List of duels

Antiquity

• 7th century BC: The Horatii defeated the Curatii of Alba Longa.
• 5th century BC: Aulus Cornelius Cossus, one of only three Roman generals ever awarded the spolia opima, killed the King of the Veientes, Lars Tolumnius, in single combat.
• 4th century BC: Dioxippus vs. Coragus.
• 361 BC: Titus Manlius Torquatus slew a Gaul of enormous size in single combat and stripped a Torc off the corpse.
• 222 BC: Marcus Claudius Marcellus took the spolia opima from Viridomarus, King of the Gaesatae, at the Battle of Clastidium.
• 29 BC: Marcus Licinius Crassus vs. Deldo, King of the Bastarnae.

  Middle Ages

• March 13, 624: Ali, Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib and Ubaydah ibn al-Harith killed Walid bin Utbah, Utbah ibn Rabi'ah and Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah in the Battle of Badr.
• 627: Ali killed Amr ibn Abd al-Wud in the Battle of Khandaq.
• Khalid ibn al-Walid during his military career fought several duels and was victorious in each one of them.
• 636: Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah killed Gregory, a Greek general in the Battle of Yarmouk on the 6th and final day of the battle.
• 1014: Gunnlaugr Ormstunga and Hrafn Önundarson fought the last recorded Holmgang in Iceland that ended in a draw.
• 1022: Tmutarakan Prince Mstislav the Brave and Kasogs Prince Rededya.
• April 11, 1127: Galbert of Bruges recorded an event near Ypres where Herman the Iron challenged Guy Steenvorde, alleging his complicity in the assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders. In the ensuing duel, Steenvorde was brutally defeated and, though dying, hanged for having been found guilty in a trial by combat.
• During the Easter of 1163 at the king's court the feudal baron of Rayleigh Henry of Essex was accused of treason by the nobleman Robert de Montfort. The two fought a judicial duel on Fry's Island which Henry lost and was carried off the scene by monks from Reading abbey. Having been proven guilty his estates were forfeit and he had to become a monk.
• June 23, 1314: During the first day of the Battle of Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce and his rival Henry de Bohun engaged in an isolated combat which ended with Bruce killing Bohun.
• September 8, 1380: Alexander Peresvet and Tatar champion Chelubey.
• December 29, 1386: Knights Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris fought a judicial duel in Paris, France. It began when Carrouges accused Le Gris of raping his wife Marguerite, and when the case could not be solved in court, the King of France Charles VI intervened and suggested that the two end the dispute in a duel to the death. During the melee that followed, in which both combatants fought each other in plate armor together with an assortment of weapons, Carrouges managed to wrestle the larger Le Gris to the ground, remove his head cover, and kill him, thus "proving" his charges. The duel was chronicled in a 2004 book by Eric Jager and the 2021 film The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott.

  Early modern and modern duels

Asia

• 1593: Siamese King Naresuan slew Burmese Crown Prince Mingyi Swa in an elephant duel.
• April 14, 1612: Famous Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi dueled his rival Sasaki Kojirō on the island of Funajima. Musashi arrived late and unkempt to the appointed place. Musashi killed Sasaki with a bokken or wooden sword. He fashioned the bokken out of a boat oar on his way to the island. Sasaki's weapon of choice was the nodachi, a long sword. In addition, on a pilgrimage, Musashi fought sixty duels, and not once was he defeated.
• 1906: In Istanbul, during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, a duel between a young Kurdish aristocrat named Abdulrazzak Bedirkhan and the chief of police of the city Ridvan Pasha occurred. The police chief was killed and subsequently the entire Bedirkhan family was exiled.
• April 14, 1920: A very well-recorded bolo duel reported internationally by Prescott Journal Miner which was known as "The First Bolo Duel in Manila since the American Occupation". It happened when Filipino farmers Angel Umali and Tranquilino Paglinawan met in a vacant lot near the center of the city just before dusk to settle their feuds. Paglinawan suffered the duel with his left hand cut off. With no law against bolo fights, Umali was charged only with minor charge.

