Hello all,
I am very interested in reading some first hand accounts of duels, whether by participants or aides/spectators. Preferably in Europe in the 17th or 18th century, but I’m not choosy. Surprisingly these seem hard to come by (or very brief rundowns) for such a dramatic event. I would assume friends and relatives would be keen to hear what happened, leaving letters and such.
Can you recommend me some sources? Or even specific accounts? The more detailed the better.
(This is perhaps more of a request than a question - I hope that’s allowed)
I maintain a fairly extensive list of sources on dueling here, although most are secondary sources. If you jump down to near the bottom, a number of the 19th century works, such as Millingen, have extensive quotations from of the actual account itself from witnesses. One particularly good source which I don't know why I haven't put it in there yet is Brantome. The original is French, but various English translations are out there, and it is long out of copyright, so this one on Archive.org is easy to access.