champ clos

plural champs clos

1. A field officially set aside for the fighting of a knightly duel or tournament: the area enclosed by the lists.

   A municipal champ clos was always raised in the market-place; that of an ecclesiastical seigneur as near as possible to the church; and, in the latter case, the lists were often permanent.

   1871, “Trial by Battle”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume 13, number 2, page 173

   2 more examples

   Such was their power that neither could forget His former friend, & future foe—but still There was a high, immortal, proud regret In either’s eye, as if ’twere less their will Than destiny to make the eternal years Their date of war, and their “Champ Clos” the Spheres.

   1822, Lord Byron, The Vision of Judgement, stanza 32

   In the knightly days single combats were confined to the champ clos, which was never granted where the quarrel was of a frivolous nature, and only the monarch himself, or some great noble the governor of a province, and so holding viceregal powers, had the authority to grant it.

   2012, Alfred Hutton, The Sword Through the Centuries