Trial by Battle
event · 3 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
trial by battle · Wager of battle · judicial combat · the King's strokes
in the texts
Institutes of Roman Law
An English legal institution offered as a comparative parallel to the hypothesized combative origin of the vindicatio ceremony.
So, in English law, trial by Wager of battle, introduced by William the Conqueror, was first partially superseded by the Grand assize, or trial by jury, an alternative substituted by Henry II, and was finally abolished in the reign of George III.
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
A mode of trial in which the accused challenged the accuser to single combat, introduced into England by the Normans.
The trial by battle was one in which the accused challenged his accuser to single combat, and staked the question of his guilt or innocence on the result of the duel.
The Genius of the Common Law
Archaic judicial duel in which parties or champions fight to settle a civil or criminal claim, which declined into a picturesque, largely ceremonial survival by the early nineteenth century.
And yet it is abundantly clear that trial by battle in civil cases did from an early time tend to become little more than a picturesque setting for an ultimate compromise.
What has been said about proof not being a burden but an advantage does not apply to trial by battle, nor to the other kinds of ‘judgment of God,’ namely ordeal by fire or water.