duel with either brand or shooting iron was once regard the most gentlemanly way of resolve any kind of personal contravention or dishonour . Two duelers , armed and accompanied by their supporter , or “ arcsecond , ” to ensure a fair engagement , would meet at a designated time and place to finalise once and for all any grievances that divided them .
Contrary to what many people think , however , these fights were not always to the death — nor were they rarified . In fact , some of the most illustrious figure were involved in some form of duel divergence at some full point , from French creative person and authors to American politicians , German composer , and even serving British Prime Ministers .
1.GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
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The notable composer of theMessiahoratorio only narrowly escaped death in a duel with fellow composer Johann Mattheson in December 1704 . allot to at leastone accounting of the story , the couplet had ab initio quarreled when Handel refused to have Mattheson take over from him at the harpsichord during a functioning of Mattheson ’s young operaCleopatra(it was customs duty back then to for the opera ’s director to meet the cembalo , and since Mattheson had just wind his role as Antony for the even , he wanted to step in ) .
The tilt spilled out into the entrance hall of the dramaturgy and then out into the streets , where it soon escalated into an extempore duel with blade : Mattheson struck Handel sharply in the chest of drawers with his blade , but an ornate metal release on Handel ’s overcoat foreclose him from being injured , and the duel was pronto abandoned . jubilantly , he and Mattheson reconcile concisely afterwards and remain exit the rest of their lives — when Handel drop dead in 1759 , Mattheson fund the German rendering and publication of his tardy friend ’s biography .
2.LEO TOLSTOY
In his autobiographic essayA Confession(1882 ) , Leo Tolstoy , the famed author ofWar and PeaceandAnna Karenina , write of his early adulthood that :
exactly who Tolstoy dueled with and why is unreadable , but perhaps the most famous affaire d’honneur of his lifetime was onethat did n’t in reality take home : In 1861 , Tolstoy angrily fall down out with his literary mentorIvan Turgenevafter he made a dig at Turgenev ’s daughter , and both novelists subsequently wrote to one another demanding a duel . After a cosmic string of miscommunications and poorly timed letters , they jolly make up and the duel itself never came to pass .
Tolstoy was n’t the most famed dueller in his class , however : His uncle Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy is believed to havekilled as many as 11 human race in duel throughout his lifetime .
3.MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
An taking into custody warrant dating from September 1569 ordered the capture of a 22 - year - onetime “ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , ” who waswanted for wounding a master buildernamed Antonio de Sigura in a duel . This is believed to be the same Miguel de Cervantes who eventually became one of Spain ’s most celebrated authors , but if so , precisely what sparked the affaire d’honneur between him and Sigura is unclear . The arrest guarantee and the prospective punishment ( if caught , Cervantes look having his right-hand helping hand cut off and a decennary of Coventry from the land ) were , however , enough to stimulate Cervantes Saavedra to take flight his home in Madrid and take up residence in Rome , 1000 miles aside .
He did n’t return to Spain until 1580 , during which time he lost the economic consumption of his odd hand fighting at theBattle of Lepantoand was jug in Algeria by pirates for five years . Despite all these hardships , however , Cervantes cash in one’s chips on to write the first volume of his chef-d’oeuvre , Don Quixote , in 1605 .
4.ANDREW JACKSON
Andrew Jackson is trust to have participate in as many as100 duels during his life-time , including one in which the 39 - year - old future chairperson shoot and kill a man named Charles Dickinson in 1806 . Dickinson , a trainee attorney and rival cavalry breeder from Tennessee , became drag in in a four - way dissension with Jackson , Jackson ’s acquaintance , and Dickinson ’s beginner - in - law of nature over an evident gambling debt . This led to Dickinson calling Jackson a “ coward and an equivocator , ” and bring out a argument in the the local paper that labeled Jackson a “ villain ” and a “ poltroon . ” It ’s potential that during this time , Dickinson made the mistake of take aim at Jackson ’s wife , Rachel , whom he called a “ bigamist ” for having erroneously married Jackson before her divorce from her first husband had been finalize .
In answer , Jackson dispute Dickinson to a duel , and the couplet met at Harrison ’s Mill in Kentucky ( as duel was outlawed in Tennessee ) on May 30 , 1806 . Dickinson , a superb marksman , shot first and struck Jackson in the chest , just missing his heart . Jackson staggered back , but contend to aim and fervor . The gun misfired , and — in a breach of dueling etiquette — Jackson recocked the gun and fired again , strike Dickinson in the abdomen;according to theNew York Times , " Mr. Dickinson run to death over many hours , in dreadful torment . " The bullet that struck Jackson , meanwhile , could not be safely removed by surgery and remained embed in his dresser for the ease of his life .
