They ensure that non-violent means of reaching agreement are exhausted and that harm is reduced, both by limiting the terms of engagement and by providing medical care.
The witnesses could assure grieving members of factions of the fairness of the duel, and could help provide testimony if legal authorities become involved.
It was common for the constables to set aside such places and times and spread the information, so that bystanders could avoid the location and stay out of harm's way.
While many modern accounts dwell heavily on "first blood" as the condition, manuals of honour from the day universally deride the practice as dishonorable and unmanly.
When the condition was achieved, the matter was considered settled with the winner proving their point and the loser keeping their reputation for courage.
Dueling with firearms grew in popularity in the 18th century, especially with the adoption of the Irish Code Duello in 1777 at the Clonmel Summer Assizes.
This custom was used when one or both duelists wished to end a dispute without inflicting bodily harm or appearing cowardly; the Irish code forbade the practice because it often resulted in accidental injury.
In 1838, former governor of South Carolina John Lyde Wilson published The Code of Honor; or Rules for the Government of Principals and Seconds in Dueling.
Just a few years after it was promulgated, many people wrote rather forcefully that the Irish Code was far too deadly for the necessary business of discovering social positions among the military gentry.
Pugilism had been growing in popularity and technique in Venice since 12th century, and in England since 1615, when a London armsmaster began offering public lessons in fisticuffs to the gentry.
The authorities began to allow prize matches and amateur boxing under this new rule system when John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, endorsed its use.
[1] The stereotypical quick draw duel seen in many Western films were, in part, from the traditional code duello of the South brought by Southern emigrants.
Typical Western duels were a crude form of Southern code duello; they were highly formalized means of solving disputes between gentlemen, with swords or guns, that had their origins in European chivalry.
[3][2][4][5] The first known quick-draw duel was conducted by a Southern man named Davis Tutt against Wild Bill Hickok on July 21, 1865.