Château de Vincennes

Château de Vincennes was a royal fortress outside Paris and a setting for proceedings connected with the Carrouges–Le Gris case. Its great keep, council chamber, spiral stairway, and royal throne frame one of the dispute’s sharp turns: a second challenge was issued before the king, widening the possibility of combat beyond Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris.

Setting and Royal Presence

The account places the fortress outside the city and describes Louvel’s arrival at its great keep. He climbed a spiral stairway to the Salle de Conseil, where King Charles, the king’s uncles, and courtiers were assembled before the royal throne. The scene puts the accusation in a setting of royal authority, rather than the local seigneurial court where the quarrel had first been heard.

The Challenge to Adam Louvel

On Sunday, July 22, Adam Louvel answered a summons before the king. He had already been named by Carrouges as Jacques Le Gris’s alleged accomplice. At Vincennes, however, he was met by Thomin du Bois, a squire and cousin of Marguerite. Thomin accused Louvel of attacking her, threw down his gage of battle, and challenged him to a duel. He further demanded that Louvel’s refusal to fight, if he denied the charge, be treated as an admission of guilt and grounds for imprisonment until confession.

Louvel asked for a jour d’avis—a deferral to consult his legal counsel—and received until the following Tuesday. The record notes no further action on that date. The challenge nevertheless raised the prospect of two duels in a case already involving the wager of battle between Carrouges and Le Gris.

Place in the Expanding Case

Later proceedings suggest that the two wagers of battle were combined. On August 20, Louvel’s son Guillaume and two other men were taken into custody for examination in matters touching the pending battle between Carrouges and Thomin on one side and Le Gris and Louvel on the other. The episode at Vincennes therefore marks a widening of the conflict: a royal audience brought another accuser and alleged accomplice into the dispute, while drawing additional people into its legal and social orbit. The fortress is also cited among the places associated with proceedings in the case, although the surviving account identifies the confrontation with Thomin as its defining scene there.