Throughout history there are many accounts of duels being fought over a woman, but not many about duels between women.

Photo by Pavel Kurmilev
When they did occur they even had a special nomenclature petticoat duels. Historical accounts in France say that women fought each other for matters such as a case of actresses dueling over “graceless conduct on stage”. Another account is about dueling high society ladies over “their placement of precedence at a soiree”. In 1792 the first duel between women in England took place between Lady Braddock and a Mrs. Elphinstone when the latter claimed Braddock was lying about her age.

The tale I want to tell you about though takes place in the capital of Lichtenstein - Vaduz, on the 23rd of August, 1892.

56 year old Princess Pauline Metternich was the Honorary President of the Vienna Musical and Theatrical Exhibition and Countess Anastasia Kielmannsegg (age unknown but was born in Russia) was the actual President.

Now these two ladies had been rivals for a while it seems. The Countess apparently had a gift for arranging parties and soirees such as these, always receiving much praise for how entertaining her events were. To the Princess it appeared that Anastasia was stealing her thunder, SHE should be getting that praise.

During the planning of the exhibition gala in Vienna the topic of flower arrangements came up, and both of these ladies could not come at an agreement. The argument got them both in such an uproar it led to arms.

Usually the ladies would choose a champion to fight for them, but times were changing and these independent ladies would settle it womano-a-womano. In addition they chose Baroness Lubinska, a woman from Poland with a degree in medicine – very rare back then, to oversee the duel as surgeon. She actually had to travel all the way from her country to attend, and the duelists and company traveled to Vaduz from Vienna, probably to escape the law in Austria. That’s how serious they were.

For a duel each participant would choose a second, someone who would watch over the duel to catch rule breaking. Metternich chose Princess Schwarzenberg and Kielmannsegg chose Countess Kinsky. Since everyone involved was female, this duel became a first in history, and is known as the first “emancipated duel”.

All the rules of a duel were followed, the seconds tried to get the two duelers to make amends to each other but neither lady would do such a thing. The rules of this duel were decided upon, using rapiers they would fight to first blood.

An early 20th century magazine illustration of the first "emancipated duel"
Baroness Lubinska knew that most wounds became infected by dirty clothing being pushed into the wound, so she suggested that both women remove their tops. There were some male servants there, wagon drivers and such, but they were told to go a far ways off and turn their backs. The duelists disrobed down to the waist and began the fight.
Contemporary French postcard showing a dramatic parry
Reports state that the first two rounds were trifling matters with poor thrusts, but in the third round a wild slash managed to slightly wound the Princess on her nose, drawing blood. The Countess, upon seeing what she had done, dropped her sword and placed both hands upon her cheeks in shock. The Princess meanwhile thrust forward and pierced her forearm. Hearing the screams, the male attendants ran back but were chased off by Baroness Lubinska as she yelled “Avert your eyes, avert your eyes—you lustful wretches!”