The Chivalric Turn


Book Description

Historians have tended to understand medieval conduct through the eyes of Enlightenment historians, seeing superior conduct as 'knightly' behaviour, categorising it as chivalry. This book shows what superior lay conduct was in Europe before chivalry, and maps how and why chivalry emerged and redefined superior conduct in the late twelfth century.




The Chivalric Turn


Book Description

The Chivalric Turn examines the medieval obsession with defining and practising superior conduct, and the social consequences that followed from it. Historians since the seventeenth century have tended to understand medieval conduct through the eyes of the writers of the Enlightenment, viewing superior conduct as 'knightly' behaviour, and categorising it as chivalry. Using, for the first time, the full range of the considerable twelfth- and thirteenth-century literature on conduct in the European vernaculars and in Latin, The Chivalric Turn describes and defines what superior lay conduct was in European society before chivalry, and maps how and why chivalry emerged and redefined superior conduct in the last generation of the twelfth century. The emergence of chivalry was only one part of a major social change, because it changed how people understood the concept of nobility, which had consequences for the medieval understanding of gender, social class, violence, and the limits of law.




Chivalry and the Ideals of Knighthood in France during the Hundred Years War


Book Description

Craig Taylor's study examines the wide-ranging French debates on the martial ideals of chivalry and knighthood during the period of the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). Faced by stunning military disasters and the collapse of public order, writers and intellectuals carefully scrutinized the martial qualities expected of knights and soldiers. They questioned when knights and men-at-arms could legitimately resort to violence, the true nature of courage, the importance of mercy, and the role of books and scholarly learning in the very practical world of military men. Contributors to these discussions included some of the most famous French medieval writers, led by Jean Froissart, Geoffroi de Charny, Philippe de Mézières, Honorat Bovet, Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier and Antoine de La Sale. This interdisciplinary study sets their discussions in context, challenging modern, romantic assumptions about chivalry and investigating the historical reality of debates about knighthood and warfare in late medieval France.




Forging Chivalric Communities in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur


Book Description

Forging Chivalric Communities in Marlory's Morte D'Arthur shows that Malory treats chivalry not as a static institution but as a dynamic, continually evolving ideal. Le Morte D'arthur is structured to trace how communities and individuals adapt or create chivalric codes for their own purposes; in turn, codes of chivalry shape groups and their customs. Knights' loyalties are torn not just between lords and lovers but also between the different codes of chivalry and between different communities. Women, too, choose among the different roles they are asked to play as queens, counsellors, and even quasi-knights.




A Companion to Chivalry


Book Description

A comprehensive study of every aspect of chivalry and chivalric culture.




A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry


Book Description

On the great influence of a valiant lord: "The companions, who see that good warriors are honored by the great lords for their prowess, become more determined to attain this level of prowess." On the lady who sees her knight honored: "All of this makes the noble lady rejoice greatly within herself at the fact that she has set her mind and heart on loving and helping to make such a good knight or good man-at-arms." On the worthiest amusements: "The best pastime of all is to be often in good company, far from unworthy men and from unworthy activities from which no good can come." Enter the real world of knights and their code of ethics and behavior. Read how an aspiring knight of the fourteenth century would conduct himself and learn what he would have needed to know when traveling, fighting, appearing in court, and engaging fellow knights. Composed at the height of the Hundred Years War by Geoffroi de Charny, one of the most respected knights of his age, A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry was designed as a guide for members of the Company of the Star, an order created by Jean II of France in 1352 to rival the English Order of the Garter. This is the most authentic and complete manual on the day-to-day life of the knight that has survived the centuries, and this edition contains a specially commissioned introduction from historian Richard W. Kaeuper that gives the history of both the book and its author, who, among his other achievements, was the original owner of the Shroud of Turin.




Holy Warriors


Book Description

The medieval code of chivalry demanded that warrior elites demonstrate fierce courage in battle, display prowess with weaponry, and avenge any strike against their honor. They were also required to be devout Christians. How, then, could knights pledge fealty to the Prince of Peace, who enjoined the faithful to turn the other cheek rather than seek vengeance and who taught that the meek, rather than glorious fighters in tournaments, shall inherit the earth? By what logic and language was knighthood valorized? In Holy Warriors, Richard Kaeuper argues that while some clerics sanctified violence in defense of the Holy Church, others were sorely troubled by chivalric practices in everyday life. As elite laity, knights had theological ideas of their own. Soundly pious yet independent, knights proclaimed the validity of their bloody profession by selectively appropriating religious ideals. Their ideology emphasized meritorious suffering on campaign and in battle even as their violence enriched them and established their dominance. In a world of divinely ordained social orders, theirs was blessed, though many sensitive souls worried about the ultimate price of rapine and destruction. Kaeuper examines how these paradoxical chivalric ideals were spread in a vast corpus of literature from exempla and chansons de geste to romance. Through these works, both clerics and lay military elites claimed God's blessing for knighthood while avoiding the contradictions inherent in their fusion of chivalry with a religion that looked back to the Sermon on the Mount for its ethical foundation.




Thirteenth Century England XVIII


Book Description

Essays exploring and problematizing the idea of an "exceptional" England within Western Europe during the long thirteenth century. The theme of this volume, "Exceptional England", follows on from that of the previous one, "England in Europe". Both respond to two long-term historiographical trends among British medievalists: to place England and Britain in a wider European context, and, conversely, to emphasise the differences between developments in England and those elsewhere, either explicitly or implicitly. The essays here, in tackling aspects of political, religious, cultural and urban history, are often concerned with shifts that transcend the "national" because they are driven by forces operating on a European, or at least a western European, scale. A number bring developments in England into conversation with those in other regions, turning not only to France, a traditional comparator, but also ranging further, using Poland, Italy, Spain and Hungary as points of comparison. Others problematise England's boundaries by considering the fates of people caught between worlds as English continental possessions shrank. If England emerges in these essays as rather less "exceptional", some of the contributions highlight its unusually rich sources, suggesting ways in which these riches might illuminate the history of Europe in the long thirteenth century more generally. Particular subjects addressed include the fortunes of the knightly class, the dynamics of episcopal election, and models of child kingship, along with new studies of Gerald of Wales and Simon de Montfort.




Knighthood and Society in the High Middle Ages


Book Description

In popular imagination few phenomena are as strongly associated with medieval society as knighthood and chivalry. At the same time, and due to a long tradition of differing national perspectives and ideological assumptions, few phenomena have continued to be the object of so much academic debate. In this volume leading scholars explore various aspects of knightly identity, taking into account both commonalities and particularities across Western Europe. Knighthood and Society in the High Middle Ages addresses how, between the eleventh and the early thirteenth centuries, knighthood evolved from a set of skills and a lifestyle that was typical of an emerging elite habitus, into the basis of a consciously expressed and idealised chivalric code of conduct. Chivalry, then, appears in this volume as the result of a process of noble identity formation, in which some five key factors are distinguished: knightly practices, lineage, crusading memories, gender roles, and chivalric didactics.




The H.D. Book


Book Description

Unpublished early version of Duncan's book