Chapter 524: Tree Hill High School
Tuesday, February 21st, Morning
She watched the class settle into their desks and she checked the students as they were bored. They didn't understand the importance of history, it was the story of us, and as George Santayana said that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. There are people that want to re-write history or erase it, and to her she took that as very George Orwell. Eric Blair was a writer, but he understood people. Once the bell rang, she stood up and walked over to the door, closing it off from the hall.
Doctor Cassidy Shayla "Shay" O'Brien, Ed. D, MA, BA looked over the class before heading towards the white board. She is a tall woman, with light sandy brown hair, and brown eyes. She dressed conservatively for her job, with a knee length skirt, a white blouse, and black sweater. Shay smiled and looked over the class, this was her World History class, the one class that was a junior level class she taught.
Shay noticed Gareth Reuter sitting in his seat, he had returned from his suspension. Shay had heard about his fight with Jackin Rothenburg. She wanted to find out what caused it, as it didn't sound like something Gareth would do. Fortunately, Gareth was in her class just before lunch. Shay also noted he's distracted, which for Gareth was highly unusual, as history is supposedly his favorite subject.
Shay went to the whiteboard and wrote on it: December 29, 1386, the last judicial duel takes place in France in the form of trail by combat. She turned and looked at the class.
"Hello class," Shay said, "Micky, what did I wrote on the whiteboard?"
"December 29, 1386, the last judicial duel takes place in France in the form of trail by combat," Micky said.
"Yes, thanks Micky," Shay said, "This actually happened, and was a legal thing, by this time the legal duel, or trail by combat was starting to fall out of favor. Now for some context, 1386 takes place during the Hundred Years' War, during a lull in the fighting, where it largely turned into a proxy war. Charles VI of France, or Charles the Beloved or Charles the Mad sat on the French throne he was just eighteen years old. Richard of Bordeaux, or Richard II of England, sat on the throne. Both were rather weak rulers and boy kings, but both had reached their majority at this time. Yes, Peter?"
"Dr. O'Brien, what does this have to do with anything?" Peter asked.
"I'm setting context, Peter, history doesn't happen in a vacuum, everything needs to be set in context," Shay said, "So, the question is what happened here? Well, the context is this is a militarized culture, men are judged by their martial ability. War changes things, and men were often used to solving things with violence. There are two schools of thought about why this happened, one it was over lang and influence, and two a woman. I'm personally of the school that number one is the most correct, and two was just a means to an end to get one."
"How was it over a woman, Dr. O'Brien?" Mae, a student in the back, asked.
"The duel took place in Paris. But the duelists were from Normandy. One of the participants of the dual Jean de Carrouges IV was trying to get lands but the local count sided with Jacques Le Gris, a favorite of the count. Some of these lands were lands that belonged to de Carrouges new wife Marguerite de Thibouville. During the suits and counter suits an incident happened where Marguerite was left home alone, and allegedly Le Gris visited the castle. The net some of it was Marguerite accused Le Gris of raping her. Charges were brought to the count and he sided with Le Gris. De Carrouges appealed to the King and instead of going through the legal process. De Carrouges challenged Le Gris to a judicial duel, or a trail by combat. The winner would be vindicated, and the loser would be dead, and if De Carrouges lost Marguerite would be burned at the stake, the charge would be perjury," Shay said, she looked around the classroom.
Finally, she reached for tablet on the desk and pressed a button. The screen came to life and an illustration of a building came up on the screen. "This is the Abbey of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, where in the jousting arena was where the duel took place. It was like watching the UFC or Wrestling, people came to witness this divine justice. The duel was brutal and, in the end, de Carrouges killed Le Gris. This in the legal terms of the day made de Carrouges and Marguerite were in the right. In the end de Carrouges ended up with money, investments, and a position in the royal household, but the property he wanted to reclaim he never got," Shay said, and changed the screen.
"So, my question is, was this fight over the property, or the woman? Was Marguerite just a pawn in the game? Remember this is the late Middle Ages, and women did have some rights, but men had more, and once married a woman lost her rights and property to her husband. In the end someone died to prove charges," Shay said, and looked at her class.
She walked behind her desk and sat down. Looking over the class she rested the tablet on the desktop. A student raised their hand.
"Yes, Lina?" Shay asked.
"Why didn't they believe her?" Lina asked.
"Like court cases today their needs to be evidence, which was largely he said she said, in this case. Also, two things were held against her, one, she's a woman, and her testimony was weaker than a man's, and two, the man hearing the charges was a friend of Le Gris," Shay said, she stood up, and walked around, "Things do get better over time, but they haven't come far enough. It was only in 1920 that women were given the universal right to vote in the US. It took eight more years for full voting rights in the UK. Just look at things in living memory we've seen the expansion of rights for LGBTQ+ community," Shay nodded, and looked over to the picture of Abbey of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, "Somethings remain the same. Remember history is a story, it's our story, and we shouldn't run from it."
Shay got up and walked in front of her desk. She heard the click of her heeled knee length boots on the tiled floor. Shay started walking up and down the aisles. She stopped by Gareth's desk, and noticed he put in his ear buds, and was listening to something. Shay nodded; she knew the song. Quickly, Shay wrote a note and slid it to Gareth. He picked it up and read it.
Finally, Shay arrived at the front of the classroom. She looked the room over. "We should know our story, so we can learn from it," Shay said, "Also, if we judge people by today's standards they will never measure up. De Carrouges by today's standards would be consider rather abusive, and probably a bad person. But in his time, he was probably considered a normal person. This was a time of hardmen."
A student raised their hand.
Shay turned to look at the student. "Yes, Marne?" she asked.
"What was a woman's role at this time?" Marne asked.
"A baby factory," Shay said, silent, just as the bell rang. Shay nodded, and watched the students leave the room.
Shay stood at the front of her desk. Gareth walked over to her, and held up the note, which read Mr. Reuter, please see me before going to lunch, I'd like to talk.
He took the earbuds out of his ears. They looked at each and Shay nodded.
"What are you listening to?" Shay asked.
"A playlist a friend made," Gareth said.
"Who made the list?" Shay asked.
"Sawyer," Gareth said, and held up the phone. Shay looked at his smartphone and looked at the songs. She nodded; she was right about the song.
"Gareth," Shay said.
Gareth was out lost. Shay turned to see Sawyer Scott walked into the room, the younger girl walked to Gareth and handed him a brown bag.
"Gar, you left this in my locker again," Sawyer said, and Gareth took the bag and nodded.
Shay cleared her throat. The two teens looked at Shay.
"Sawyer," Shay said, "Gareth and I were in discussion about class."
Sawyer nodded, "Sorry, Dr. O'Brien," Sawyer said, and started to walk away.
"Gareth," Shay said, "What's on your mind?"
Gareth was silent. Shay tried to follow Gareth's gaze. With a nod, Shay knew what the issue was, Sawyer.
Shay cleared her throat again. Finally, Gareth turned and looked at Shay and spoked.
"It's her, it's always her. It's why Jackin and I got into that fight. She—she deserves better than someone who'd treat her like an object!" Gareth said.
Shay nodded, a high school crush. "Is she worth defending?" she asked.
"I think so," he croaks out, "I can't stop thinking about her. I'm in love with my best friend, Dr. O'Brien!"
Shay smiled, "Who better to love?" she asked.
"No one," Gareth whispered in reply, "No one."
Shay nodded, "Go eat your lunch," she said.
Gareth nodded and left the room. Shay sighed and looked out the window.
