One bitterly cold morning in December 1386, a crowd of thousands including the young French king Charles VI and his court gathered behind a monastery in Paris to watch two knights duel to the death.
On the feast day of St Thomas Becket, they enthusiastically lined a walled field ringed by guards within which the two men in full plate armour would fight with lance, axe, sword and dagger to defend their honour.
Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight, accused his former bosom friend, Jacques Le Gris, of raping his wife and had been granted the right to a trial by combat, a legally-sanctioned death match in which God, it was assumed, would favour the righteous party with victory.
However, if this brutal form of case resolution — also known as a judicial duel — wasn't barbaric enough, there was an added twist.
Overlooking the field, a black-draped scaffold had been set up where a beautiful woman, Marguerite de Carrouges, sat surrounded by guards.
The Last Duel, which was released in the UK last Friday, stars Matt Damon and Adam Driver as Carrouges and Le Gris, Ben Affleck as their liege lord the Count of Alencon, and British actress Jodie Comer — who came to fame as the psychopathic Villanelle in Killing Eve — as Marguerite
If her husband lost the duel, that would mean she had unjustly accused Le Gris of rape and would be summarily burnt alive.
The epic battle between Carrouges and Le Gris is well-known in France where it became so infamous that it pretty much put an end to judicial duels.
And it is now famous around the world because it is the subject of Sir Ridley Scott's latest blockbuster feature film.
The Last Duel, which was released in the UK last Friday, stars Matt Damon and Adam Driver as Carrouges and Le Gris, Ben Affleck as their liege lord the Count of Alencon, and British actress Jodie Comer — who came to fame as the psychopathic Villanelle in Killing Eve — as Marguerite.
The film is based on a 2004 book of the same name by a U.S. academic, Eric Jager, who conceded it was impossible to know for certain if Marguerite had rightly accused Le Gris. Her husband's former friend vehemently denied the rape charge and, citing witnesses, said he had been many miles away at the time.
However, Hollywood has never had much time for historical uncertainty and, with its stirring tagline — 'One woman defied a nation and made history' — the film leaves little doubt who it believes.
Adam Driver as Jacques LeGris and Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouges
And, intriguingly, it was co-written by Damon and Affleck, old friends and collaborators who were both mauled by #MeToo activists for being too supportive of the disgraced film director Harvey Weinstein and for making tone-deaf comments about sexual harassment in their industry.
In what seems like a Tinseltown version of medieval knights doing penance for their sins, the pair have been sounding off about the terrible subjugation of women in medieval times. As further penance, they also subjected themselves to some of the most dreadful haircuts ever seen on screen. But at least they and Sir Ridley don't need to do much to spice up the story in terms of drama.
As Jager's research uncovered, Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris were not particularly fine fellows. The former, a hardened warrior, was irascible, suspicious and jealous.
The latter was vain and cunning, a squire whose relatively low-born family had muscled its way up the social ladder and become rich. He was also a notorious womaniser.
The men had once been close friends but while Le Gris's fortunes had risen as he became a favourite of their lord, Count Pierre of Alencon, Carrouges's star had waned — and he blamed Le Gris.
In 1381, Carrouges married Marguerite de Thibouville, a noblewoman whose beauty and family money helped to compensate for the fact her father had once committed
