He who knows most, doubts most.  — Jerónimo de Carranza

Dedicated to researching historical Spanish fencing and sharing the knowledge with the public.

Fencing History and Tales

Introduction | Literary Allusions | Famous Duels and Duellists | Women and Combat

Famous Duels and Duellists

Christopher Marlowe (1564 -1593)

The Death of William Bradley (September 18, 1589)

"He and a fellow poet were arrested in 1589 after a clash in which an actor was killed, though their plea of self-defence was accepted."
~V.G. Kiernan's The Duel in European History published in 1988 by Oxford University Press

"There is plenty of independent evidence that Marlowe was as quick on the draw as any other young Elizabethan. In 1589 he was imprisoned after a swordfight in Shoreditch which resulted in the death of Wiliam Bradley, an innkeeper's son."
~Charles Nicholl's The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe published in 1992 by the University of Chicago Press

"On Hog Lane between two and three o'clock on the afternoon of 18 September 1589, Marlowe was fighting with an innkeeper's son named William Bradley. It is not stated who started the fight, not what weapons were being used. It may have been a deadly duel, or it may have been little more than a scuffle after an alcoholic lunch. As they fought, the people in the street raised a 'clamour'. Thomas Watson now appeared on the scene. Seeing the two men fighting, he drew his sword and intervened. He later claimed that he did so to 'seperate them' and to 'preserve the Queen's peace'. At this point Marlowe drew back and took no further part in the fight.

Bradley turned to Watson. He saw him with sword drawn. "Art thou now come?' he shouted. 'Then I will have a bout with thee!'

Instantly he 'leapt upon' Watson and 'then and there, with a sword and dagger of iron and steel, he struck, wounded, and maltreated said Thomas Watson so that there was fear for his life.' Watson defended himself, but was driven back and retreated as far as the ditch that ran along the roadside. Still Bradley came at him. Watson, unable to retreat any further, then struck Bradley with his sword. The point of the sword penetrated six inches into the right side of Bradley's chest. From this wound, William Bradley 'then and there instantly died'."
~Charles Nicholl's The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe published in 1992 by the University of Chicago Pres

Other Accounts and Notes about Marlowe's life
"In 1592, again in Shoreditch, he was bound over to 'keep the peace'. A few months later, on a street corner in Cantebury, he fought a tailor named Corkine 'with a staff and dagger'.
~Charles Nicholl's The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe published in 1992 by the University of Chicago Pres

Christopher Marlowe was later killed in Deptford under questionable circumstances.

His unfinished poem Hero and Leander was published in 1598 by Edward Blount, the same Blount that published George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense in 1599.

The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl is an excellent book detailing the Elizabethan Period and the mysterious death of Christopher Marlowe.
The Reckoning on Amazon.com