A Brief History of Trials by Ordeal and Combat

“If God is just, you’ll be fine!” they said

Photo by British Library on Unsplash

The lack of sophisticated forensic methods led to a lot of “he-said-she-said” situations in History’s earliest judicial proceedings.

With only the words of the parties usually bearing equal weight, a common tie-breaker in determining guilt were trials by ordeal and combat. The said…