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What are the rules, as specified in the canon, for a Trial by Combat.

Specifically:

  1. Is Trial by Combat a fight to the death?

  2. In what situation is a Prosecutor and/or Defendant allowed to nominate a Champion to fight for him/her?

  3. In what situation does the Defendant get a right to Trial by Combat?

  4. Is the Right to Trial by Combat merely a plea by the Defendant or his sole authority of the means of the trial, ie to say can the Defendants Trial by Combat option be authoritatively dismissed by the Prosecution & Judges?

  5. Does the Prosecutor have a right to Trial by Combat if he/his Champion is an extraordinary Swordsman?

Be generic as far as possible so that nobody is spoiled.

svick
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KharoBangdo
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4 Answers4

29

A trial by combat is essentially requesting to be judged by the gods. Denying someone the request of a trial by combat is possible, but has severe political consequences, since it implies that the denier doubts the judgement of the gods. However, it seems that only highborns are permitted to request a trial by combat.

A Trial by Combat:

  • May be requested at any point before or during a trial.
  • May be advised against, but even sovereign Lords and members of the Royal Family rarely even consider denying such a request outright.
  • May be fought by the parties themselves, but it is not unusual for either or both parties to choose champions to fight in their stead.
  • Ends when either party yields or is killed; or when the accuser takes back his accusation; or (presumably) when the accused declares himself guilty.

Considering the religious aspect of the trial, the champion of the just cause should prevail. Denying a champion is declaring that person to be above the gods.

It is less grievous to deny a choice of champion if, say, the champion is unable to arrive for the trial in a reasonable amount of time, or is unfit to fight, especially if there are other champions more readily available to the accused. If the accused is a royal, the champion must be one of the Kingsguard.

This is prior to the events of the books/show:

Of course, some find loopholes. For example, Mad King Aerys proclaimed fire to be his champion when Ned Stark's father and older brother went to King's Landing to seek justice for the kidnapping of Lyanna Stark.

nnnn
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Stefan Urziceanu
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    +1. A few additional points: In Book/Season 1, the individual who chose trial by combat in the Vale was not permitted his first choice of champion, and had to make do with someone else. (But that trial was being presided over by Lysa Arryn, who is, shall we say, eccentric.) Trial by combat only seems to be open to knights/nobility; none of the common criminals on the Wall mentioned it as an option. Finally, the champion does have to be willing to fight for the accused. You can't just name anyone you like so that he will be forced to fight for you. – Royal Canadian Bandit May 13 '14 at 08:47
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    Anointed knights can also request trial by combat even if they are humbly born. We see it happen in The Hedge Knight. – System Down May 13 '14 at 16:19
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    "Also only a knight of the Kingsguard can champion a queen in a trial by battle if she has been accused of treason." - i can only assume this is a spoiler... – puser May 13 '14 at 16:49
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    Good post; would be excellent with citations though. – Nick T May 14 '14 at 02:26
  • "Of course, some find workarounds." you mean loopholes ;) – Braiam May 14 '14 at 02:47
  • You didn't have to edit the spoiler out. Just wrap it in a spoiler text box! Nice post. Agree that it would do well with citations. – asteri May 14 '14 at 03:09
  • I figured it was a bit unrelated to the question – Stefan Urziceanu May 14 '14 at 03:10
  • Refresh my memory on the yielding, I only remember bouts ending in death. – coburne May 14 '14 at 15:23
  • What happens if both combatants kill each other? Is the loser the first one that dies? – Justin Ethier May 15 '14 at 01:18
  • From what I've read in the books, I believe so. In this example (which I will not spoil), the second one dies from wounds inflicted during the fight, while the first one dies during the fight, so the one that lives the longest is the winner. – Stefan Urziceanu May 15 '14 at 10:28
  • I don't think it's spelled out explicitly, but since in a trial you either get convicted or nothing happens (you don't counter-convict the court), it would seem reasonable that only the status of the defending champion is important at the end of the trial. If the prosecuting champion inflicts a mortal blow but dies first, the gods have still struck down the defendant. –  Apr 08 '15 at 03:48
  • After his demand for trial-by-combat had been agreed, Tyrion stated that as Lysa had chosen to use a champion he also had that right. This implies that under Westerosi laws the accused had to fight themselves if they demanded trial-by-combat but their accuser chose to fight in person. – TheMathemagician Nov 02 '16 at 16:35
8

  1. Yes, it is a fight to the death, or until someone yields.

  2. Someone is entitled to a Champion when he cannot fight for himself (if they are female, injured, crippled, a dwarf, or otherwise incapacitated)

  3. Whenever they want before or during a trial. When someone is on a formal/normal trial, (any moment) they can choose to be judged by the Gods, i.e. choose the Trial by Combat.

  4. If I'm not mistaken, it cannot be dismissed by anyone, because that would be offensive to the Gods, even by the Royal Families. (The Hedge Knight)

  5. Yes, I don't see why not. Everyone is entitled to be judged from the Gods.

svick
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Shevliaskovic
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3

  1. No, either participant can yield. So you'd better be sure your champion really wants you to win your case.

  2. I think anyone can nominate a champion, eg the king has his Kingsguard and can't be expected personally to fight anyone who objects to his rulings. However, the champion has to agree.

  3. Any highborn or knight can choose judgement by the Gods in the form of trial by combat.

  4. Not allowing trial by combat is indicative that you believe that the gods are on the other side.

  5. I think only the defendant can require trial by combat.

As an aside, yes the Mountain could always demand trial by combat if he was brought to justice, as it is assumed that the gods would still cause him to lose if he was guilty. However it would be pretty hard to do so without killing him during his "arrest".

Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the real practice of trial by combat in the middle ages (mostly in Germany and Britain).

Brendan Long
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Brasidas
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  • The article from Wikipedia is indeed very interesting! But Tyrion wouldn't have been able to ask for a trial by combat in the real world in my opinion: it was only granted in the absence of witnesses or strong evidence. – Andres F. May 14 '14 at 00:52
  • Yes, this is an area where A Song of Ice and Fire takes its cue from established fantasy tropes rather than history. – Kaiser May 14 '14 at 02:08
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    There aren't any witnesses or strong evidence, it's all circumstantial. – dsas May 14 '14 at 19:32
-1

  1. Not necessarily as far as I know, but in practice that's how it goes down usually.

  2. Anyone can ask for a champion but the request might be denied if it is unreasonable

    like Tyrion asking for Jaimie

    due to time delays and what not. The champion can also decline

    again Tyrion and Bronn

    or the champion can volunteer (I'm not sure but the accused probably has do accept)

    again Tyrion and The Viper

    The same applies for the prosecution.

  3. If one is of high birth or sufficiently wealthy I suppose. Although I don't think there are any rules preventing a High Lord granting the request to a peasant. It's just that most don't care about them enough to bother, nobody would fight for them anyway and they would lose to a trained knight. And as Littlefinger said

    'and if the winter lasts longer we'll have less peasants

  4. In principle it can't be dismissed by anyone.

    Although in the show the king was manipulated into dismissing it for Cersei and Loras. What will happen in the books is unknown, and will be for years (if you believe the 2017 release date I have some money I need help transferring out of Nigeria)

  5. I don't think so. He can choose him but the defendant must demand the trial.

Möoz
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Mr. C
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