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 most crucial issues in current research are debated in the latest volume in the series. The essays collected here provide fresh insight into a range of important topics across the period. They discuss religion([both orthodox, as revealed by the lives of anchoresses living in Norwich, and heretical, as practised by lollards living in Coventry); politics (exploring the motivations of individuals seeking election to parliament, and how the way Cade's Rebellion was recorded by contemporaries affected its subsequent perception); law (whether it may be deduced from manorial court rolls that lawyers were employed by peasants, and an examination of the process of peace-making in feuds on the Scottish border); national, ethnic and political identity in the British Isles; social ranking and chivalry (in particular knighthood in Scotland); and verse (a consideration of the poem Lydgate addressed to Thomas Chaucer, and the occasion of its composition). Contributors: JACKSON W. ARMSTRONG, JACQUELYN FERNHOLTZ, TONY GOODMAN, DAVID GRUMMITT, CAROLE HILL, MAUREEN JURKOWSKI, JENNI NUTTALL, SIMON PAYLING, ANDREA RUDDICK, KATIE STEVENSON, MATTHEW TOMPKINS

Considers how elite women could participate in Crusade, their means and motivations. The popular perception of the medieval Crusades is of conflicts spanning from the Holy Land to the Baltic, with huge armies of religious zealots led by knights wearing crosses. However, the reality is far more nuanced. The vast majority of those living in western Europe did not go on crusade at all. But that does not mean that crusading was not on their minds, or that they could not influence the movement. They urged others to take up the cross, provided financial support, and prayed for the campaigns in the Holy Land; for them, this was crusade. This book investigates how English laywomen were encouraged to support crusades and identify with holy war during the Middle Ages, challenging preconceptions of what crusade "meant", and bringing out the diverse ways of their participation. It draws on detailed analysis of cartularies, judicial records, chronicles and lyrical sources; it also examines the rich material culture of commemoration that celebrated the endeavour, alongside the papal propaganda which idealised women's sponsorship of crusade. This study therefore sheds new light not only on the role of women in crusade, but on their influence and piety more generally.

This book describes and explains the conditions and changes happening in Germany from 1050-1200.

Craig Taylor examines French debates on the martial ideals of chivalry and knighthood during the Hundred Years War.

This work considers how chivalry was interpreted in 15th century Scotland and how it compared with European ideas of chivalry; the resposibilities of knighthood in this period and the impact on political life; the chivalric literature and the relevance of Christian components of chivalric culture.

This book theorizes aesthetic classroom management through a hermeneutical approach with three fields of literature: history and philosophical foundations of chivalry, chivalry’s promulgation through the Victorian Age, and parallel issues of identity in twenty-first century teacher education. The aim of the book is to examine the relationship between chivalric ethos and education. The presented case study addresses more specifically the following question: how can chivalry be re-imagined or theorized in an educational setting? Few studies address the concept of aesthetics and hermeneutical context in American classroom management and classroom life, and Attwood pinpoints and traces the medieval social concept of chivalry through the centuries and argues it has manifested itself in classroom social construction in the twenty-first century.

Every aspect of "courtly culture" comes to life in Joachim Bumke's extraordinarily rich and well-documented presentation. A renowned medievalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of original sources and a passion for history, Bumke overlooks no detail, from the material realities of aristocratic society -- the castles and clothing, weapons and transportation, food, drink, and table etiquette -- to the behavior prescribed and practiced at tournaments, knighting ceremonies, and great princely feasts. The courtly knight and courtly lady, and the transforming idea of courtly love, are seen through the literature that celebrated them, and we learn how literacy among an aristocratic laity spread from France through Germany and became the basis of a cultural revolution. At the same time, Bumke clearly challenges those who have comfortably confused the ideals of courtly culture with their expression in courtly society.

Did women really constitute a `fourth estate' in medieval society and, if so, in what sense? In this wide-ranging study Shulamith Shahar considers this and the whole question of the varying attitudes to women and their status in western Europe between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries.

Includes genealogical charts of kings and noblemen associated with the search for the grail.