  China

• During the Three Kingdoms period of China, in 195 warlord Sun Ce encountered an enemy general, named Taishi Ci, by accident when both of them were scouting the other. The two fought until the arrival of their men compelled them to break off. The result was that Sun Ce seized Taishi Ci's weapon while Taishi Ci grabbed Sun Ce's helmet. There was however no record that any one of them was injured in this duel. This is one of the few examples of two generals dueling during a time of war.
• In the Eastern Han dynasty, a military general, Guo Si challenged another powerful military general, Lü Bu to a famous duel in the Battle of Chang'an. Guo Si was defeated after he was pierced by Lü Bu's spear.
• In the Eastern Han dynasty, two of Lü Bu's military officers, Hao Meng and Cao Xing engaged in an isolated combat. During the fight, Hao Meng injured Cao Xing with his spear, and Cao Xing cut off one of Hao Meng' arms.
• In the Eastern Han dynasty, a military general, Pang De slew the enemy general Guo Yuan in the midst of battle and took his head.
• In the Eastern Han dynasty, a military general, Yan Xing engaged the warlord Ma Teng's eldest son Ma Chao in a duel and nearly killed him by piercing him with a spear.
• In the Eastern Han dynasty, a military general, Lü Meng challenged warlord Liu Biao's military general, Chen Jiu to an isolated combat and killed him.
• During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, a Xianbei military general, Dugu Xin challenged an enemy general, Yuan Sizhou to a duel and captured him alive.
• During the Transition from Sui to Tang, warlord Wang Shichong's general Shan Xiongxin engaged Tang's general Li Shimin in an isolated combat, nearly killing him. However, Li Shimin's guard general Yuchi Jingde arrived in time and challenged Shan Xiongxin to another duel, Shan was defeated and fell off from his horse.
• In the Tang dynasty, a military general and prince of Tang, Li Yuanji challenged another military general Yuchi Jingde to an isolated spears fight, and Li was defeated by Yuchi.
• In the Tang dynasty, a military general of Tang, Xue Rengui personally engaged 10 of Tiele Turks' strongest warriors in a small battle and killed three of them, intimidating the entire Tiele coalition and causing them to submit to Tang.
• Bai Mei, one of the legendary five elders of the Shaolin Temple, killed Jee Sin, in a brutal duel following the destruction of the Shaolin Temple.

  India

• 1781: Warren Hastings had wounded Sir Philip Francis, during a duel in India.

  Oceania

Australia

• 1801: Captain John Macarthur dueled Colonel William Paterson, shooting him in the shoulder. Macarthur was sent back to England to be court-martialed.
• 1826: Robert Wardell duelled with Australia's first Attorney-General, Saxe Bannister. Dr Wardell had previously lost to Saxe Bannister in obtaining the Attorney-General position. A long-running feud ensued: Bannister sued Wardell for libel, with Saxe saying in a speech in open court that Wardell was the "scum of London". After three shots were fired on each side without effect, Wardell's apology was accepted.
• 1827: Robert Wardell duelled with the Colonel Henry Dumaresq, the aide-de-camp and brother-in-law of the governor of New South Wales, Ralph Darling. Dr Wardell had written an article titled "How-e to Live by Plunder", in which he claimed Dumaresq had leaked information to The Australian. Three shots were fired by each, and no one was injured.
• 1832: William Nairne Clark fought a duel at Cantonment Hill, Fremantle, Western Australia, with pistols with George French Johnson, fatally wounding him in the right hip. Clark was subsequently charged with, and acquitted of, the murder of his opponent.
• 1839: Dr. Barry Cotter challenged George Arden. They fought on the racecourse at the foot of Batman's Hill in Melbourne. Cotter fired first and missed and Arden fired wide intentionally.
• 1840: Peter Snodgrass challenged William Ryrie, following hot words at dinner on New Year's Eve. They fought at the foot of Batman's Hill in Melbourne. Snodgrass shot himself in the toe, whereupon Ryrie fired into the air.
• 1841: Peter Snodgrass challenged Redmond Barry, who was later a Supreme Court judge. They fought near Liardet's Pier Hotel in Melbourne. Snodgrass discharged his pistol prematurely, and Barry fired into the air.
• 1842: F. A. Powlett fought a duel with Arthur Hogue at Flemington near Melbourne. There were two exchanges of shots, but no injury save to Hogue's coat, through which Powlett sent a ball each time.
• 1846: Alexander Sprot and W. J. Campbell fought a duel over the border in South Australia. Both survived.
• 1851: Major Sir Thomas Mitchell confronted Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson in Sydney. Mitchell issued the challenge because Donaldson had publicly criticised the cost of the Surveyor General's Department. Both duellists missed.

  New Zealand

• 1847: Colonel William Wakefield and Dr Isaac Featherston met in Wellington after Featherston had questioned Wakefield's honesty in a newspaper editorial on the New Zealand Company land policy. Featherston fired and missed, then Wakefield fired into the air, saying that he would not shoot a man with seven daughters. See for other New Zealand duels.

