The World Turned Upside Down - The British Civil Wars 1638-1651 · The World Turned Upside Down

Duels, violence and conflict

·30 min·1 clip

A 1716 joke says, 'I shall never kill a man. Unless it is a Tory.'

1. The World Turned Upside Down - The British Civil Wars 1638-1651 episode on duels, violence and conflict centers on Stuart Carroll’s research into elite violence after the 1660 Restoration. 2. Stuart Carroll is the guest and author of a recent book on France, England, and the Italian and German states, and Annie introduces the discussion by asking about elite violence. 3. The episode asks whether later 17th-century civility really suppressed noble violence, or whether violence simply changed form and moved into legal, political, and social settings. 4. Carroll defines the elite as armigerous nobles, gentlemen, officeholders, university-educated men, and especially lawyers from the Inns of Court. 5. He says English and Welsh gentry death rates rose after the Restoration and peaked in the 1690s, even though mid-century civil wars had already killed many hundreds. 6. He distinguishes battle deaths from homicide, argues that pre-1660 elite homicides were low, and says the numbers rise sharply after 1660. 7. His figures also include English and Welsh men killed abroad, Irish and Scots in London, and Anglo-Irish elites who did not see themselves as simply English or Irish. 8. Carroll explains that his evidence comes from published sources, databases, Burke’s Peerage, state papers, antiquarian publications, newspapers, and Old Bailey records. 9. He gives two totals: 279 elite homicides from 1550 to 1800, then 368 from 1670 to 1800 after adding later material. 10. The discussion links the high court of chivalry, revived by Charles I, to efforts to provide legal retribution instead of dueling before the court became dormant in spring 1641. 11. Carroll says dueling rose at the end of the 16th century, likely from continental influence, and that the 1613 anti-dueling Act seems to have reduced violence before the court even began operating. 12. He also says the court of chivalry reveals elite anxiety about social mobility, because many cases involved litigants trying to stop social upstarts. 13. Carroll argues that civil-war militarization left more men with weapons and military experience after 1660, and that army officers carried this culture into civil society. 14. He cites Yorkshire cases with no known dueling before 1640, including John Rearsby and Richard Sorkeld, as evidence that new enmities emerged after the wars. 15. The episode treats law as only partially effective, saying post-1660 anti-dueling laws were repeated but rarely enforced, while self-defense, character evidence, jury packing, and pardons remained common defenses. 16. Carroll says trial documents are formulaic because defendants claimed provocation, drunkenness, or self-defense, and he urges skepticism toward those explanations. 17. He describes Restoration style as masculine self-fashioning, with rake culture and a public image meant to intimidate social inferiors and provoke enemies. 18. He also stresses the importance of insults, drinking healths, oaths, debt reckonings, and trivial disputes that exposed reputations in cases like William Bowen and James Dessiers. 19. The conversation is interview-led, densely factual, and supported by examples from newspapers, the Old Bailey, diaries, and county cases. 20. Listeners interested in seventeenth-century English politics, dueling, and legal history will get the most from it, while listeners wanting a light overview of the Civil Wars may skip it.

As heard by us

A sharp look at how elite violence survived inside the machinery of law.

This episode looks at the uneasy overlap between status, law, and violence in early modern Europe, using duels and murder trials to push back on the familiar story of a gentler age.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a clear argument about how elites used law and violence together in the late 17th century, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The World Turned Upside Down - The British Civil Wars 1638-1651