Drawing on recent work in anthropology, social history and the sociology of masculinity, the article suggests that state-formation involves both a fundamental shift in the social structure of gender and a more specific politicization of masculinity. In the English case this politicization was both dynamic and multi-faceted, but one of its key outcomes was the gradual erosion of aristocratic masculinities which enjoyed dominance prior to the late medieval period, and the development of bourgeois masculinities which became hegemonic during the 19th century. Like state-building itself, both in England and across Europe, this broad contest between aristocratic and bourgeois masculinities took a variety of forms and waxed and waned in intensity during the period from the 16th to the 19th century, although it was sharpened considerably both by the onset of industrialization and by the expansion and consolidation of the British Empire. The article suggests that such contests throughout the period were also played out within the law itself and within the state and its legal and administrative apparatus. The article uses the case of dueling in England to illustrate some of the political, legal and ideological manifestations of the interactions between competing constructs of masculinity. Notes, references