The Fading Away Of The Passion-Research On The Decline Of The Duel Custom In Britain

The custom of duel was originated from the6th century Europe. It is rather popular in the British Isles and European Continent because of getting the favor of western upper class. However, after the development and changes of ten centuries, it finally withered away under the impact of the western social modernization. Among the major western countries, the duel in Britain was first declining. There must be some reason concerning Britain’s leading position on economy, science and technology in Europe in modern times. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the reasons of the duel’s decline in Britain,discussing problems combined with the social environment and people’s thoughts.This thesis consists of three parts:introduction, body, and epilogue.In the part of introduction, I introduce the source of reference and systemize the past and current research on the decline of British duel both home and abroad.The body is divided into three chapters. The first chapter gives a brief description of the origin and development progress of the duel, as well as the change of forms and reducing of numbers afterwards. The initial duel is a manifestation of ordeal, its development can be divided into three stages, namely "judicial duel","knight duel"," duel of honor". The duel of honor had ever attained prosperity in Britain, but starting from the mid18th century, the number of the duel of honor began to decrease gradually,with the change of its characteristics at the same time, some gentlemen began to adopt the way of an apology and shooting into the air in order to reduce casualties.The second chapter mainly introduces the anti-duelling campaign in the17th and18th centuries. Since the duel of honor came into British Isles, it had suffered the suppressing of different parties, including British teachers of martial arts, the king and his chief courtiers, Christians and so on. All parties had a fierce debate with the supporters of the duel of honor theory with different principles and purposes, laying the theoretical foundation for the duel’s demise in the future. The third chapter talks about the influences of the new social environment from the end of the18th century to the middle of the19th century on the duel’s decline. At this time, no matter the media, law or the civil society sniffed at duel. Court gradually took no more tolerance to duelists. Media poured ridicule on duel, thinking it is silly and outdated. Spacious streets and the use of lighting system make it difficult to collide. Gentlemen paid more attention to privacy, ashamed to show violence in the street. This civilizing process accelerated the decline of the duel.In the epilogue, I analyze the duel’s decline from aspects of geographic position and cultural characteristics, putting it under the general background of social transformation and the era change of Britain, expressing my feeling.