A form of trial by which someone's guilt or innocence was decided by personal combat between the parties or their champions.
〈史〉决斗断讼法
Example sentencesExamples
In this trial, one of the contending parties issued a wager of battle, or challenge.
Now I ask whether the King, when the dispute is brought before him, should decide for wager of battle.
It will be seen from § 10 that knights of good family might still engage in wager of battle against their equals, although, in other respects a breach of the peace was to be severely punished.
Lord Morley appears to have risen to repeat the accusation against Salisbury and the latter to have defied him to prove it by wager of battle.
As the concept of summary execution and wager of battle became incompatible with emerging societal values, the law changed.