<P> Proposals to abolish trial by battle were made in the 17th century and twice in the 18th but were unsuccessful . In 1774, as part of the legislative response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament considered a bill which would have abolished appeals of murder and trials by battle in the American colonies . It was successfully opposed by Member of Parliament John Dunning, who called the appeal of murder "that great pillar of the Constitution". Writer and MP Edmund Burke, on the other hand, supported the abolition, calling the appeal and wager "superstitious and barbarous to the last degree". </P> <P> The writ of right was the most direct way at common law of challenging someone's right to a piece of real property . The criminal appeal was a private criminal prosecution instituted by the accuser directly against the accused . It was not, unlike the contemporary appeal, a proceeding in a court of superior jurisdiction reviewing the proceedings of a lower court . </P> <P> Such a private prosecution was last conducted in the case of Ashford v Thornton in 1818 . Pronouncing judgement in favour of the accused's plea claiming the wager of battle, Justice Bayley of the King's Bench said that: </P> <P> One inconvenience attending this mode of proceeding is, that the party who institutes it must be willing, if required, to stake his life in support of his accusation . </P>

Who brought the idea of trial by combat to britain