Title: Nobles, knights, and men-at-arms in the Middle Ages
First published: 1996
Description: The literature of chivalry and 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. These are questions that Maurice Keen, the author of Chivalry (1983), is uniquely qualified to answer.

This book is a collection of Maurice Keen's essays and deals with both the ideas of chivalry and the reality of warfare. He discusses brotherhood-in-arms, courtly love, crusades, heraldry, knighthood, the law of arms, tournaments and the nature of nobility, as well as describing the actual brutality of medieval warfare and the lure of plunder.

While the standards set by chivalric codes undoubtedly had a real, if intangible, influence on the behaviour of contemporaries, chivalry's idealisation of the knight errant also enhanced the attraction of war, endorsing its horrors with a veneer of acceptability.
Subjects: History, History, Military, Knights and knighthood, Medieval Military history, Military History, Military art and science, Military history, Medieval, Nobility, Nobility, great britain, Military art and science, history, Great britain, history, military, Great britain, history, medieval period, 1066-1485, Military art and science--history, Military art and science--history--medieval, 500-1500, Knights and knighthood--great britain, Nobility--great britain, Da60 .k44 1996, 355/.00941/0902
Places: Great Britain
Time periods: 1066-1485, Medieval, 500-1500, To 1500
LC classification: DA60 .K44 1996