Politicians in duels

Here are some famous Politicians who had duels. Fortunately for the PM and the Tory leader, they do not have to have a duel every time they are offensive to eachother.

George Canning Prime Minister
In 1809 Canning entered into a series of disputes within the government that were to become famous. He argued with the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, Lord Castlereagh, over the deployment of troops that Canning had promised would be sent to Portugal but which Castlereagh sent to the Netherlands. The government became increasingly paralysed in disputes between the two men. Portland was in deteriorating health and gave no lead, until Canning threatened resignation unless Castlereagh was removed and replaced by Lord Wellesley. Portland secretly agreed to make this change when it would be possible.

Castlereagh discovered the deal in September of 1809 and became furious, demanding redress. He challenged Canning to a duel, and Canning accepted. It was fought on September 21, 1809. Canning had never before fired a pistol. In the duel Canning missed; Castlereagh wounded his opponent in the thigh. There was much outrage that two cabinet ministers had resorted to such a method. Shortly afterwards the ailing Portland resigned as Prime Minister and Canning offered himself to George III as a potential successor. However, the King appointed Spencer Perceval instead, and Canning left office once more. He did take consolation though, in the fact that Castlereagh also stood down.

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As Prime Minister, Wellington was the picture of the arch-conservative, fearing that the anarchy of the French Revolution would spread to England. Oddly enough, the highlight of his term was Catholic Emancipation, the granting of almost full civil rights to Catholics in the United Kingdom. The change was forced by the landslide by-election win of Daniel O'Connell, an Irish Catholic proponent of emancipation, who was elected despite not being legally allowed to sit in Parliament. Lord Winchilsea (George Finch-Hatton, the 10th earl) accused the Duke of having "treacherously plotted the destruction of the Protestant constitution". Wellington responded by immediately challenging Winchilsea to a duel. On March 21, 1829, Wellington and Winchilsea met on Battersea fields. When it came time to fire, the Duke took aim, Winchilsea kept his arm down, the Duke deliberately changed aim and fired wide to the right, and Winchilsea did not fire. Honour was saved and Winchilsea subsequently wrote Wellington an apology. In the House of Lords, facing stiff opposition, Wellington spoke for Catholic emancipation, giving one of the best speeches of his career. He had grown up in Ireland, and later governed it, so he knew firsthand of the misery of the Catholic communities there. The Catholic Relief Act 1829 was passed with a majority of 105. Many of the Tories voted against the Act, and it passed only with the help of the Whigs.

Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun (c. 1675 – November 15, 1712) was an English politician best known for his frequent participation in duels and his reputation as a rake.
A gambling dispute in late 1692 resulted in his first duel, with John Kennedy, 7th Earl of Cassilis. But Mohun is best remembered for the events of December 9 of that year—a friend of Mohun's, an officer named Richard Hill, had fallen in love with the actress Anne Bracegirdle, however he faced competition from actor William Mountfort. Mohun and Hill ambushed the actor after a performance and, whilst Mohun restrained him, Hill stabbed him through the chest. Following Mountfort's death the next day, Hill fled the country, Mohun was captured and tried by the House of Lords. However, in a verdict that was widely condemned, Mohun was acquitted on February 6, 1693. In 1697 Mohun was again tried by the Lords for murder following a duel on Leicester Square. Mohun was again acquitted, although his friend Edward Rich, 6th Earl of Warwick was found guilty of manslaughter. In 1712, two years after Mohun's Whig party had been heavily defeated in an election, the Duke of Hamilton was given the post of special envoy to Paris. Also at this time Mohun's legal dispute with Hamilton over his inheritance of the Macclesfield estate was going badly. Shortly before Hamilton left for France, Mohun challenged him to a duel which was fought on November 15 in Hyde Park. Hamilton was killed during the fight, and Mohun died shortly afterwards from his wounds.

1762: John Wilkes and Samuel Martin in Hyde Park.
Martin, in his place in the House of Commons, had alluded to Wilkes as a "stabber in the dark, a cowardly and malignant scoundrel." Wilkes prided himself as much upon his gallantry as upon his wit and disloyalty, and lost no time in calling Martin out. The challenge was given as soon as the House adjourned, and the parties repaired at once to a copse in Hyde Park with a brace of pistols. They fired four times, when Wilkes fell, wounded in the abdomen. His antagonist, relenting, hastened up and insisted on helping him off the ground; but Wilkes, with comparative courtesy, as strenuously urged Martin to hurry away, so as to escape arrest. It afterwards appeared that Martin had been practising in a shooting gallery for six months before making the obnoxious speech in the House; and soon after, instead of being arrested, he received a valuable appointment from the ministry.


