http://www.bgbedia.de/zweikampf/ §&nbsp;93. 4. Der Zweikampf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101122903/http://www.bgbedia.de/zweikampf/ |date=2013-01-01 }} (pp. 327–333).</ref> [[Pope Leo XIII]] in the encyclica {{lang|la|Pastoralis officii}} (1891) asked the bishops of Germany and Austria-Hungary to impose penalties on duellists.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_le13po.htm |title=Catholic Library: Pastoralis Officii (1891) |website=newadvent.org}}</ref> In Nazi-era Germany, legislations on dueling were tightened in 1937.<ref>Hitler's decree{{clarify|date=March 2016}} was a reaction to a duel between two Nazi party members: [[Roland Strunk]] was killed in a duel with [[Horst Krutschinna]].</ref> After World War II, [[West Germany|West German]] authorities persecuted [[academic fencing]] as duels until 1951, when a [[Göttingen]] court established the legal distinction between academic fencing and dueling.<ref>18 December 1951, confirmed by the [[Federal Court of Justice of Germany|Federal Court of Justice]] on 29 January 1953 (BGHSt 4, 24).</ref>

In 1839, after the death of a congressman, dueling was outlawed in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=005/llsl005.db&recNum=355 |title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875 |website=memory.loc.gov |access-date=2016-07-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A Duel with Rifles |url=http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/07/a-duel-with-rifles/ |date=July 17, 2013 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> A constitutional amendment was even proposed for the federal constitution to outlaw dueling.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/25466015 |title=H.R. 8, Proposing an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to Prohibit any Person who was Involved in a Duel from Holding Public Federal Office |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |year=1838 |series=File Unit: Bills and Resolutions Originating in the House during the 25th Congress, 1837–1839 |access-date=2016-07-29 |archive-date=2016-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006130706/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/25466015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some [[U.S. state]]s' constitutions, such as [[West Virginia]]'s, contain explicit prohibitions on dueling to this day.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wvlegislature.gov/wvcode/wv_con.cfm |title=West Virginia Constitution |website=wvlegislature.gov}}</ref> In [[Kentucky]], state members of the [[United States Electoral College|Electoral College]] must swear that they had never engaged in a duel with a deadly weapon, under a clause in the State Constitution enacted in the 1850s and still valid.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/14/us/joe-biden-trump#biden-calls-trumps-attacks-on-voting-unconscionable "Electoral College Affirms Biden's Victory"], ''The New York Times'', December 15, 2020.</ref> Other U.S. states, like [[Mississippi]] until the late 1970s, formerly had prohibitions on dueling in their state constitutions, but later repealed them,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sos.ms.gov/Education-Publications/Documents/Downloads/Mississippi_Constitution.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428202931/https://www.sos.ms.gov/Education-Publications/Documents/Downloads/Mississippi_Constitution.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-04-28 |title=Mississippi Constitution |year=2014 |access-date=28 April 2019}}</ref> whereas others, such as Iowa, constitutionally prohibited known duelers from holding political office until the early 1990s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Iowa_Repeal_of_Dueling_Ban,_Amendment_2_(1992) |title=Iowa Repeal of Dueling Ban, Amendment 2 (1992) |website=Ballotpedia}}</ref>

From 1921 until 1992,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://relam.org/events/gentlemanly-jurisprudence-and-the-rule-of-law-why-dueling-was-legal-in-uruguay-from-1920-to-1992-a-talk-with-david-s-parker | title="Gentlemanly Jurisprudence and the Rule of Law: Why Dueling was Legal in Uruguay from 1920 to 1992" a talk with David S. Parker | date=10 March 2023 }}</ref> [[Uruguay]] was one of the few places where duels were fully legal. During that period, a duel was legal in cases where "an honor tribunal of three respectable citizens, one chosen by each side and the third chosen by the other two, had ruled that sufficient cause for a duel existed".<ref name="DSP">{{cite journal |first=David S. |last=Parker |date=Summer 2001 |title=Law, Honor, and Impunity in Spanish America: The Debate over Dueling, 1870–1920 |journal=Law and History Review |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=311–341 |doi=10.2307/744132 |jstor=744132|s2cid=144994172 }}</ref>

