Description
Book SynopsisThrows much new light on questions of gentry honour, the nature and prevalence of early modern elite violence, and the process of judicial investigation in Shakespeare's England This book offers an analysis of Jacobean duelling and gentry honour culture through the close examination and contextualisation of the most fully documented duel of the early modern era. This was the fatal encounter between a Flintshire gentleman, Edward Morgan, and his Cheshire antagonist, John Egerton, which took place at Highgate on 21 April 1610. John Egerton was killed, but controversy quickly erupted over whether he had died in a fair fight of honour or had been murdered in a shameful conspiracy. The legal investigation into the killing produced a rich body of evidence which reveals in unparalleled detail not only the dynamics of the fight itself, but also the inner workings of a seventeenth-century metropolitan manhunt, the Middlesex coroner's court, a murder trial at King's Bench, and also the murky webs of aristocratic patronage at the Jacobean Court which ultimately allowed Morgan to secure a pardon. Uniquely, a series of dramatic Star Chamber suits have survived that also allow us to investigate the duel's origins. Their close examination, as Lloyd Bowen shows, calls into question the historiographical paradigm which sees early modern duels as matters of the moment and distinct from, as opposed to connected to, the gentry feud. The book throws much new light on questions of gentry honour, the nature and prevalence of early modern elite violence, and the process of judicial investigation in Shakespeare's England.
Trade ReviewA rich narrative that does much to inform the recent historiography of the relationship between aristocratic notions of honour and elite violence in early modern societies....Lloyd Bowen should be congratulated for making such a substantial contribution to the literature on duelling, litigation, masculinity, and elite honour culture more broadly. The book will be admired by scholars in the field for years to come. * MIDLAND HISTORY *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Fathers, Sons and Kinsmen: The Morgans and the Egertons A 'Great Styrre & Adoe': The Talacre Inheritance Dispute, 1606-8 Challenges Offered and Declined, 1608 The Duel in Elizabethan and Jacobean England and Wales Honour, Gentility and Violence: Highgate, 21 April 1610 Corruption, Conspiracy and the Coroners Shifting Perspectives: Murder and Manslaughter in the Highgate Duel Jurors, Politics and Pardons: The Trial at King's Bench, 1610-11 Epilogue(s) Conclusion Appendix 1: Timeline of the Morgan-Egerton Conflict Appendix 2: Jurors in King's Bench for the Trial of Edward Morgan Bibliography