Colonel Richard "Humanity Dick" Martin (15 January 1754 – 6 January 1834), was an Irish politician and animal rights activist. He was also nicknamed the "Wilberforce of Hacks". Martin also led a very eventful life. He was a colonel of the County Galway Volunteers. He survived two shipwrecks. He fought over a hundred duels with sword and pistol and earned the nickname "Hairtrigger Dick". He travelled extensively in Europe and the Americas in the 1770s and was in New England when the American Revolutionary War broke out. He founded Galway's first theatre. He was in Paris when the French Revolution began in 1789. Martin divorced his first wife who had had an affair with the Irish rebel Theobald Wolfe Tone and was awarded £10,000 compensation that he donated to the poor.
Sir John MacPherson and a Major Browne; Browne had been British Resident at the court of Shah Alam II, he took offence at his recall and challenged MacPherson, the former Governor-General of India, on the latter's return to Britain. A pistol ball passed through MacPherson's coat and another struck a pocketbook in his coat pocket, but the two men were uninjured.

July 11, 1804: U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton; Hamilton was killed.

May 30, 1806: Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson; Dickinson was killed, Jackson wounded.
H. W. Brands on Andrew Jackson's duel

The controversy surrounding their marriage remained a sore point for Jackson, who deeply resented attacks on his wife's honor. Jackson fought 13 duels, many nominally over his wife's honor. Charles Dickinson, the only man Jackson ever killed in a duel, had been goaded into angering Jackson by Jackson's political opponents. In the duel, fought over a horse-racing debt and an insult to his wife on May 30, 1806, Dickinson shot Jackson in the ribs before Jackson returned the fatal shot. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could never be safely removed. Jackson had been wounded so frequently in duels that it was said he "rattled like a bag of marbles."[39] At times he would cough up blood, and he experienced considerable pain from his wounds for the rest of his life.

august 12, 1817: Thomas Hart Benton (senator) and Charles Lucas (Missouri) on Bloody Island (Mississippi); Attorneys on opposite sides of a court battle - Lucas challenged Benton's right to vote and Benton accused Lucas of being a "puppy"; Lucas was shot in the throat and Benton shot in the leg; Benton released Lucas from his obligation.
September 27, 1817: Benton and Lucas rematch on Bloody Island; Benton challenged Lucas after Lucas said the first fight at 30 feet was unfair because Benton was a better shot. Benton killed Lucas at nine feet and was unhurt.
February 24, 1838: Kentucky Representative William Jordan Graves killed Maine Representative Jonathan Cilley in a pistol duel. Congress then passed a law making it illegal to issue or accept duel challenge in Washington, DC.
June 1, 1853: U.S. Senator William McKendree Gwin and U.S. Congressman J.W. McCorkle, no injuries.
1836: Two duelling politicians from Lower Canada were lucky to have sensible seconds. Clément-Charles Sabrevois de Bleury, a member of the Lower Canadian Legislative Assembly, insulted fellow politician Charles-Ovide Perreault. Perreault then struck de Bleury, and a duel was set. Both men were determined to settle the matter with pistols, but their seconds came up with a unique solution. The two foes would clasp hands and de Bleury would say, "I am sorry to have insulted you" while at the same time Perreault would say, "I am sorry to have struck you." They would then reply in unison, "I accept your apology." The tactic worked, and the situation was resolved without injury.

In October 2002, 4 months before the US invasion of Iraq, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan suggested U.S. President George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein settle their difference in a duel. He reasoned this would not only serve as an alternative to a war that was certain to damage Iraq's infrastructure, but that it would also reduce the suffering of the Iraqi and American people.

During the 2004 Republican National Convention, Georgia Senator Zell Miller, a Conservative Democrat who supported Bush's reelection, angrily retorted to commentator Chris Matthews that he wished he lived in a time when he could challenge someone to a duel. The satellite connection between the two was bad, and Senator Miller erroneously heard Matthews insult Southern voters.


I was reading the history of Californian governors and a few of their early one liked to have duel. So it caught my interest in this issue.

Broderick March 4, 1857 – September 16, 1859 Got killed in duel by his once political ally Chief Justice Terry of the California Supreme Court killed him in a duel. After they fell out over Terry making controversial remarks. Terry also stabbed another man.
John McDougall the second state governor of Californian manged just four days after leaving the state's highest office, McDougall was involved in a pistol duel with A.C. Russell, editor of the San Francisco Picayune. Russell's hand was injured in the duel. After attempting to start yet another duel with another individual who had insulted the ex-governor, McDougall was arrested by the San Francisco Police. As governor, McDougall had opposed state legislation that would have outlawed dueling, remarking duelers were not fit to live and would eventually kill each other off.

Dueling is a stupid way to decide political debates, as it just means who ever is best a gun shooting wins. What if you are blind or disabled?
Nowadays punch and Judy politics would lead to a tonne of duels.
Hague would have been challenged a few times by Prescott. A trained soldier IDS would have simply resorted to a duel to defeat his political rival Blair, after the withering critics Blair gave him. The present one only has one eye so I would expect he would find a duel tough.

The House Of Commons Catfight !
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