Editing Trial by combat (section)

==== Middle Ages ====
The earliest case in which wager of battle is recorded was ''Wulfstan v. Walter'' (1077),<ref name="thayer1891">{{Cite journal |last=Thayer |first=James B. |author-link=James Bradley Thayer |date=15 May 1891 |title=The Older Modes of Trial |journal=[[Harvard Law Review]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=66–67 |doi=10.2307/1321424 |jstor=1321424 |quote=The earliest reference to the battle, I believe, in any account of a trial in England, is at the end of the case of Bishop Wulfstan v. Abbot Walter, in 1077. The controversy was settled, and we read: 'Thereof there are lawful witnesses ... who said and heard this, ready to prove it by oath and battle.'}}</ref> eleven years after the Conquest. Significantly, the names of the parties suggest that it was a dispute between a [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxon]] and a [[Normans|Norman]]. The ''[[Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie|Tractatus of Glanvill]]'', from around 1187, appears to have considered it the chief mode of trial, at least among [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocrats]] entitled to bear arms.<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Edward Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LoJDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA128 |title=Legan Antiquities: A Collection of Essays Upon Ancient Laws and Customs |date=1913 |publisher=F.H. Thomas law book Company |isbn=1-110-36250-1 |page=128 |access-date=14 August 2016 |archive-date=8 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240308055752/https://books.google.com/books?id=LoJDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>For an extensive list of cases of trial by battle from this time, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=kYVpuAAACAAJ Bigelow's Placita Anglo-Normanica (1066–1195)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240308055800/https://books.google.com/books?id=kYVpuAAACAAJ |date=8 March 2024 }}.</ref>

Around 1219, [[Jury trial|trial by jury]] replaced trial by ordeal, which had been the mode of proof for crown pleas since the [[Assize of Clarendon]] in 1166. With the emergence of the legal profession in the thirteenth century, lawyers, guarding the safety of the lives and limbs of their clients, steered people away from the wager of battle. A number of [[legal fiction]]s were devised to enable litigants to avail themselves of the jury even in the sort of actions that were traditionally tried by wager of battle. The practice of averting trial by combat led to the modern concept of attorneys representing litigants.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Civil disputes were handled differently from criminal cases. In civil cases, women, the elderly, the infirm of body, minors, and—after 1176—the clergy could choose a jury trial or could have champions named to fight in their stead. Hired champions were technically illegal but are obvious in the record. A 1276 document among [[Richard Swinefield|Bishop Swinefield]]'s household records marks a promise to pay Thomas of Brydges an annual retainer fee for acting as champion, with additional stipend and expenses paid for each fight.{{sfn|Neilson |Sereni |2009|pp=46–51}} In criminal cases, an approver was often chosen from the accomplices of the accused or from prison to do the fighting for the crown. Approvers sometimes were given their freedom after winning five trials but sometimes were hanged anyway.{{sfn|Neilson |Sereni |2009|pp=42–45}}

In practice, a person facing trial by combat was assisted by a [[Second (duel)|second]], often referred to as a [[squire]]. The role of the squire was to attend the battle and to arrange the particulars of the ceremony with the opposing squire. Over time, squires would meet and resolve disputes during negotiations over combat. Ample time was made for this by creating a process for checking the saddle and bridle of horses for prayer scrolls and enchantments and requiring litigants to exchange gloves (the origin of "[[wikt:throw down the gauntlet|throwing down the gauntlet]]") and sometimes to go to separate churches and give five [[Penny (English coin)|pence]] (for the five wounds of Christ) to the church.

Early trials by combat allowed a variety of weapons, particularly for knights. Later, commoners were given [[war hammer]]s, [[cudgel]]s, or [[quarterstaves]] with sharp iron tips. The duelling ground was typically sixty feet square. Commoners were allowed a rectangular leather shield and could be armed with a suit of leather [[armour]], bare to the knees and elbows and covered by a red [[surcoat]] of a light type of silk called ''sendal''.{{sfn|Neilson |Sereni |2009|page=159}} The litigants appeared in person. The combat was to begin before noon and be concluded before sunset.

Either combatant could end the fight and lose his case by crying out the word "Craven!",<ref name=QuennellP76 /> from the [[Old French]] ''cravanté'', "defeated", which acknowledged "(I am) vanquished." The party who did so, however, whether litigant or champion, was punished with [[outlaw]]ry. Fighting continued until one party was dead or disabled. The last man standing won his case.

By 1300, the wager of combat had all but died out in favour of trial by jury. One of the last mass trials by combat in Scotland, the ''[[Battle of the Clans]]'', took place in [[Perth, Scotland|Perth]] in 1396. This event took the form of a pitched battle between teams of around thirty men each, representing [[Clan Macpherson]] and [[Clan Davidson]], on the [[North Inch]] in front of King [[Robert III of Scotland|Robert III]]. The battle was intended to resolve a dispute over which clan was to hold the right flank in an upcoming battle of both clans (and several others) against Clan Cameron. The Clan Macpherson is thought to have won, but only twelve men survived from the original sixty.<ref name="Gunn">{{Cite web |last=Gunn |first=Robert M. |year=1998 |title=Clan Battle of 1396 |url=http://members.aol.com/skyewrites/1396.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717032019/http://members.aol.com/skyewrites/1396.html |archive-date=17 July 2007 |website=Scottish Event & Historical Timeline}}</ref>