Not A Week Goes Past,

without me reading of vicious, acrimonious divorce,

happening to the rich and famous, and there must be countless more around the world that do not attract the headlines, so what if? divorce could be settled by both parties unaided to the death? if it sounds a bit improbable think again, in the enlighten ages of the 13th. century this actually happened in matrimonial disputes, no more who's having the house, farm, cart, horse, dog, cat, kids, you get the picture, the protagonists just duked it out, and to show how enlighten they were in those times, it was a taken that as a man is naturally stronger than a women, the man must be handicapped in order to provide a more equitable combat in Medieval Justice: Cases and Laws in France, England and Germany, 500-1500, Hunt Janin* writes:

In 1228, a woman fought a man at Berne, Switzerland, and soundly defeated him. German law provided that in such a case the man should be armed with three wooden clubs. He was to put be [sic] up to his waist in a three-food-wide hole dug in the ground, with one hand tied behind his back. The woman was to be armed with three rocks, each weighing between one and five pounds, and each one wrapped in cloth. The man could not leave his hole but the woman was free to run around the edge of the pit.

If the man touched the edge of the pit with either his hand or arm, he had to surrender one of his clubs to the judges. If the woman hit him with a rock while he was doing so, she forfeited one of her stones. Bizarre as it may seem to us today, this marital duel was very far from play-acting. For both parties, the penalty for defeat was death. If the woman won, the man was executed; if the man won, the woman was buried alive.

so depending on the out come it was a win-win situation, or a lose-lose one! *Janin appears to be an extensive writer on history, but not necessarily a historian, ah! the 1300s those were the days!