Ben Jonson (playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare) entered into a duel with an actor named Gabriel Spenser in 1598—resulting in Jonson mortally stabbing Spenser with a sword. Dueling was illegal in England at this time, therefore Jonson was charged with murder, but he avoided the death penalty by pleading benefit of clergy, and was thus merely branded on the thumb.

>>24527971 (OP)
Reminds me of his drunk boasts recorded by William Drummond, that 'He beat Marston, and took his pistol from him' and that 'Drayton feared him'. Jonson must have been a scary fellow. Definitely one of the most interesting personalities of the era.

an obvious one, but william burroughs

>>24527971 (OP)
>inb4
He did write

DFW

>>24527971 (OP)
most authors who have gone to war, but you're obviously not looking for that.
rimbaud probably had to kill somebody during his arms dealer years.

>>24528027
He wrote first though.

Cervantes fought in the Battle of Lepanto, so he probably killed at least one Turk.

Elliot Rodger

>>24527971 (OP)
Guenon "neutralised" a guy who he thought was a wizard casting evil spells on him.
"Neutralised" is up for interpretation but it's more fun to assume that means murdered.

>After having been an apprentice bricklayer, Jonson went to the Netherlands and volunteered to soldier with the English regiments of Sir Francis Vere in Flanders. England was allied with the Dutch in their fight for independence as well as the ongoing war with Spain.
>The Hawthornden Manuscripts (1619), of the conversations between Ben Jonson and the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden,[1] report that, when in Flanders, Jonson engaged, fought and killed an enemy soldier in single combat, and took for trophies the weapons of the vanquished soldier.[11]
Based

>>24528245
>sets out to start incel revolution
>kills two chinese guys

Roald Dahl killed a few.
Norman Mailer probably bagged a jap at some point

Defoe may have killed government soldiers in his time as a rebel in the monmouth rebellion

>In 1359, in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, Edward invaded France. Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the English army. In 1360 he was captured during the siege of Rheims. The king paid £16 for his ransom,[19] a considerable sum equivalent to £14,557 in 2023,[20] and Chaucer was released
>The next year, Chaucer travelled to Picardy as part of a military expedition; in 1373 he visited Genoa and Florence
>In 1378 Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy (secret dispatch) to the Visconti and Sir John Hawkwood, English condottiere (mercenary leader) in Milan.[28] It has been speculated that it was Hawkwood on whom Chaucer based his character, the Knight, in the Canterbury Tales, for a description matches that of a 14th-century condottiere
Chaucer had to have killed someone

>>24527971 (OP)

>>24527971 (OP)
War kills shouldn't count because then the choices just increases exponentially

Goethe indirectly killed many young men with oneitis

>The book reputedly also led to some of the first known examples of copycat suicide, also known as the "Werther effect". The men were often dressed in the same clothing "as Goethe's description of Werther and using similar pistols." Often the book was found at the scene of the suicide.

>>24529227
KEKW

Villon
>On 5 June 1455, the first major recorded incident of his life occurred. While in the Rue Saint-Jacques in the company of a priest named Giles and a girl named Isabeau, he met a Breton named Jean le Hardi, a Master of Arts, who was also with a priest, Philippe Chermoye (or Sermoise or Sermaise). A scuffle broke out and daggers were drawn. Sermaise, who is accused of having threatened and attacked Villon and drawn the first blood, not only received a dagger-thrust in return, but a blow from a stone, which struck him down. He died of his wounds.

francois villon. the OG.

>>24527971 (OP)
Thomas Malory almost certainly killed more than one person. He was the leader of a bunch of cut-throats / housebreakers / highwaymen / whatever, and was in and out of prison all his life.

Best (for a given value of ‘best’) TM anecdote:—

According to contemporary court records, “ . . on May 23, 1450, Sir Thomas Malory raped the wife, Joan, of one Hugh Smyth, in Warwickshire.”

He was presumably fined or something. Or maybe imprisoned. But if he was imprisoned it can't have been for long. Why not?

Because, according to the contemporary court records, “ . . . on August 6, Malory raped said Joan again.”

Ernst Junger
Siegfried Sassoon
TE Lawrence

>>24527971 (OP)
Ammianus Marcellinus (330-400)
>Ammianus began his career as a military officer in the Praetorian Guard, where he gained firsthand experience in various military campaigns. He served as an officer in the army of the emperors Constantius II and Julian. He served in Gaul (Julian) and in the east (twice for Constantius, once under Julian).

>>24529391
He must have been an Anglo-Saxon BVLL. But I wonder how much of his actions can be explained away by the privileges afforded to Knights at the time. I'm sure he was still quite a masculine fellow by any age's standards.

>>24531012
>But I wonder how much of his actions can be explained away by the privileges afforded to Knights at the time. I'm sure he was still quite a masculine fellow by any age's standards.
England was basically a lawless free for all until the mid 1700s
The english were described by foreigners as lazy and violent but also strong and courageous