Hattō

The dagger was listed among the weapons carried for the judicial duel between Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris, alongside the lance, sword, and shield. Its significance lies in the possibility that the fight’s final, close-range phase depended on a weapon distinct from the swords used earlier: after Carrouges brought Le Gris down and climbed on top of him, a dagger coup de grâce is considered likely, though not definitively established.

Place Among the Weapons

Accounts of the duel’s equipment include lances, swords, daggers, and shields. The dagger therefore belonged to an arsenal that could serve different stages of combat, from mounted engagement to fighting at close quarters. A separate description of a strong, short sword shaped like a large dagger underscores the period’s overlapping weapon forms, but does not establish that this was the same dagger recorded in the equipment lists.

Possible Use in the Final Struggle

The accounts describe Carrouges bringing Le Gris down and climbing on top of him. Because Le Gris’s heavy armor made it difficult for Carrouges to wound him, the dagger is a plausible weapon for delivering the coup de grâce at this close range. The evidence supports that interpretation as likely, not as a directly confirmed detail of the killing.

Evidentiary Significance

The dagger’s role marks a shift in the duel’s reported action: the fight included mounted weapons and swordplay, then ended with the combatants on the ground. Yet the weapon’s final use remains an inference drawn from the reported position of the men and the difficulty of penetrating Le Gris’s armor. The dagger is thus both part of the documented equipment and a point where reconstruction must stop short of certainty.