Citation

Banks S. J. Br. Stud. 2008; 47(3): 528-558.

Affiliation

School of Law at the University of Reading

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1086/587721

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The apparently premature demise of the duel in England has always provided something of a puzzle for historians. The duel was to survive in France, Germany, and Italy until the Great War, yet in England dueling was spent by 1845.

Various explanations for this apparently untimely end have been offered. In immediate instrumentalist terms, the final years of dueling saw a steady tightening of legal provisions and a redrafting of the Articles of War, which may have been significant in dissuading military gentlemen from taking the field. In terms of a broader explanation, however, most commentators have stressed the rapid socioeconomic developments that were brought about by the Industrial Revolution. They assert that the newly important middling orders rejected the duel as supposedly inimical to their values of restraint, religiosity, rational planning, and social conformity. So the argument goes, as the middle class progressed, it succeeded in suppressing the culture of honor espoused by the upper class. Each of these explanations and other theories will be discussed in detail.

Language: en