Hamilton–Mohun duel

[2]: 18  Hamilton had recently been appointed as British Ambassador to Paris where he was expected to negotiate the peace agreement that would end the War of the Spanish Succession.

Mohun's political patron the Duke of Marlborough had recently been dismissed from his command, and was strongly opposed to the peace plan.

[4]: 20  Based on Hamilton's testimony, Tories in Parliament portrayed the whole affair as a Whig plot designed to derail the prospective peace agreement with France.

He received a much lesser punishment than he might potentially have been given because the jury accepted his claim that he had not known a duel was to take place when he arrived at the park.

[2]: 20  While dueling continued to be a popular way of settling disputes during the eighteenth century, fresh conventions developed such as the use of pistols rather than swords.

[2]: 116 The duel forms the basis for a scene in William Makepeace Thackeray's 1852 novel The History of Henry Esmond.