Ilya Repin's picture of the duel from Eugene Onegin The following is a list of notable one-on-one duels or single combats in history and in legend or fiction.
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Bonds between aristocratic families are cemented by fosterage of each other's children. Wealth is reckoned in cattle. Warfare mainly takes the form of cattle raids, or single combats between champions at fords. The characters' actions are sometimes restricted by religious taboos known as geasa.
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The essential part of this story is the series of single combats. The occasional incoherences of the tale make it probable that many changes have been introduced in the legend. The Þiðrekssaga (chaps. 241-244) makes the story more probable by representing the pursuers as Huns.
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Several were carried into combat. Defensive weapons included a small cowhide shield, which was later improved by King Shaka. Many battles were prearranged, with the clan warriors meeting at an assigned place and time, while women and children of the clan watched the festivities from some distance away. Ritualized taunts, single combats and tentative charges were the typical pattern.
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The exploits of the Uskoks contributed to a renewal of war between Venice and the Ottoman Empire (1571–1573). An extremely curious picture of contemporary manners is presented by the Venetian agents, whose reports on this war resemble a knightly chronicle of the Middle Ages. These chronicles contain information pertaining to single combats, tournaments and other chivalrous adventures. Many of these troops served abroad.
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365, "sein2" and knights from the neighboring lands gather, so that three thousand banners now flourish the castle. But no all-out siege warfare follows, and each army sends out a representative each day to joust in single-combat. Shortly after arriving, a number of single-combats take place. First Sir Lucan defeats one of the castle's knights, then he is himself defeated and taken prisoner.
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Details of most of the gladiatorial combats are not recorded. Suetonius writes that they were lavish and Dio that there were both single combats and fights between groups. One fight, between the gladiators Verus and Priscus, was recorded by Martial: Borghese Gladiator Mosaic, ca. 320. As usual, the tone of the epigram is somewhat fawning toward his patron, Titus, but it gives more detail than any other account of the games.
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Captain John Smith of Jamestown is reputed in his earlier career as a mercenary in Eastern Europe to have defeated, killed and beheaded Turkish commanders in three single combats, for which he was knighted by the Transylvanian Prince Sigismund Báthory and given a horse and coat of Arms showing three Turks' heads.Not Just Another John Smith, usnews.com, January 21, 2007 Dramatist Ben Jonson, in conversations with the poet William Drummond, recounted that when serving in the Low Countries as a volunteer with the regiments of Francis Vere, he had defeated an opponent in single combat "in view of both armies" and stripped him of his weapons. In more recent times, single combats have become iconic – though often apocryphal – elements of aerial dogfights, with the idea, if not the practice, of single combat in the skies particularly prevalent during the First World War with the air forces' emphasis on a sort of individualism and chivalry.
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In The Cattle Raid of Cooley, a famous episode of Irish mythology, all the warriors of Ulster but Cúchulainn are made sick by a curse and unable to fight the invading army of Queen Maeb, leaving Cúchulainn to fight a whole series of single combats by himself until they recover. The Welsh mythological tale, the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, depicts a single combat between the southern prince Pryderi and the northern magician Gwydion, to determine the victor of a war between the two kingdoms. Many battles depicted in the medieval Chanson de Roland consist of a series of single combats, as are battles depicted in various tales of the Arabian Nights. Guy of Warwick, the legendary English Romance hero, is depicted as defeating in single combat the Viking giant Colbrand; the story is set in the time of Athelstan of England, but actually reflects the society of the late Middle Ages.
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In Sasanian art several mard o mard depictions are preserved in rock-reliefs in Naqsh-e Rostam and in a cameo of Shapur I and Valerian. Single combats have been narrated in Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings") of Ferdowsi, a notable example being those of the story of Davazdah Rokh ("Twelve Combats"). In the Second Perso-Turkic War, the Sasanian commander Smbat IV Bagratuni possibly killed the Hephthalite leader in single combat.
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In the 5th century BC; Marcus Claudius Marcellus took the spolia opima from Viridomarus, king of the Gaesatae, at the Battle of Clastidium (222 BC); and Marcus Licinius Crassus from Deldo, king of the Bastarnae (29 BC). Depictions of single combat also appear in the Hindu epics of the Mahābhārata and the Ramayana. Single combats are often preludes to battles in the Chinese epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms and are featured prominently throughout the epic.
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While the kakuyoku formation held surprisingly well, the Takeda commanders eventually fell, one by one. Seeing that his pincer plan had failed, Yamamoto Kansuke charged into the enemy ranks, being killed in action with his two chief retainers, Osaragi Shōzaemon and Isahaya Sagorō. Depiction of the legendary personal conflict between Kenshin and Shingen at the fourth battle of Kawanakajima. Eventually the Uesugi forces reached the Takeda command post, and one of the most famous single combats in Japanese history ensued.
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The cycle consists of stories of the births, early lives and training, wooings, battles, feastings, and deaths of the heroes and reflects a warrior society in which warfare consists mainly of single combats and wealth is measured mainly in cattle. These stories are written mainly in prose. The centrepiece of the Ulster Cycle is the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Other important Ulster Cycle tales include The Tragic Death of Aife's only Son, Bricriu's Feast, and The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel.
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252: David Moysie, Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 161: Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019) pp. 146, 148-9 Special lightweight clothes of taffeta and satin were also worn by those fighting their accusers in public single combats, in December 1596 Adam Bruntfield and James Carmichael, son of Sir John Carmichael, fought in single combat on Cramond Island, one dressed in blue, and one in red, with an audience of 5,000.
