Masculinity and The Plebeian Honour Fight: Dispute Resolution in Georgian England

This thesis identifies and assesses a highly ritualised and multi-functional form of plebeian male fighting in England during the Georgian period which has been coined by this study as a ‘plebeian honour fight’. The fight not only embodied ideas of justice and fairness but performed an important social role, serving both as a utility for dispute resolution as well as a means of status attainment. Plebeian self-control, a quality shown to be aspired to in plebeian models of manliness, distinguished the violence from that used in intentional murder, robbery, or by mob rioters. The plebeian honour fight fulfilled an important social role and as such this research argues that its origins lie in plebeian culture. It does this by examining the originality of the plebeian honour fight in comparison to the elite duel and the professional prizefight. Aristocratic patronage and plebeian entrepreneurship were crucial to the development of the professional prizefight and an examination of this process highlights the shared martial values between elites and plebeians. In examining the practices of the honour fight and its accompanying sense of justice and fair play, a distinctive English plebeian manliness is identified and shown to be an important contributor to constructions of English national identity. The plebeian honour fight is then assessed from its initial cause or provocation through to the final stages of the fight process. The importance of the oral challenge in affirming consensus to fight is considered alongside the cultural meanings of various accompanying insults. A sophistication in the rituals and practices of these fights is outlined in revealing their multifarious meanings dependent on what stage of the fight they were enacted. It is not only seen that alehouses and alcohol played a significant role in the location and causes of disputes, but that they were also important in post-fight reconciliatory rituals that were fundamental to the process of reintegrating fighters back into plebeian society. The plebeian fighter is also examined in detail: fighter’s occupations, age, and marital status are collected in a data set and per capita comparisons made with the census. Evolving attitudes of non-combatants involved in the fight process, such as crowds, watchmen, constables, and those of the court are also examined. The behaviour of crowds reveals their important social role as regulators of the fair fight, while a resistance to an increase in authority’s regulation of public spaces is also noted. Court attitudes are shown to sympathise with plebeian honour fighters but not with those who fought unfairly or those non-combatants who were seen to prolong fights to death. In examining the Georgian plebeian honour fight this study advances not only the historiography of masculinity, but also that of violence, criminology, and national identity.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Newell, Desmond J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Begiato, Joanne
• Hitchcock, Tim

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/hbvx-ns06

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:7f73fee0-9a97-409a-8770-2c7a14023466:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1