Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Last Duel. “Do you swear on your life that what you say is true?” This question, posed to Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer), encapsulates the true history behind The Last Duel, director Ridley Scott’s new film opening in theaters Oct. 15. Based on the 2004 book of the same name by Eric Jager, a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles and a specialist in medieval literature, the film uses its titular event—the last judicial duel in French history, held in Paris in December 1386—to delve deeply into the Middle Ages’ complex politics of gender, female agency, religious morality and sexual ethics. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] At the heart of The Last Duel lies a historical mystery, still not definitively solved over 600 years later: was the noblewoman Marguerite de Carrouges raped by the squire Jacques Le Gris?