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Nowadays, dueling is generally not held in high esteem, but because people are at their best case defend the scolded honor with fists. And pay attention not only men but women fight, the latter in this the case is more rampant and cruel.
That’s why dueling, when they were ordinary and even popular, also occurred not only among men, with weapons in their hands they fought each other and women. And women’s duels also seemed contemporaries are more cruel than men.
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First experiences
It is believed that the first female duel occurred in Naples in 1552 year. They fought on swords because of the man Diambra de Pettinello and Isabella de Carazzi This fight is allegedly reflected in the painting “Women’s Duel” by Jose de Ribera (Spain).
However, the first women’s duel of two was documented noble senorites only May 27, 1571. The ladies arrived at the female monastery of st. Benedict, rented a prayer room there, locked themselves they duel on daggers in it, as a result of which both died. Such an extraordinary case, of course, was recorded in the chronicle the monastery.
The next most high-profile duel took place in France between Countess de Polignac and Marquise de Nesle. They fought over known future (thanks to the works of A. Dumas) Cardinal Richelieu. And we know about it from the recollections of cardinal.
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Sophisticated Cruelty
Further, the women seemed to have erupted in a duel, in the seventeenth, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they happened quite often in Italy, France, Germany, England and other European countries. AND again, contemporaries noted sophisticated cruelty in women’s fights, than similar skirmishes of men did not suffer. For example, ladies the ends of the swords were certainly lubricated with a special painful composition, or even just poison. If the duel went on pistols, then the women almost never satisfied with a slight injury to the offender, and shot deadly.
Dueling usually took place in closed or secluded places, ladies certainly fought topless, since it was believed that the dress was not only restricts movement, but also threatens to hit pieces matter into the wound, which for some reason scared people at that time.
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Women’s duel in Russia
It’s not necessary to think that women’s duels did not take place in Russia, True, their real boom falls on the reign of Catherine The second, since she herself was a duelist in her youth, fighting at swords with his second cousin. Most prolific on women The duel in Russia turned out to be in 1765 – twenty fights.
In the nineteenth century, women’s dueling began to be practiced in ladies’ salons, for example, only in 1823 in the Vostroukhova salon seventeen fights took place, and again, according to the memoirs contemporaries, Russian ladies fought without any grace. True, there were significantly fewer deaths than in countries Western Europe, only four out of ten, while in France – eight out of ten. By the way, note that the average fatalities in men – two out of ten.
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And if men fought mainly because of the ladies, then women – because of men, that is, motivated by jealousy. By the way, if you trace everything modern female fights, then they happen for the same reason and with the same frenzy and ruthlessness to the enemy. True, in our time most often on fists or nails. Much less often – on knives. And again, if modern “men” are sometimes without every duel kicks an opponent with his feet, with one pater, then if “women” do the same (and they do), such a “duel” in nine out of ten cases end up deadly for the victim the outcome …
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Russia time
