Editing Trial by combat (section)

=== Holy Roman Empire ===
[[File:Gerichtlicher Zweikampf.jpg|thumb|Depiction of a judicial combat in the Dresden codex of the {{lang|de|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.]]
[[Otto the Great]] in 967 expressly sanctioned the practice of Germanic tribal law even if it did not figure in the more "imperial" Roman law. The celebrated case of [[Gero, Count of Alsleben]], is a good example. The [[Fourth Lateran Council]] of 1215 deprecated judicial duels, and [[Pope Honorius III]] in 1216 asked the [[Teutonic Order]] to cease its imposition of judicial duels on their newly converted subjects in [[Livonia]]. For the following three centuries, there was latent tension between the traditional regional laws and Roman law.

The {{lang|de|[[Sachsenspiegel]]}} of 1230 recognizes the judicial duel as an important function to establish guilt or innocence in cases of insult, injury, or theft. The combatants are armed with swords and shields and may wear linen and leather clothing, but their heads and feet must be bare and their hands only protected by light gloves. The accuser is to await the accused at the designated place of combat. If the accused does not appear after being summoned three times, the accuser may execute two cuts and two stabs against the wind, and his matter will be treated as if he had won the fight.<ref>book I, art. 63</ref>

The {{lang|de|Kleines Kaiserrecht}}, an anonymous legal code of {{circa|1300}}, prohibits judicial duels altogether, stating that the emperor had come to this decision on seeing that too many innocent men were convicted by the practice just for being physically weak. Nevertheless, judicial duels continued to be popular throughout the 14th and 15th centuries.

[[File:Ms.Thott.290.2º 080r.jpg|thumb|Depiction of a judicial duel between a man and a woman by Hans Talhoffer (''Ms.Thott.290.2º'', Folio 80r, 1459)]]
Trial by combat plays a significant role in the [[German school of swordsmanship|German schools of fencing]] in the 15th century. Notably, [[Hans Talhoffer]] depicts techniques to be applied in such duels, separately for the [[Swabia]]n (sword and shield) and [[Franconia]]n (mace and shield) variants, although other {{lang|de|[[Fechtbücher]]}} such as that of [[Paulus Kal]] and the ''[[Codex Wallerstein]]'' show similar material. While commoners were required to present their case to a judge before duelling, members of the nobility did have the right to challenge each other for duels without the involvement of the judiciary, so that duels of this kind were separate from the judicial duel already in the Middle Ages and were not affected by the latter's abolition in the early 16th century by Emperor [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]], evolving into the gentlemanly [[duel]] of modern times which were outlawed only as late as in the 19th century.

Hans Talhoffer in his 1459 ''Thott'' codex names seven offences that in the absence of witnesses were considered grave enough to warrant a judicial duel, viz. murder, [[treason]], [[heresy]], [[desertion]] of one's lord, "imprisonment" (possibly in the sense of [[Kidnapping|abduction]]), [[perjury]]/fraud, and rape.