Abstract
This essay attempts to examine Norbert Elias’s views on the connection between state- formation and the decline of violence, and to examine his analyses boxing and duelling within that context. Crucially, recent research and rethinking on French absolutism now presents a very different interpretation of that phenomenon from that which was available to Elias in the early twentieth century. Moreover, work on English state-formation has laid emphasis on the emergence of the ‘fiscal-military state after 1688, and also on the importance of a ‘history from below’ approach to state-formation. Elias’s interpretation of boxing in England and duelling in both England and France is re-assessed in the light of these historiographical developments.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See, for example, Beik (1985).
- 3.
Mention must be made of one historian whose work has consistently been influenced by Elias, Pieter Spierenburg: see, in particular, Spierenburg (2013).
- 4.
The best guide here is Eisner (2001).
- 5.
Elias’s most sustained comments on duelling seem to be in the rather special circumstances of the adoption of the practice by themiddle classes in Wilhelmine Germany: Elias (1999: 71–3, 89–92); The Court Society (Elias 1983: 239–40) has a brief discussion of duelling, and especially on Elias’s perception of Richelieu’s curbing of the phenomenon; there is a brief mention of the development of boxing in England in his Introduction to Elias and Dunning (1986: 21).
- 6.
The standard work here is Billacois (1990).
- 7.
I have based my account here on Shoemaker (2002); Shoemaker based his findings on a sample of 206 duels recorded in London or the London area in the period covered by his article.
- 8.
A good introduction is Andrew (1980).
- 9.
For an interesting, if perforce somewhat schematic, attempt at examining early modern duelling on a comparative basis, see Billacois (1990), Chapter 4, ‘A French Phenomenon’, where the fortunes of the duel in the early modern period are explored in The Holy Roman Empire, England, Spain and Italy.
- 10.
I have based my account here on Reyfman (1999).
- 11.
The number of duels in Russia increased following this law, although few of them were fatal. Duelling was still rife in France in the 1890s.
- 12.
The best introduction to the development of boxing in England is Brailsford (1988).
- 13.
A new Song concerning the Boxing Match between that ancient British Boxer John Bull and the Elf, Bonaparte (Single sheet broadside ballad, London, ?1799).
- 14.
- 15.
These cases are discussed in Sharpe and Dickinson (2016: 192–209).
- 16.
See also Braddick (1991).
- 17.
These themes are brought together in Wrightson and Levine (1995).
- 18.
At least the initial stages of the incorporation of the lower orders into ‘polite’ values is noted by Langford (2002: 311–31).
- 19.
Chester Chronicle, 21 November 1794; 27 March 1795; 17 April 1795.
- 20.
Billacois (1990: 43) notes a decree of 1563 by the Council of Trent ‘entirely banning from all of Christendom the detestable custom of duels’, evidence of much earlier, and Catholic, religious reservations about the duel.
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Sharpe, J. (2018). Boxing and Duelling: Critical Remarks on Elias on Violence and State-Formation from a Historical Perspective. In: Haut, J., Dolan, P., Reicher, D., Sánchez García, R. (eds) Excitement Processes. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-14912-3_9
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