Billiard Ball - The Duel, a Shot in the Park, #13 of 100 Bloody Objects
08/31/21 • 41 min
A matter of honour or an encounter between fools?
1. Billiard Ball. 2. The Renaissance. 3. Hopton on Duelling, section one. 4. History of the Due. 5. Hopton on Duelling, section two. 6. Decline of the Duel. ps. The Wild West
Whether acting on principal or an example of extreme folly, the duel captured the imagination of European society for at least three centuries. There was the duel involving billiard balls, an armed encounter between balloonists, and even a skirmish between two society ladies in Hyde Park in which one lost her hat to a lead round.
Many lost their lives during these encounters, often for the most trivial of perceived slights. In France alone, over a ten-year period during the seventeenth century, over 2,000 aristocrats and officers were killed in duels. The sport certainly took its toll. There were duels in London clubs and even the Palace of Westminster, and once the middle classes took up the sport it became almost a contagion. One drunken duelist even faced his opponent naked. Yet eventually the habit died out, a victim of its own ridiculous nature and growing alarm in the political establishment. America developed its own form with the arrival of gunfights in the Wild West. These too were to eventually fade into history and legend.
So it goes
Tom Assheton and James Jackson
Readings by David Hartley from Richard Hopton's book Pistols at Dawn published by Piatkus 2007
(Richard Hopton's latest book, The Straits of Treachery, is published by Allison & Busby)
See also:
https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/
https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word
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A matter of honour or an encounter between fools?
1. Billiard Ball. 2. The Renaissance. 3. Hopton on Duelling, section one. 4. History of the Due. 5. Hopton on Duelling, section two. 6. Decline of the Duel. ps. The Wild West
Whether acting on principal or an example of extreme folly, the duel captured the imagination of European society for at least three centuries. There was the duel involving billiard balls, an armed encounter between balloonists, and even a skirmish between two society ladies in Hyde Park in which one lost her hat to a lead round.
Many lost their lives during these encounters, often for the most trivial of perceived slights. In France alone, over a ten-year period during the seventeenth century, over 2,000 aristocrats and officers were killed in duels. The sport certainly took its toll. There were duels in London clubs and even the Palace of Westminster, and once the middle classes took up the sport it became almost a contagion. One drunken duelist even faced his opponent naked. Yet eventually the habit died out, a victim of its own ridiculous nature and growing alarm in the political establishment. America developed its own form with the arrival of gunfights in the Wild West. These too were to eventually fade into history and legend.
So it goes
Tom Assheton and James Jackson
Readings by David Hartley from Richard Hopton's book Pistols at Dawn published by Piatkus 2007
(Richard Hopton's latest book, The Straits of Treachery, is published by Allison & Busby)
See also:
https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/
https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word
See https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
Previous Episode
Siege
Siege is hell.
1. It's total war. 2. AD 70 Siege of Jerusalem. 3. 1453 Constantinople. 4. 1565 Great Siege of Malta. 5. 1870 The Siege of Paris and the Commune. 6. Colonial Sieges. 7. Leningrad. 8. Battle of the Atlantic. 9. Balkans and the Middle East
Siege involves not just the military, but entire civilian populations trapped within walls invested by the enemy and clinging on for survival. Often it involves bombardment, starvation, disease and the desperate will of a populace to cling on through unexpected horror. During the siege of Jerusalem, in AD70, the Romans crucified up to 10,000 would-be escapers outside the walls. In the siege of Paris, the embattled locals turned to eating everything from dogs to zoo animals. Because of the involvement of everyday citizenry, the pathos and misery can be dramatic and overwhelming. Women and children are often the victims and their tales of suffering are rarely fully told.
Siege can be the catalyst for major political change, and the Siege of Paris alone demonstrates a turning point in both the fate of Europe, the birth of the German state and the arrival of Communism in world politics. Siege is all-encompassing, brutal and wholly unforgiving.
So It Goes
Tom Assheton & James Jackson
Readings and Menu Reference:
Suppression or the Paris Commune 23-24 May 1871 by Archibald Forbes
The Art of French Cooking, Hamlyn
See also:
https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/
https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word
See https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
Next Episode
Mount Tabor - Crazy Cults, to Insanity and Beyond, #14 of 100 Bloody Objects
Join our marmalade cult. Sticky end guaranteed.
1. Cults Ancient & Modern. 2. Types of Cult. 3. Cult Leaders and the Cult of Personality. ps. The Moonies.
Cults have always been with us. From predatory sex cults, through Cargo cults and on to cults-like terrorist organisations, these strange and remote bodies prey on the weak, the credulous, and the stupid. Whether Jim Jones or Osama bin Laden, there have always charismatic leaders who can inspire or coerce their followers. And some of them aren’t even charismatic! Yet they all have a message and one even managed to convince followers that he was a fallen angel who could only be kept alive through having regular sex with young women. A ghastly bunch of conmen.
So it goes
Tom Assheton and James Jackson
If you want Tom's marmalade recipe email him at [email protected] and he will send it to you as a PDF
Readings by David Harley from Aleister Crowley's book of the Law
See also:
https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/
https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word
See https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
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