Chivalry

by Maurice Keen

Book Overview

Chivalry--"with its pageants, heraldry, and knights in shining armor--"was a social ideal that had a profound influence on the history of early modern Europe. In this eloquent and richly detailed book, a leading medieval historian discusses the complex reality of chivalry: its secular foundations, the effects of the Crusades, the literature of Knighthood, and its ethos of the social and moral obligations of nobility.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300031505
• ISBN13: 9780300031508
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The best book on the subject

Far from knights errant in shining armour, Keen shows the reality of the life of a medieval nobleman in the Middle Ages. His scholarship is first-rate as he explains the origins, purpose, pagentry and mythology surrounding the medieval social ideal. Very interesting and highly recommended.

The best introduction into Chivalry you can get

This book delivers a very thorough description of chivalry, beginning with a very good explanation how and when chivalry started. It also delivers a superb definition about what chivalry reaaly is, or what it was supposed to be. Alas, the only thing missing is more pictures - then it would be the definite book about chivalry. As it is now, it is "only" the best introduction to the matter you can possibly get.

A MAGNIFICENT BOOK!

This solid volume is one of the best works on the complex institutions of chivalry and knighthood that I at least have ever seen. It is a very erudite work crammed with interesting information and written in an intelligent but readable style. Mr. Keen presents an argument for the reality of chivalric values that seems very convincing and well- researched. If you are at all interested in knighthood or European history, buy this book!

Excellent analysis of "real" (historical) chivalry

Like all of Maurice Keen's books, this one is insightful, well-written, and based on thorough scholarship. This is the place to start a study of the subject.

*The* book on this subject

Noted Oxford historian Maurice Keen's "Chivalry" is probably the best place to start and finish on the subject of chivalry. Accessible for both students and those that would continue their studies more leisurely, Prof. Keen's work is an intersting read, very knowledgable, and wideranging. Simply put, it is a must if you are interested in the real history of the subject and not the doggerel that Hollywood shovels our way.