5.ABRAHAM LINCOLN
In August 1842 , Abraham Lincoln used the pseudonym " Rebecca " to spell a scathing editorial criticise the State Auditor of Illinois , James Shields , and his confutable plan to shut the Illinois State Bank and to refuse to support its banknotes . Enraged , Shields track down the article ’s substantial author and wrote a letter demanding Lincoln apologise . In response , Lincoln returned the letter , suggesting that Shields rewrite itin a more “ gentlemanly ” fashion . Thoroughly offended , Shields challenged Lincoln to a duel .
At 6 feet 4 inches grandiloquent , Lincoln get laid he was too big a butt to gamble a gunfight , and so requested the affaire d’honneur be played out with broadsword . fittingly armed , the pairmet on Bloody Islandin the Missouri stretchability of the Mississippi River . But before the fight could begin , Lincoln swing his sword far above 5 - foot-9 - inch - grandiloquent Shields ’s headland , deplumate down an immense ramification from a nearby tree . And yet , Shields still insist on scrap . It was only after some of their friends flow over that Shields was capable to be sing down .
6.BEN JONSON
One of the most famous duel in literary history took topographic point on September 22 , 1598 , when the playwright Ben Jonson agitate with a 20 - class - sometime worker discover Gabriel Spencer in Hoxton Fields in central London . just what lead to the affaire d’honneur is unclear , but most accounts assume it was instigated by Spencer , who had pour down another humans , James Feake , in a swordfight two age before . Jonson openly admitted to Spencer ’s manslaughter , but was spared being hang through “ welfare of clergy , ” an ancient legal get - out clause that take into account those able to prove their literacy to escape capital penalty . Instead , Jonson was briefly imprisoned and branded on his unexpended pollex .
7.WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER
In 1798 , the British Prime Minister Pitt the Younger was face in the House of Commons by an opposing pol named George Tierney , who had taken exception to Pitt ’s plan to bolster the British Navy to cancel the scourge of Napoleon ’s France . Pitt , who was well known for his hot - headed and obstinate behavior , accused Tierney of not desire to defend the commonwealth . Tierney responded by take exception Pitt to a duel , and the pair met before a small crowdon Putney Heath in Londonon May 27 . At a space of 12 paces , both fired two shots ; neither man , and neither bullet , struck its intended target .
8.THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON
Incredibly , Pitt was n’t the only Prime Minister to get himself embroiled in a duel while still in office . In 1829 , the Duke of Wellington , Arthur Wellesley , challenged the Earl of Winchilsea , Sir George Finch - Hatton , to a affaire d’honneur when the Earl angrily challenge Wellington ’s decision to perish theCatholic Relief Actand impeach him of allowing “ the introduction of Popery into every department of the State . ”
The distich match at Battersea in London on March 21 , but both English made it well-defined they remember things had go too far . Wellington shot first and drop his mark ( although no one is certain if the miss was calculated or just because he was a poor dig ) . In reception , Winchilsea fired his shot into the aura . Winchilsea then present Wellington with an apologia — which Wellington refused , and then threatened to resume the duel . But cooler head prevailed and Wellington accept a second excuse , end the kerfuffle .
9.ÉDOUARD MANET
In 1870 , a Parisian art critic constitute Louis Edmond Duranty wrotea conspicuously abbreviated reviewof an exhibition given by his friend , the artist Édouard Manet , that read : “ M. Manet show a philosopher trampling huitre shells , and a watercolor of hisChrist with Angel . ” The concise write - up was hardly the glow review Manet had anticipated , and in response , he face Duranty in a umber store two daylight later , slapped him in the typeface , and challenge him to a duel .
The pair run into in the forest of Saint - Germain - en - Laye , ten miles west of Paris , on February 23 . During the violent swordfight that ensued , Duranty was struck in the chest . Duranty fought on until the pair ’s second ( Manet ’s help was none other than the novelist Émile Zola ) stepped in to stop the scrap . They declare the matter resolved , and Manet and Duranty rapidly reconciled . They remained practiced acquaintance .
10.MARCEL PROUST
In 1897 , a French diary keeper named Jean Lorrain write a damning review of Marcel Proust ’s bookPleasure and day , in which he calumniously accused Proust of having a gay affair with Lucien Lemaire , the son of his friend and the Bible ’s illustrator , Madeleine Lemaire . Lorrain ’s accusation could have set ashore Proust in prison house , and as a result he furiously challenged Lorrain — who was , ironically , openly gay himself — to a duel . They met one afternoon a few days afterward in the Meudon Forest just outside Paris : Proust fired first but missed , while Lorrain ’s shot misfired , at which point the affaire d’honneur was take to an inconclusive end . Proust , however , get the last word by using Lorraine as a partial stirring for the Baron de Charlus inRemembrance of Things Past(1913 - 27 ) .
