Volume VI: The Reformation by Will Durant

Author:Will Durant
Language: eng
Format: epub

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I. Almost certainly legendary is the story of the lawyer who, when his wife, La Belle Ferronière (The Pretty Ironmonger), was conscripted to the royal bed, deliberately infected himself and gave her syphilis that she might give it to the king.2

II. The duel had existed in the Middle Ages as an appeal, under royal or judicial sanction and control, to the judgment of God. In the sixteenth century it became a private and individual defense of slighted honor; it developed its own strict laws outside the laws of the state; and it shared in some measure in developing the rules of gentlemanly courtesy and discreet restraint. It was not legally permitted in France after 1547, but public opinion continued to sanction it. In England it fell into disuse under Elizabeth; trial by combat, however, remained legal there till 1817.

III. There is no truth in the story, spread by Hugo in Le rot s’amuse, that Diane bought the pardon by giving herself to the King.67

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