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Duelling in Paris

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Backtothedarkplace (U2955180) on Thursday, 16th October 2008

  Alright, another 4 in the morning job.
  
  I can remember reading a few years ago that at the end of the Napoleonic wars there was a rash of duels between former french officers and british officers in the allied forces stationed in Paris. Basically that the french oficers would provoke a duel.
  
  I also remember that this was supposed to have been brought to an end after the Duke of Wellington shipped in a number of British officers who were exceptional pistol shots.
  
  Can any one remember who they were, or if this is just another myth because for some reason I seem to have got it into my head that one of them was a regimental chaplin!
  
  

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by U3280211 (U3280211) on Thursday, 16th October 2008

  BTTDP, Dan.
  
  There were certainly many duels during that era but I can't find the names you want.
  As far as I'm aware the only duel Wellington took part in (wisely, as he was a notoriously poor shot) was the one he felt driven to in his bitter row with the 9th Earl Winchilsea about Catholic emancipation.
  It was profoundly ironic that two men who had little time for Catholics came close to killing one another at 8.00am on Battersea Common, Sat March 21st 1829.
  
  Wellington and his one-armed second, Sir Henry Hardinge were there early. Winchilsea was late as he went first to Putney by mistake. Dr. Hume acted as paramedic on duty. Both men handed their pistols to Hume who thought that Wellington's were too old and unreliable, so Hardinge set about (with one arm) trying to load one of those offered by Winchilsea's second, the Earl of Falmouth. Seeing his predicament Hume and Falmouth loaded both.
  An apology to Wellington was read out but caused some confusion, so the duel went ahead. The men were 12 yards apart.
  Wellington claimed to have 'fired wide' but hit Winchelsea's lapel. Firing second, Winchilsea raised his pistol and fired vertically.
  Wellington was condemned for being a twit (to risk his life as Prime Minister, so lightly) but his public popularity grew. A bit like Prescott pucnching back at that farmer who threw an egg at him. An adolescent response made him seem tough.
  
  Duelling in England faded away soon after. One of the last here was actually between:
  
  . the French men, Louis Napoleon and his cousin, Count Leon, on Wimbledon Common in 1840. Louis Napoleon, the future Napoleon III of France and Bonaparte's nephew, had been banished in 1836 following a failed coup. On this occasion, the duellists were arrested following a tip off to police and after a prolonged and farcical argument about which weapons to use.(Records of King's College, London)Β 
  
  Showing that French honour was settled in that style for some years after France's defeat by Wellington.
  

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  Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Thursday, 16th October 2008

  Bttdp,
  
  I can't find anything about this either.
  
  I did find the DuPont/Fournier duel,two French cavalry officers who had their first duel in 1794. This was the basis of Joseph Conrad's story and later filmed by Ridley Scott as "The Duellists". The two of them had thirty fights over a period of 19 years.
  
  Trike.

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