Quotes from Eric Jager

As ordeals and duels gave way to confession as a proof of guilt, judicial torture was actually increasing in France.

once the actual combat began, chivalry was dead.

fire applied to the soles of the feet," prolonged sleep deprivation, immersion in cold water, and water forced down the throat to the point of suffocation.

compensation that was often paid not the victim herself but to her father or husband, since rape counted less as sexual violence against a woman than as a property crime against her male guardian.

the duel's outcome would decide "the damnation of the one who is in the wrong, in both soul and body, as a result of the great oaths they have sworn, whence they will be judged by the sentence of God." After

compensation that was often paid not to the victim herself but to her father or husband, since rape counted less as sexual violence against a woman than as a property crime against her male guardian.