There was a time when a gentleman's reputation was worth dying for.
In the 1800s when powerful, educated men determined to defend their social standing felt they had no other choice, they would meet on a duelling ground, weapons in hand.
Duelling was a means of protecting one's honour. A process of ritual and rules. A form of dispute resolution so valued that, although illegal, lawmakers often turned a blind eye to it.
Experts today say it was a "ridiculous" way to settle an argument — but was it a necessary step towards a more civilised society?
Words that can kill
Sometimes it only took one word or phrase to set two men on the duelling course.
In the lead up to one of history's most famous duels, an 1804 stand-off between American founding father Alexander Hamilton and US vice president Aaron Burr, a newspaper printed an insult Hamilton uttered at a dinner party.
According to the newspaper report, Hamilton had claimed Burr was "not worthy of being trusted with the reins of government".
Just like that, the wheels were in motion.
Getty: Bettmann
)Weeks later, Burr and Hamilton stood at Weehawken, across the river from New York City, facing each other with pistols drawn.
Hamilton soon fell, shot through the liver, and died the next day.
Political chaos and outrage ensued.
The matter of honour was at the core of the situation.
Yale University history professor Joanne Freeman says in the early 1800s a man's most valuable possession was his honour.
Slurs such as "liar", "coward", "rascal", "scoundrel" and even "puppy" were "serious insults that somehow or other got to the core of who you were as a gentleman, and often necessitated a visit to a duelling ground," Professor Freeman tells ABC RN's The History Listen.
"As counterintuitive as it may seem, duelling was not about killing. Duelling wasn't about revenge. Duelling wasn't about trying to gun down your enemy.
"It was to redeem an insult that had been made against you by proving that you were willing to die for your honour and enabling the person who gave the insult to go out onto the field [and] redeem himself," she says.
Duelling illegal but tolerated
By the time Hamilton and Burr drew their pistols in 1804, duelling was a long-established practice.
Historian Stephen Banks says men were trained to use swords for duelling from the 16th century, with pistols replacing swords in Britain by about 1780.
Duelling was always illegal.
"Society tolerated it, even though theoretically to kill somebody in a duel was murder," Dr Banks says.
"You actually find that, for instance, judges in trials [did] everything possible to ensure that the defendant [was] acquitted."
Dr Banks says the powerful in society – judges, lawyers, army officers and parliamentarians – all shared an honour culture.
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At times, honour was a quality successful careers depended on, says University of Sydney historian Catie Gilchrist.
"If he was a gentleman involved in commerce, his word was very much something that he relied upon," she says.
"In the military, an officer was always a gentleman and so if he felt his status as an officer had been impugned, then his gentlemanly status had been impugned as well."
Duelling in Australia
Duels weren't just an American practice.
Supplied: State Library of NSW
)The last recorded duel was a sword fight in France in the 1960s. And Australia has a history of duelling too.
Perhaps the last duel in Australia was between Major Sir Thomas Mitchell and Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson in 1851, in Centennial Park, Sydney. Thankfully both men walked away with their lives, and only Donaldson's hat was damaged in the altercation.
Dr Gilchrist says Australia even had its own particular set of duel-inducing insults.
"The worst thing to call a gentleman was a 'black guard', which meant a lowly menial person," Dr Gilchrist says.
"Consider yourself horse whipped", is another insult that comes from this time.
"Don't forget everyone rode horses back then ... the horse whip was an instrument of social placing. A beast, a convict, a child and a slave might be horse whipped," Dr Gilchrist says.
Supplied: National Museum Australia
)The 'fundamental absurdity' of duelling
It might seem paradoxical, but duels were actually intended to reduce violence, rather than increase it.
Dr Banks describes duels as a "halfway point" between the medieval world of generational feuds, think William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and the modern mindset.
"What the duel does is it says, there's been one moment of encounter to determine a particular issue and after the encounter's over, that matter is solved," he says.
"It marks a period between the indiscriminate violence of the medieval period, when say, homicide was about 10 times as common in the UK as it is today, and the modern way. It's a transition point."
Dr Banks says it may have been a necessary transition point to today's "generally more civilised" society.
Slowly, duels began to be seen as "ridiculous" in Britain, he explains.
As the Church increased its power and influence, duelling presented a growing contradiction to its edict, "thou shalt not kill". From 1810 the Church campaigned against the practice.
American political scientist John Mueller says at this time many began pointing out "the fundamental absurdity" of settling differences with duels.
And while Dr Banks concurs that duelling is "a ridiculous way of solving human problems", he doesn't see that as distinguishing it from many other practices.
"All societies have belief structures that are not rational," he says.
Perhaps not all of them, however, have such very high stakes.
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