Relating to this thread: Has an important battle ever been decided by single combat? - The Straight Dope
I just thought I’d point out another example of a duel not taking place, although offered by one side: BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush challenged to 'duel' with Saddam
King Arthur engages in single combat with a hostile Irish king in Thomas Berger’s Arthur Rex, on an open field between their two armies. Arthur’s sword Excalibur is so sharp, and his reflexes so fast, that the Irish king doesn’t know he’s beaten until Arthur steps back and says, “Nod your head, my lord.” The Irishman does, and his head promptly falls off. The Irish army moans in despair, then kneels as one and swears fealty to Arthur.
There was single combat between two champions in one of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books; I forget which one.
I suspect you are thinking of the Trial by Combat on behalf of Tyrion Lannister, between The Mountain and the Viper of Dorne.
Well, there was that, but didn’t Strong Belwas fight a single champion of some foe of Daenarys’s, as the two armies faced off?
Ah, yes… Forgot about that one. I don’t remember the name of the city or the champion, but it was one of the Slaver cities. A much better example of your idea.
ETA It was Mereen… The champion was [Oznak zo Pahl](http:// awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Oznak_zo_Pahl)
I have nothing to add, except: Titus Manlius? Seriously? Sounds like he was born into it.
This guy, supposedly.
Those cites are all fictional, and while they’re entertaining stories, there’s no pretence of historical reality. The question posed in the column was whether there was any factual basis behind such stories.
He hathe a wife, you know… 
From Cecil’s column:
No, I don’t believe this incident actually occurred. Just to be sure, I checked with a friend who is quite an expert in Thai history, and his response: “I always read that — like most of Thai history with Burma — it is totally made up.”
And as for that last part, about conquering “much of Southeast Asia,” well, how much is “much of”? Certainly not most of Southeast Asia. None at all of island Southeast Asia – not Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, island Malaysia, present-day Singapore (not much to Singapore at the time), none of these. Much of mainland Southeast Asia was probably untouched by him. Not Vietnam. Not mainland Malaysia, at least not below the very northern fringes, if that. Probably the Lao kingdoms weren’t much troubled by him. I believe he concentrated pretty much on present-day Thailand and arch enemy Burma. He did manage a quickie invasion of present-day Cambodia, but the Siamese army he left behind to rule the country was driven out just a year or two later.
The following seems to me more plausible than Patton and Rommel agreeing to slug it out in the Sahara, but it’s fiction, from C. S. Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces.
The two sons of the late King of Phars have each raised an army and are fighting a civil war that will decide which will succeed to the throne. After a skirmish one of them is forced to flee to the neighboring kingdom of Glome, whose reigning Queen sympathises with his side but can’t afford to get involved in the war. She challenges the guy’s brother to a duel with swords. If he kills her, her government will hand over the refugee and condone their incursion into Glome. He of course expects to defeat her, a mere woman, and after some episode in the recent past his personal courage was questioned, so he can’t afford to decline. Some pages later, after she’s killed him, no further question remains about succession to that particular throne.
I’m astonished no mention was made of the biblical encounter between David and Goliath. It’s so universally known I’d expect at least a preemptive rebuttal.
It’s mentioned in the second paragraph of Cecil’s column. I think they’re looking for genuine ones though, not fictional.
Canute and Edmund.
Or you know, what Cecil said in paragraph 7.
a different, more modern take where the last man standing inflicted many enemy casualties & scared the outnumbering enemy away while capturing a battalion’s worth:
leo major town holland
But not related to the actual phenomenon: and agreed duel of champions to settle a battle.
Your example is more properly exemplar of a different combat trope.
Edmund Ironside? Nobody knows exactly how he bought it, but it almost certainly wasn’t in single combat with Cnut. He may have died from wounds suffered in battle, but not until some time after signing a treaty dividing England.
One apocryphal tale does tie in to Tyrion and GoT though. In which he was said to have been assassinated with a crossbow while taking a dump. I suspect that is pretty likely where Martin got that idea.
ETA: 2012? Damn it!