====Pistol sport dueling====
{{Main|Pistol dueling}}
[[File:1908 Olympics wax duel field.png|thumb|Pistol dueling as an associate event at the 1908 London Olympic Games]]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pistol dueling became popular as a sport in France. The duelists were armed with conventional pistols, but the cartridges had [[wax bullet]]s and were without any powder charge; the bullet was propelled only by the explosion of the cartridge's [[Primer (firearm)|primer]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/02/26/101867826.pdf |title=Duel With Wax Bullets |work=The New York Times |date=February 26, 1909 |access-date=24 December 2014}}</ref>

Participants wore heavy, protective clothing and a metal helmet with a glass eye-screen. The pistols were fitted with a shield that protected the firing hand.

=====Olympic dueling=====
{{Main|Olympic dueling}}

Pistol dueling was an associate (non-medal) event at the [[1908 Summer Olympics]] in London.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=October 1908 |title=Dueling with Wax Bullets |magazine=[[Popular Mechanics]] | volume=10 |page=765}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roI4AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA40 |edition=No. 808 Vol LXIII, Sixpence |date=1908-07-22 |publisher=Ingram brothers |page=41}}</ref>

====Late survivals====
Dueling culture survived in [[French Third Republic|France]], Italy, and Latin America well into the 20th century. [[French Fourth Republic|After World War II]], duels had become rare even in France, and those that still occurred were covered in the press as eccentricities. Duels in France in this period, while still taken seriously as a matter of honor, were not fought to the death. They consisted of fencing with the épée mostly in a fixed distance with the aim of drawing blood from the opponent's arm.

In 1949, former Vichy official [[Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour]] fought school teacher Roger Nordmann.<ref>"A French lawyer and a schoolteacher fought a duel today in a meadow near Paris.  Roger Nordmann the schoolteacher was reportedly pricked by the lawyer Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour's sword and the duel ended with everyone's honor intact. The feud started three weeks ago when Tixier-Vignancour challenged Nordmann to a duel with pistols after he said Nordmann insulted him during a treason trial; Nordmann accepted the challenge but said he had never fired anything more potent than a water pistol. He then chose two of his prettiest girl students, as seconds. The lawyer objected on the grounds that a second must be ready to take his principal's place and he could not lift his hand against a woman. The weapons and the seconds were properly arranged after weeks of negotiations. The duelists went into hiding from newspapermen and police, since dueling is illegal. Only their seconds knew the time and place of combat." ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' i, 13 November 1949, [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/5986306/ p. 55].</ref>
The last known duel in France took place in 1967, when [[French Section of the Workers' International|Socialist]] Deputy and Mayor of Marseille [[Gaston Defferre]] insulted [[Union for the New Republic|Gaullist]] Deputy [[René Ribière]] at the [[French Parliament]] and was subsequently challenged to a duel fought with swords. Ribière lost the duel, having been wounded twice.<ref name="Time">{{cite news |date=1967-04-28 |title=People: Apr. 28, 1967 |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,843669,00.html?iid=chix-sphere |url-status=dead |access-date=2010-05-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629023401/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,843669,00.html?iid=chix-sphere |archive-date=June 29, 2011}}</ref> In Uruguay, a pistol duel was fought in 1971 between Danilo Sena and [[Enrique Erro]], in which neither of the combatants was injured.<ref>[http://www.lr21.com.uy/comunidad/481143-los-ultimos-duelos "Los Últimos Duelos"]. ''LaRed21'', 28 November 2011. ([https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&pto=aue&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://www.lr21.com.uy/comunidad/481143-los-ultimos-duelos&usg=ALkJrhhHV1U0nS7pFkpz7vbBWC7p5ofScw Translated])</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19711018&id=PQgrAAAAIBAJ&pg=6515,4940475&hl=en |work=Reading Eagle |via= Google News Archive Search |title = Two Duel, Both Unhurt|date=18 October 1971}}</ref>

Various modern jurisdictions still retain [[mutual combat]] laws, which allow disputes to be settled via consensual unarmed combat, which are essentially unarmed duels, though it may still be illegal for such fights to result in grievous bodily harm or death.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} Few if any modern jurisdictions allow armed duels.