So, ignoring the former mayor’s poor attempt at humor by using the word “documentary,” Giuliani’s defense for alluding to medieval acts of violence is he saw it on Game of Thrones?
Trial by combat occurred twice in Game of Thrones, with both instances involving Tyrion Lannister, as played by Peter Dinklage in the series. It’s unclear which scene Giuliani is referring to, but the earliest occurred in the first season when, wrongfully accused of planning Bran Stark’s murder, Tyrion is forced to demand Trial by Combat for a fair “trial” in the Eyrie. In that instance, a mercenary named Bronn (Jerome Flynn) agrees to defend the besmirched Lannister for coin and the opportunity of advancement. In Season 4, Tyrion is again wrongfully accused of a crime—this time the murder of his boy-king nephew—and again demands a trial by combat when faced with a biased judge. This time, however, his champion Prince Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) fails to win the trial, and has his head crushed like a melon.
Tyrion is promptly sentenced to death.
Whether Trump’s lawyer was thinking of Bronn or Oberyn, either way Giuliani’s excuse for his language is to reference a fantasy television series in which crude medieval combat is used as a substitute for actual legal recourse. He is referencing fictional sequences where a feudal society literally endorses the concept of “might makes right.”
In our actual reality, trial by combat dates back to around the eighth century in central Europe. Popular in the Germanic lands and some European courts through the 1500s, and a precursor to the Code Duello, these duels were a barbaric way of settling disputes in the absence of legal recourse.
