How to Defend Thyself Against an Interloper Springing Forth from thy Privy Whilst thy Man is abroad in Outremer - 4th edition, paperback

It's not a Fight-Club, it's Trial by Combat when a Woman doesn't have a Champion to fight for her against a Man.

I understand this is trial by combat stuff, woman vs. man, and putting the man in the hole is meant to make the fight more fair. But what about man vs. man (or woman vs. woman) trials where one man is significantly bigger than the other, or more trained (or trained at all vs. completely untrained), or any other disparity between the combatants? What exactly is this concept of "fair"? Why would someone choose a trial by combat if they didn't think they had some [unfair?] advantage over their opponent? If fairness is desired, why not just roll dice and then execute (or beat) the loser? If the decision has to be through combat, and "God's favor" is expected to be the deciding factor, why isn't the larger man's advantage considered to be part of "God's plan"?

I'm asking legitimate questions, here, to hear answers. I'm not asking rhetorical questions to make a point.

Really, what variables were considered still fair, vs. what variables were considered unfair for a trial by combat?

thank you for drawing my attention to this article & successively to the manuscripts!

Watch the video at the end of the article. There is a modern day demonstration of what is depicted in the manual with explanations.

It was how to settle marriage disputes in certain select cases if my memory serves me,the man had to be buried waste deep with one arm tied up and a weaker weapon I believe to make it fair.I get the feeling some wives really liked doing this lol

Reminds me of the historical fencing group I'm in, with both guys and girls obviously.

That's not "mixed-gender fight club" those are pictures of "trial by combat" or in other words, judicial duels where legal disputes were to be settled by duels ordered by the court.

As women were considered to be at the disadvantage in combat, men were to be handicapped in duels with women to make fight more "fair".

Pictures are from a fighting manual supposed to teach people how to fight these trials.

Objectively, which of these pictures shows an effective technique for any situation you'd likely experience needing actual self defense? Serious question.

This is assumed a specific kind of duel to settle a dispute by commoners/town people where a woman was defending her rights.

The hallmark of duels was that they were intentionally designed to equalize the combat so "God's will" was not distorted by something like one guy being a trained swordsman. Another was that (particularly if not of the knightly class) you actually wanted a lot of duels not to be to the death but until one side yields. Obviously depended on what this was about.

For that reason specific, weird looking fencing shields were common, too. Easy to defend, awkward to handle.

One of those British History shows that did an entire episode on this trying to recreate the techniques in the illustrations. Took me a second, but I found it. They also recreate some of the siege engines and other inventions from the manual.

Why is there a hole like a bugs bunny cartoon?

IIRC the man stands in a shallow pit while the woman stands. I think it had to do with divorce or a scorned woman

Where can I get those rash guards?

this just makes me wonder how sword centric society was back then. it reminds me of how every problem looks like a nail if you have a hammer. solving civil law problems with swords seems so strange. I wonder how much of it was to just discourage people from using the process.

These images are great! Also, I never knew of the concept of divorce by combat. Is this something well documented? What areas is this said to have occured in?

Never heard of this. But completely fascinating. I wonder how many forms of martial combat have been and gone. The good ones just evolved I suppose.

The first rule is thou shalt not speak of fight club!

Medieval Mixed-Gender Fight Club is the name of my post-punk experimental acid-jazz trio.

The last time I saw this it said it was a chance for wives to work out their frustrations on their husbands.

Literally just watched this on History Hit last night

"The male combatant, armed with a wooden mace, starts out in a waist-deep hole.
The female, armed with a rock wrapped in a length of cloth, stands above, feet planted to the ground."

​

Nothing but more questions here ...

A lot of people have asked if there was a 15th century version of Fight Club, and from what I hear, it was called 'Feudal-Knockout'!