INTER-SEX DUELS

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 December 1934, Page 7

INTER-SEX DUELS

A BARBAROUS “ORDEAL" BERLIN, November 1(1. Duels between men ai.id women were not unusual in medieval Bavaria, according to old documents found in the city of Augsburg. The duels were ordered by the courts if a man accused a woman of a crime or vice versa, and the court was unable to establish the guilt or innocence of the accused party. The j case was then referred to the judgment of God, a procedure known as “ordeal” in the middle ages. The medieval Bavarian laws permitted women to resort to duels if they demanded it in the “fierceness of their heart.” The Augsburg laws of 1276 ruled that “a. woman is half a man,” and that therefore the man, when fighting a woman, should stand waist deep in a hole wide enough to permit turn-; ing. During the fight he was not per-, mitted to leave the hole. As weapon he was given an oak cudgel of prescribed length and weight. The woman was armed with a fist sized stone, weighing a pound. The stone was tied i in a neckerchief, and .could thus be. hurled at the opponent. For the oc-J casion the woman donned a tight fitting costume with trousers. If the woman succeeded in overpowering the man he was pronounced guilty and buried alive in the hole. The woman suffered the same fate if the man was able to seize her and draw her into the hole, regardless of whether she was the accuser or the accused. In the former event it was considered a fitting punishment for raising false accusation.

According to the medieval laws of Freising, ancient bishop’s scat in the

neighbourhood of Munich, the duelling rules were considerably stricter for the male participants. During the fight his left hand was tied to his back, and if vanquished he was beheaded. If the woman was overcome one hand was chopped off. The Freishing law explains: “A milder punishment has been fixed for the woman because it is unusual that a woman defeats' a man."