  Europe

France

• July 10, 1547: Guy Chabot de Jarnac, in a judicial duel with François de Vivonne de la Châtaigneraie, a favourite of the King and one of France's greatest swordsmen. Jarnac fooled La Châtaigneraie with a feint and hit him with a slash to the hamstrings. His dignity offended, La Châtaigneraie refused medical aid, and died. This both ended the practice of trial by combat in France, and created the myth of "Le Coup de Jarnac" – a legendary strike that supposedly allowed amateurs to defeat masters.
• 27 April 1578: Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
• 12 May 1627: at the Place Royale in Paris, François de Montmorency-Bouteville dueled François d'Harcourt Beuvron without fatality, but Montmorency-Bouteville's second, François de Rosmadec, Comte de Chappelles, dueled and killed Beuvron's second, the Marquis de Bussi d'Amboise. While Beuvron took refuge in England, Montmorency and Rosmadec, despite their nobility, were beheaded at the Place de Grève in Paris on 22 June 1627.
• 1641: Kenelm Digby and a French nobleman named Mont le Ros. Digby, a founding member of the Royal Society, was attending a banquet in France when the Frenchman insulted King Charles I of England and Digby challenged him to a duel. Digby wrote that he ".. run his rapier into the French Lord's breast until it came out of his throat again"; Mont le Ros fell dead.
• 10 September 1718: Countess de Polignac and Marquise de Nesle fight a duel in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris in rivalry over their mutual lover the Duke de Richelieu.
• 31 January 1772: Mademoiselle de Guignes and Mademoiselle d'Aguillon fight a duel in Paris.
• 1794 to 1813: Pierre Dupont de l'Étang and François Fournier-Sarlovèze fought over 30 duels, beginning with Fournier challenging Dupont after the latter had delivered a disagreeable message to his fellow officer. Dupont eventually overcame his opponent 19 years later in a pistol duel, and forced Fournier to promise never to bother him again. The story was immortalized by Joseph Conrad and made into the movie The Duellists by Ridley Scott.
• 1830: French writer Sainte-Beuve and one of the owners of Le Globe newspaper, Paul-François Dubois, fought a duel under a heavy rain. Sainte-Beuve held his umbrella during the duel claiming that he did not mind dying but that he would not get wet.
• 1832: British officer Charles Hesse was fatally shot by Charles Léon in the Bois de Vincennes following a dispute over cards.
• 1832: Évariste Galois and Pescheux d'Herbinville; Évariste Galois, the French mathematician, died of his wounds at the age of twenty.
• 23 February 1870: Édouard Manet and Louis Edmond Duranty; Duranty, an art critic and friend of Manet, had written only the briefest of commentary on two works of art that Manet had entered for exhibition. The frustrated Manet collared Duranty at the Café Guerbois and slapped him. Duranty's demands for an apology were refused and so the men fought a duel with swords in the Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye three days later on the 23rd. Émile Zola acted as Manet's second and Paul Alexis acted for Duranty. After Duranty received a wound above the right breast the seconds stepped in and declared that honour had been satisfied. The men remained friends despite the encounter.
• 1888: General Georges Boulanger and Charles Floquet ; the General was wounded in the throat but survived.
• 5 February 1897: Marcel Proust fought journalist Jean Lorrain, after Lorrain published an excoriating review of Proust's first book "Pleasures and Days" and hinted that Proust was having an affair with Julia Daudet's son, Lucien. Proust and Lorrain exchanged shots at 25 paces. Proust fired first, his bullet hitting the ground by Lorrain's foot. Lorrain's shot missed, and the seconds agreed that honor had been satisfied.
• On 15 January 1904 during a debate in the French Chamber of Deputies on the subject of Labour Exchange Riots, Marcel Sembat and Jean-Baptiste Boutard exchanged remarks that led to them meeting the following morning at an undisclosed location in Paris where shots were exchanged without effect.
• 7 October 1949. Film director Willy Rozier challenged film critic Francois Chalais over comments Chalais had made about actress Marie Dea in Rozier's 1949 film 56 Rue Pigalle. Fought with rapiers in a forest, and to first blood, not death, Rozier wounded Chalais in the right forearm in the third round, winning the encounter in front of a dozen journalists and photographers. The film would go on to become a hit in France, vindicating Rozier further. Silent film footage of the arrangements being made for the fight in a Parisian alley, and of the duel itself, are included as an extra on the DVD release of the film.
• 20 April 1949: Duel between Armand Fevre and Pierre Merindol.
• 21 April 1967: The last official duel in the history of France happened between Gaston Defferre and René Ribière, both delegates at the French National Assembly. During an argument in the assembly room, Defferre said to Ribière "shut up, idiot". Defferre won the duel after four minutes of sword fighting, wounding his opponent twice.