Page 82 - All About History - Issue 09-14

Killing for honour

up from the settee and buttoning up his trousers. as an imprisoned debtor as Isabella married a poet Even in military circles, attitudes towards
Hawkey, conducting his own defence, would have 11 years her junior. Hawkey died a few years later duelling had changed. Officers against the practice
been hearing these stories for the first time. The aged 39 of tuberculosis, alone in a lodging house. had previously been drawn into duels for fear of
military court decided that Hawkey was: ‘…guilty of He is often portrayed as a tough, irascible marine being labelled cowards, but a sign of the times was
having violently assaulted First Lieutenant Swain… and when he was out searching for duelling pistols when General Sir Eyre Coote, a battle-hardened
but that he is not guilty of conduct unbecoming the with Pym on the day of the duel, a witness at his soldier whom no one could accuse of cowardice,
character of an officer and a gentleman.’ trial reported overhearing him say: “I’ll shoot him as refused to accept a challenge by another officer
He was acquitted, his sword was returned to him I would a partridge.” However, the court martial for but instead referred the matter to his commander-
and there were handshakes all round but within his attack on Swain revealed the surprising fact that in-chief – who happened to be King George, the
weeks of the verdict Hawkey (along with Swain) on the sleeve of his scarlet Royal Marines uniform, nominal head of the army. The king made it known
was placed on permanent half-pay. In modern Hawkey wore a black armband in memory of Seton, that Coote had acted quite properly, and gave his
parlance, he had been forced into early retirement. the man whose life he had ended in a duel for challenger a devastating public dressing-down.
He tried to sue Swain, tried to buy a commission honour. In less than glamorous circumstances the By the time of the duel between Seton and
in the army – but his meagre pay and savings were other man to have taken part in the last fatal duel Hawkey, the general public were far less inclined to
stretched beyond breaking point and in 1853 he on British soil, the last participant in a ritual dating tolerate such a method of settling grievances. This
was back before the Winchester courts, this time back hundreds of years, had died. may in part have been a result of the drawn-out
“ Even in military circles, attitudes and bloody conflicts with France. Countless brave
men had lost their lives in defence of their country,
towards duelling had changed” and for one to shoot another in cold blood over
petty squabbles was no longer a noble act.

Notorious conflicts

The 19-year duel Balloon duel

An extraordinary feud between two Several similar encounters took Duels have been fought by poison, at convoluted reason, to do it in hot-air
French army officers was the inspiration place, and the story goes that they long range with rifles, at four paces balloons to show society that they
for a story by Joseph Conrad and a 1977 made a pact to continue until a decisive because of the nearsightedness of one were of a higher class. On May 3 1808,
Ridley Scott film. Captain Fournier had a outcome, so 17 duels between the pair of the adversaries, and on horseback each entered his hot-air balloon with
reputation as a skilled swordsman with took place over the 19 years. Finally, in with lances like knights of old. However, a primitive shotgun and a second also
a cold, callous streak. He challenged a ‘hide-and-seek’ pistol duel, Fournier one of the most bizarre duels ever acting as copilot to help them operate
Captain Dupont to a duel with swords expended his shots wildly and ran out of occurred in 1808, where two Frenchmen the balloon. De Pique fired first, but
in 1794 and was wounded by him. bullets, leaving Dupont facing him with met above Paris in gas-filled balloons. failed somehow to hit his opponent’s
However, Fournier is supposed to have two fully-loaded guns. He allowed his Two Frenchmen, Monsieur de balloon. De Grandpre was more
said: “That’s the first touch,” meaning rival to live on the understanding that if Grandpre and Monsieur de Pique, accurate, so de Pique, his copilot and his
he had every intention of confronting ever saw him again he had the right to allegedly caught up in a love triangle second plummeted to the ground and to
Dupont again at a later date. use his unspent bullets. decided to duel, but for some their deaths.

Fournier and Dupont duelled with swords many times

© Alamy; Thinkstock; Corbis; Look and Learn

The duellists would each have entered
a hot-air balloon similar to this one

82