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While Cú Chulainn sleeps the youth corps of Ulster come to his aid but are all slaughtered. When Cú Chulainn awakes he undergoes a spectacular ríastrad or "distortion", in which his body twists in its skin and he becomes an unrecognisable monster who knows neither friend nor foe. Like a Viking berserker, Cú Chulainn launches a savage assault on the Connacht camp and avenges the youth corps sixfold. After this extraordinary incident, the sequence of single combats resumes, although on several occasions Medb breaks the agreement by sending several men against him at once.
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Christian Croats from the neighbouring lands now thronged to the towns, outnumbering the Romanic population even more, and making their language the primary one. The pirate community of the "uskoks" had originally been a band of these fugitives, esp. near Senia; its exploits contributed to a renewal of war between Venice and Turkey (1571–1573). An extremely curious picture of contemporary manners is presented by the Venetian agents, whose reports on this war resemble some knightly chronicle of the Middle Ages, full of single combats, tournaments and other chivalrous adventures.
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John Reinhard Weguelin, Castor and Pollux fighting at the Battle of Lake Regillus, from the 1881 edition. The next poem, The Battle of Lake Regillus, celebrates the Roman victory over the Latin League at the Battle of Lake Regillus. Several years after the retreat of Lars Porsena and the Etruscans, Rome was threatened by a Latin army led by the deposed Roman king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, together with his son, Titus Tarquinius, and his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius, prince of Tusculum. This poem includes a number of finely described single-combats, in conscious imitation of Homer's Iliad.
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An important episode in Geoffrey of Monmouth's legendary History of the Kings of Britain is the single combat between prince Nennius of Britain and Julius Caesar. Single combat was also a prelude to battles in pre-Islamic Arabia and early Islamic battles. For example, the Battle of Badr, one of the most important in the early history of Islam, was opened by three champions of the Islamic side (Ali, Ubaydah, and Hamzah) stepping forward, engaging and defeating three of the then-Pagan Meccans, although Ubaydah was mortally wounded. This result of the three single combats was considered to have substantially contributed to the Muslim victory in the overall battle which followed.
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Though single combats and other elements of ritual and honorable battle remained, organized strategies and tactics under military commanders began to emerge, along with a greater degree of organization of formations and divisions within armies. It was in this period, as well, that weaponsmithing techniques emerged, creating so- called "Japanese steel" blades, flexible yet extremely hard and sharp. The katana, and myriad similar or related blade weapons, appeared at this time and would dominate Japanese arms, relatively unchanged, through the mid-20th century. As a result, it was also during this period that the shift of samurai from being archers to swordsmen began in a significant way.
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She tells him, "It is at the guarding of thy death that I am; and I shall be.""The Cattle Raid of Regamna", translated by A. H. Leahy, from Heroic Romances of Ireland Vol II, 1906 In the Táin Bó Cúailnge ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), Queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge; the Morrígan, like Alecto of the Greek Furies, appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee.Cecile O'Rahilly (ed & trans), Táin Bó Cuailnge Recension 1, 1976, p. 152 Cúchulainn defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions.
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Duels were also part of other battles at the time of Muhammad, such as the battle of Uhud, battle of the Trench and the battle of Khaybar. Single combats were characteristic of the Samurai fighting tradition and known as Ikki-uchi. As each samurai commanded his unit of retainers, successfully challenging and defeating the opposing samurai by a single combat can force the entire unit to retreat minimizing casualties and changing the course of battle. Those seeking a suitable opponent, frequently used Nanori to issue a challenge by announcing his name and bravery as well as ridiculing opponents to boost morale of his side as well as enrage the opponent to force the combat.
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The name Boerboel derives from the Afrikaans words boer which means farmer, and "boel" which is a shortening of "boelhond" which means bulldog. One historical source dated 1909 describes events in 1857, when a cross between a bulldog and a mastiff referred to as the "Boer Hunting Dog" was the best dog for hunting leopards and baboons in packs. A leopard that is caught in a trap by one leg can be killed by a pack of these dogs, but in one case a dog was badly injured. The "Boer mastiff" is described as an excellent fighter, with one managing to kill a leopard in each of four single combats over a number of years before being killed himself in the fifth encounter.
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However much he admired the show, Ford had no intention of either engaging a Comanche in single combat, allowing any of his troops to do so, (nor did any express any desire to go out and meet a Comanche challenge to single combat). Ford put an end to his Indian allies accepting these challenges when they lost most of the combats. Ford, already irritated by his allies losing many fights to the Comanche, absolutely forbid any further single combats. After the end of the single battles between Tonkawa and Comanche, he first ordered the Tonkawa to attack the Comanches in mass, hoping that this would lure Peta Nocona to commit his forces wholesale to battle, at which point Ford would order in his Rangers, with their far superior firepower.
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When Medb raises an army from four of the five provinces of Ireland and launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cúailnge in the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Conchobar, like all the Ulstermen but Cú Chulainn, is unable to fight, disabled by the curse of Macha. Cú Chulainn fights a series of single combats against Connacht champions, hoping to give the Ulstermen time to recover and take the field. Eventually, Cú Chulainn's father, Sualtam, comes to Conchobar at Emain Macha to warn him of the devastation the Connacht army is creating and demand he raise his army before it's too late. Conchobar and his druids agree that Sualtam should be put to death for breaking the protocol of the court - no-one is permitted to speak before Conchobar but the druids - and Sualtam runs out, but falls and decapitates himself on the sharpened edge of his shield.
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