The one particularly famous example that I always tell pupils about when they ask this question is prior to the Battle of Bannockburn. The leader of the Scottish forces, King Robert the Bruce (who appears in the historically awful film Braveheart) fought with Henry de Bohun, a prominent English knight.

A little background – Bannockburn was a key battle in the Scottish Wars of Independence fought in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The English king, Edward II, sent an army north into Scotland to relieve a siege at Stirling Castle. The Scottish army met the English on an area of boggy ground and on the first day of the battle the famous encounter occurred.

An important source for the life of Robert the Bruce comes from the poem The Brus written in Scots (a language with similarities to English that was used in central Scotland) towards the end of the 14th century (possibly around 1378).

A section of this poem describes the single combat between Bruce and Henry:

Schyr Hanry myssit the noble king

And he that in his sterapys stud

With the ax that wes hard and gud

With sua gret mayne raucht him a dynt

That nother hat na helm mycht stynt

The hevy dusche that he him gave

That ner the heid till the harnys clave.

The hand-ax schaft fruschit in twa,

And he doune to the erd gan ga

And quhen the kingis men sa stoutly

Saw him rycht at the first meting

Have slayne a knycht sua at a strak

Sic hardyment tharat gan thai tak

That thai come on rycht hardely.

Quhen Inglismen saw thaim sa stoutly

Cum on thai had gret abaysing

And specially for that the king

Sa smartly that gud knycht has slayne

That thai withdrew thaim everilkane

And durst nocht ane abid to fycht

Sa dred thai for the kingis mycht.

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Which in modern English is (roughly):

Sir Henry missed the noble king

And he [Bruce] in his stirrups stood

With the axe that was hard and good

Rendered him such a blow

That neither hat nor helmet could stop

The heavy hit he struck

So he cleaved his head in half

The hand-axe shaft broke in two

And Henry fell to the ground

And when the king’s men saw this

At the first encounter

Slayed a knight with such a strike

They gained courage so

That they came forward hard

When the Englishmen saw them come stoutly

They had great fear

And specially because the king

So smartly had the good knight slain

That they withdrew

And not one dared to fight

For dread of the king’s might.

The Scots went on to win the battle, thanks in part to newly developed defensive tactics, and in part due to poor leadership on the English side.

I have always thought of this story to be very appropriately ‘Hollywood’ – the opening combat between the ‘heroic’ king and an overconfident enemy and the ultimate victory of a smaller and less well-equipped army.

To answer the second part of the question, how common was it, I would venture that it is not very common. I struggle to think of many other examples of this type encounter but I am of course happy to be proved wrong by someone much more knowledgeable!