Nobles, Knights and Men-at-Arms in the Middle Ages

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The literature of chivalry and of courtly love has left an indelible impression on western ideas. What is less clear is how far the contemporary warrior aristocracy took this literature to heart and how far its ideals had influence in practice, especially in war. This collection of articles deals with both the ideas of chivalry and the reality of warfare. The author discusses brotherhood-in-arms, courtly love, crusades, heraldry, knighthood, the law of arms, tournaments and the nature of actual brutality of medieval warfare and the lure of plunder. While the standards set by chivalric codes undoubtedly had a real, if tangible, influence on the behaviour of contemporaries, chivalry's idealization of the knight errant also enhanced the attraction of war, endorsing its horrors with a veneer of acceptability.