Louis Napoleon’s coup d’état of 1848 caused a hive of
activity among France’s socialist fractions - small groups of political
dissidents who tried in vain to bring about counter revolutions against the late
Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew.
Among these disgruntled people was a large course man who had
only been released from prison a year earlier. This man had killed a gendarme in
1839. His name was Emmanuel Barthelemy and he was a member of the Blanquist
society – a French socialist movement. Among such members was Karl Marx.
Barthelemy had a strong dislike of Marx and even plotted to have him killed.
This was when many of the French dissidents had come to England as political refugees.
Emmanuel Barthelemy spent the first few years, in England,
among his fellow countrymen in exile, but many of these left wing groups squabbled
with one another more than they did against the French government in power that
had brought about their exile. Barthelemy was regarded as one of the most
argumentative of them all. He was tall and a brash bully. Many regarded him as
a loose cannon and a murderer too.
By 1852 he had been in England a few years and his unruly
reputation as a bully with a short fuse grew all the more. He picked an
argument with another French dissident from a different political fraction. An
ex-naval officer called Lieutenant Frederic Cournet. He had read out Victor
Hugo’s proclamation during a botched attempt at overthrowing the Napoleon III
government in 1851.
Cournet had been in England for only a matter of weeks when
Barthelemy challenged him to a duel to settle a difference of opinion.
Barthelemy claimed that the ex-navy officer had said something detrimental about
a former girlfriend. Lieutenant Frederic Cournet accepted the challenge with
great confidence. He had fought a number of duels and had won them all. It was
also a chance to put the unscrupulous bully to rights.
Each man selected two seconders and decided upon a field
outside London close to a place called Engle field Green in Surrey. The field
area was known as Priest Hill. The group of men set off aboard a train and
travelled to their destination of Windsor Rail station and thence to Englefield Green. Six men in all, including the two duellists.
It was 19th October 1852.
Once upon the secluded field, the seconders gave each man a
pistol. Frederic Cournet had won the toss of the coin and got to choose
weapons. The choice of pistols was not to Barthelemy’s liking as he felt more competent
with a sword. Also Cournet was said to be a marksmen with other duelling
victories under his belt. He also got to take the first shot as he had won the
flick of the coin when the duel had been decided.
Both men stood sideways to present as small a target as
possible. Then against all odds Lieutenant Frederic Courbet fired and missed
Barthelemy completely. The ruthless Emmanuel Barthelemy may have grinned as he
raised his pistol, but as he took aim and pulled the trigger the pistol jammed.
The entire affair came to a brief halt as Cournet came forward and offered the
use of his own recently fired pistol. One of Barthelemy’s seconders reloaded
the pistol that Courbet had used. The ex-navy Lieutenant resumed his stance
with ill deserved, or perhaps misplaced, courtesy and awaited Emmanuel
Barthelemy’s second attention.
This time the pistol worked and Frederic Courbet let out a
cry of pain as the musket ball ripped into his chest. He fell a victim to his
gallant consideration and Barthelemy’s sure aim. As the mortally wounded man hit to the ground, Barthelemy and his two seconders took the pistols and
re-packed them. They made off immediately for the rail station and a train back
to London. Also one of Cournet’s seconders hastened away too. The stricken
duellist’s other seconder, Edmund Allain, remained to try and get help. He left
the field and ran out onto a country lane to stop an approaching horse and
trap. By chance it was being driven by Doctor Hayward who went to the stricken
Cournet’s aid. The doctor and Edmund Allain managed to get Cournet onto the
trap and then to the village pub called the Barley Mow. The police were called
amid the village excitement and Superintendent William Biddlecombe was soon at
the scene. He wasted no time in alerting the police at London upon hearing that
the other duellist and seconders had boarded a train for bound for Waterloo
station.
Upon getting off the train at Waterloo station Barthelemy
and seconders, save one, were arrested and brought back to Windsor. One managed to evaded capture and saunter off into the crowd while disembarking from the
train. His name was Brissot and he had the two pistols that he returned to the
gun shop to reclaim his deposit. He made his way back to France and evaded
capture for his part in the duel.
Despite Doctor Hayward’s efforts he was unable to save
Lieutenant Frederic Cournet. After several hours the Frenchman died of his
wounds in considerable discomfort.
Some months later, Emmanuel Barthelemy went to court with two others and it was
he who stood trail for the murder of Lieutenant Frederic Cournet. The French
custom of honour and duelling was not recognised by English law. However,
during the course of the trial, Emmanuel Barthelemy and his legal team managed
to convince the jury with eloquent speeches of being ignorant of English law as
far as European duelling was concerned. The jury was won over and they returned
a verdict of manslaughter which only covered a term of seven months in prison.
Five months of which they had already spent on remand. They served a further
two months and were released as free men.This was the last recoded fatal duel in England.
There would
be a further twist to Emmanuel Barthelemy’s story, however. Two years later,
the unruly man would try to blackmail an employer. Barthelemy visited the man’s home to execute his blackmail plan, but it did not work. During
the altercation and fight that preceded the attempted blackmail, Barthelemy
would shoot his employer dead. As he tried to make his way out of the back yard
of the house, another man would try to apprehend him and he would also be
fatally shot. As Barthelemy continued with his escape attempt from his botched blackmail
attempt, he would be stopped by another witness and then more would wrestle and
hold him to the ground until the police arrived to arrest him.
During his second trail there would be no smooth talk
to the jury. He was found guilty of murder and hanged publicly outside Newgate
prison in January of 1855.
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