Where the Middle Ages Begin
The medieval English forest has long been a space of contested legal meanings. After King William I first created the 75,000-acre New Forest, the English monarchy sought to define the vert, both legally and ideologically, as a multiplicity of sites in which the king’s rights were vigorously enforced.
Among the spectacular Eastern hunting techniques which could become the object of interest and envy of the Europeans, one easily adapted to the natural conditions of Europe was undoubtedly the falconry. In fact, it became not only a great fancy of medieval and renaissance Europe, but also a kind of cross-cultural bridge across ideological gaps.
This book is the central one of Troilus and Criseyde’s five books, with the sexual union of Troilus with Criseyde forming the climax and turning-point of the entire plot-structure, condensed at the start of the work by Chaucer in the words “fro woe to wele and after out of joie.”
In my view, Criseyde’s inquiry about Troilus’s verbal skill in “luf talk” highlights more a problematic issue of Criseyde’s concern about a man’s “loves craft” than that of his class in society. As Chaucer’s narrator remarks in the proem of Book II (22-42), every human activity in love is governed by language conventions, expressive shortcuts that a community agrees to understand and honor…
This paper will explore and analyze strategic decision making by Edward III, King of England, and Philip VI, King of France, at the Battle of Crecy using the critical thinking model as a conceptual framework, in conjunction with egocentrism and sociocentrism as the two main cognitive frames of reference.
Pilgrimage, after Whitby, and before Vatican II, was a secular activity, a performance of piety by the laity, not by the clergy; although there were a few exceptions.7 Chaucer’s Monk, Friar, Prioress, Nun, Priest, Summoner, Pardoner and Parson ought not to be here. Their presence is outrageous comedy. Inns were forbidden to the cloistered clergy who, if they had to travel, were enjoined to stay in other monastic establishments along their route.
This little piece of buffoonery gives us a good idea of what knighthood had come to mean in the minds of many Italians by the late fourteenth century. For the Florentine judge, his knighthood was an honor which gave him the opportunity to dress up in a dazzling costume. It was a piece of merchandise he had purchased; nothing more. He had no sense of shame at his lack of bellica virtus.
Had the arms, armour and tactics of the tournament become so removed from actual warfare that the tournament was no longer able to provide valuable martial training and experiences?
Tristan and Isolde is an Arthurian legend, the origins of which predate Arthur’s Roundtable. Scholars generally agree that the story of Tristan and Isolde is Celtic in origin.
This study argues that horses and horsemanship played a crucial role in refashioning noble identity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France.
Consider the thought of being a medieval knight about to enter a joust. Imagine donning your armor, which weighs nearly half as much as you, and climbing onto your half-ton-plus warhorse. Feel the anticipation as you look down the course to your similarly equipped opponent and prepare to charge.
Edward was not a king who was renowned for his generosity. However, the loyalty of the knights to their master suggests that the rewards they received were adequate.
When and how did knights stop thinking they were going to hell?
The concept of knighthood began as a military strategy used to supply men to fight kings’ wars, but it gradually developed into the glamorized ideal of chivalry and became associated with virtuous behavior expected during times of both war and peace.
The famous/infamous European hero, crusader and voivod, Vlad “Tepes” Dracula III (1431-1476), was actually (for better or for worse) one of knightly peers of European Chivalry.
The Death of the Knight: Changes in Military Weaponry during the Tudor Period By David Schwope Academic Forum, Vol. 21 (2003-04) Abstract: The Tudor period was a time of great change; not only was the Renaissance a time of new philosophy, literature, and art, but it was a time of technological innovation as well. Henry […]
The use of trial by battle in the work of Sir Thomas Malory Enyon, Nadine Ruth(Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) M.A. Thesis, English, University of Saskatchewan (1974) Abstract In this thesis I will examine the use of trials by battle in the work of Sir Thomas Malory. In Chapter One, I will study the historical practice of judicial combat […]
Riding the Horse, Writing the Cultural Myth: The European Knight and the American Cowboy as Equestrian Heroes By Metin Boşnak and Cem Ceyhan Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, Vol.2:1 (2003) Introduction: Any comparative study of cultures will prove that virtually every culture has created its own hero according to its historico-cultural needs, characters, and […]
Teaching Knighthood and the Late Medieval Battlefield using the Knights of The Messenger By Matthieu Chan Tsin The Once and Future Classroom, Vol.7:1 (2009) Introduction: When Luc Besson and Sony released The Messenger in 1999, movie reviewers were quick to judge the director’s version of Joan of Arc’s story as historically inaccurate. However, the same […]
The Late Twelfth-Century Knightly Ethic in North-Western Europe in Life and in Literature By Ayşegül Keskin Master’s Thesis, Bilkent University, 2008 Abstract: By the end of the twelfth-century, a new type of literature had come into being in North-western Europe, combining an older warrior ethic with the newly formed refined culture of the courts. This […]
‘Clash of Civilizations’, Crusades, Knights and Ottomans: an Analysis of Christian-Muslim Interaction in the Mediterranean Buttigieg,Emanuel (University of Malta) Religion and power in Europe : Conflict and Convergence, Pisa University Press, (2007) Abstract In a world that has become so powerfully gripped by a possible escalation of a ‘clash of civilizations’ that could spiral out […]
Sir Launfal may follow the footsteps of its ancestor, but probably with a different intent.
Pagans by Comparisons: Medieval Christian and Muslim Constructions of the Pagan “Other” Busalacchi, Philip Perspectives: A Journal of Historical Inquiry, Vol.37 (2010) Introduction: During the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries German and Danish clergymen and knights set off on a crusade to the lands of the eastern Baltic Sea into the modern day Latvia. Henricus […]
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