Francis Bacon, the Earl of Northampton, and the Jacobean anti-duelling campaign

The article examines the intellectual and ideological debate about the noti ons of duelling, courtesy, and honour in the Jacobean anti-duelling campaig n. Particular attention is paid to the two most important contributions to this campaign--Francis Bacon's The charge touching duells (1614) and A pvbl ication of his ma(ties) edict, and severe censvre against priuate combats a nd combatants (1614), written by Henry Howard, the early of Northampton. By placing these two treatises into their intellectual context of courtesy an d duelling manuals, the article seeks to demonstrate their sharply contrast ing responses to the problem of duelling. Northampton accepted the notions of courtesy, honour, and insult underlying the duelling theory, but still w anted to abolish duelling. His solution was therefore a court of honour whi ch would solve all the disputes of honour between noblemen and gentlemen. B acon, on the other hand, argued that the only efficient way of getting rid of duelling was to question the entire intellectual framework on which duel ling rested. To accept the notions of honour, courtesy, and insult inherent in the duelling theory and to set up a court of honour, he insisted, was t antamount to encouraging duelling itself. In The charge touching duells Bac on was thus arguing as much against Northampton's plans to suppress duellin g as against the theory of duelling itself.