Twelve of England

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In the waning years of the fourteenth century, the household of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster was scandalized when twelve petulant English knights publicly mocked the twelve ladies-in-waiting to the Duke's wife, calling them ugly to their faces. Outraged, the ladies sought immediate redress, but so fearsome were the knights' reputations that none would step forward. Desperate for help, the Duke appealed to his son-in-law King Joao I of Portugal to find champions ready to fight for the ladies' honor. Enter the 'Twelve of England,' a band of battle-hardened Portuguese knights. Led by the redoubtable Alvaro Gonçalves Coutinho, known as 'Magriço,' or 'The Lean One,' these twelve fearless men set out for England to fight the English knights in judicial combat, prepared to shed their blood to save the honour of ladies they had never met. Such tales of valour and derring-do, which often hinge on the notion of a team of warriors venturing into hostile territory on a quest for vengeance or redress set against a sweeping historical backdrop, have captured the imagination of audiences through the ages, from Jason and the Argonauts to Lieutenant Aldo Raine and the 'Inglorious Basterds.'

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