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One of the most
famous duels was fought during the reign of Henri III, and one
which distressed the King the most, was the so-called DUEL DES
MIGNONS, fought between his favorites Quelus and d’Entragues,
who had fallen out over some ladies of the court. With Riberac
and Schomberg, who were d’Entragues’s seconds and Maugiron and
Livarot who were Quelus’s, they met near the ramparts of the
Porte Saint-Antoine with no one present but “three or four poor
persons, wretched witnesses of the valour of these worthy men”.
The principles had scarcely begun fighting before Riberac said
to Maugiron “I think we ought to reconcile these gentlemen,
rather then let them kill each other” To this unworthy proposal
the other replied “ Sir I did not come here to tell beads but to
fight” But with whom”, Riberac asked innocently, “since you are
not concerned in this quarrel?” why with you, to be sure”
replied Maugiron. “In that case” said Riberac, “Let us pray”
and drawing his sword and dagger and crossing their hilts, he
fell on his knees. Maugiron was neither a patient nor a
religious man for before long he told Riberac “he had prayed
long enough” At this the two men fell upon each other and within
a few moments Maugiron was dead and Riberac mortally wounded.
Meanwhile,
ashamed of standing by while all this slaughter was going on
Schomberg said to Livarot “These gentleman are fighting, what
shall we do? To which Livarot reasonably replied “We cannot do
better than fight to maintain our honour” Schomberg, who was
German followed the fighting method of his country and cut off
half the left cheek of his opponent who returned the compliment
by running him through the breast, killing his on the spot.
Of the two
victorious seconds, Riberac died the following day and Livarot
was killed in another duel two year later. As for the principals
in the duel des mignons, d’Entragues though severely wounded
made his escape, while Quelus who had received nineteen cuts
lingered on for over a month. On his deathbed he complained
bitterly that d’Entragues had been armed with a dagger as well
as his sword and that when he had protested that he had no
dagger himself, his opponent had retorted “So much the worse for
you, you ought not to have been such a fool as to have left it
at home”.
But at least
Quelus when dying and dead was given all the honour that was
his, for although he died continually repeating “Oh my King, my
King” without one word of Almighty God, so that a preacher of
the time exclaimed in the pulpit that “the bodies of these
blasphemers should be flung into a ditch”, the King visited him
every day on his deathbed and gave him and his fellows a
princely funeral, a noble monument and an epitaph calling upon
God to receive the disrespectful mignons into his bosom.
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