a person who undertakes a combat in the place or cause of another; and sometimes it denotes one who fights a duel in his own cause. Champions properly were persons who fought instead of those who by custom were obliged to accept the duel, but had a just excuse for dispensing with it, as being too old or infirm, &c. Such causes as could not be decided by the course of common law were often tried by single combat; and the victor was always reputed to have justice on his side. Trial by wager of battle was suppressed by St Louis in 1270.

CHAMPION of the King, an officer whose duty it is at the coronation of the English kings to ride armed cap-a-pie into Westminster Hall, while the king is banqueting there, and by the proclamation of a herald to make a challenge, "that if any man shall deny the king's title to the crown, he is there ready to defend it in single combat;" after which the king drinks to him, and sends him a gilt cup full of wine, which the champion drinks, retaining the cup as his fee. This office at the coronation of Richard II., when Baldwin Ferrville exhibited his petition for it, was adjudged from him to his competitor Sir John Dymocke, both claiming descent from Marmion; and it has continued ever since in the family of the Dymockes, who hold the manor of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire hereditarily from the Marmions by grand serjeantry, namely that the lord of the manor shall be the champion of the king. At the coronation of George IV. in 1821, W. Dymocke being in orders, his place was supplied by his eldest son.