Judicial Duel

Generally fought between combatants of knightly rank between the appellant and the defendant. A charge of dishonorable conduct underlies the combat, fought to the death before judges . Not a tournament , it is a form of trial by combat. Many of the surviving fechtbuchs seem to describe techniques used in the judicial duel that would have been forbidden in the tournament, such as piercing an opponent’s foot with the butt-spike of a poleaxe .