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8 Famous Duels and 1 Almost Duel
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BY Amy Tikkanen
Duels have a long and colorful—though sometimes tragic—history. The origins of dueling are uncertain, but by the 16th century duels had become a popular means of settling real or imagined slights. Despite efforts to ban them, duels remained widespread for several centuries; the last one in France reportedly took place in 1967. Of the thousands of duels on record, we’ve selected eight that are particularly notable and one that almost was…but wasn’t.

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  Benefit of Clerg Jonson, BenIn 1598 British playwright and poet Ben Jonson quarreled with actor Gabriel Spenser (or Spencer). The argument escalated into a sword duel, in which Spenser was killed. Jonson was subsequently arrested and ordered to be hanged. However, he was able to escape death by pleading “benefit of clergy,” leniency because he could read from the Latin Bible. So instead his thumb was branded. Jonson is now generally considered the second most important British dramatist, after Shakespeare.
  
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  Andrew Jackson Versus Everyone
  

A military hero and the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson was also something of a hothead. He was involved in numerous duels—some accounts estimate 100—and many of them were in defense of his wife, Rachel, who was a frequent object of ridicule and malicious rumors. Her abusive first husband, Lewis Robards, falsely accused her of adultery, and in 1791 she married Jackson after mistakenly believing that her divorce from Robards had been finalized, thus earning the label of bigamist. In 1806 Jackson challenged Charles Dickinson to a duel in part because he had impugned Rachel’s reputation. Dickinson was an accomplished duelist, and he shot Jackson in the chest. The wound, however, was not fatal, and Jackson returned fire, fatally striking Dickinson.

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