Henry of Lancaster and Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines
Lancaster’s range of activities suggests the best elements of the fourteenth-century pattern of knighthood. This was rather more secular, both in theory and practice, than that which had inspired a thirteenth-century knight.
The negotiation of gender and power in medieval German writings
The Christian religion plays a most important role in the internalization and re-enforcement of patriarchy in the Western world. As will be seen later in this thesis, the relationship between a patriarchal God and his “children” is reflected in the relationship between the male head of the family and his wife, children and servants.
Reflections on The Malleus Maleficarum in Light of the Trial of Joan of Arc
Although Joan’s trial took place in France and The Malleus Maleficarum was published in Germany, they are suitable for comparison because this text became the definitive manual for witchcraft inquisitors across Europe.
Cogs, Sails and Longbows: Implications of Naval Tactics and Technology in the Hundred Years War
There were several naval engagements during the Hundred Years War. The three that will be looked at in this work are the battle of Sluys in 1340, the battle of Les Espagnols-Sur- Mer in 1350, and the capture of a French fleet from La Rochelle. The battle of Sluys is the best known of these, but it can be argued that subsequent engagements are of equal or greater importance. Many historians have downplayed these events.
“Thus he rode sorowyng”: Travel Narratives and the Ethics of Sexual Behavior in Le Morte d’Arthur
The Arthurian oeuvre traditionally maintains a plot structure that requires knights to depart from the Round Table, either as a response to a challenge or in quest of chivalric “aventure,” followed by a return to Camelot. Within this narrative framework, there exists an intricately designed logic to descriptions of movement and travel. In particular, sex and travel appear inseparable.
False knights and true blood: reading the traitor’s body in Medieval England
From the late thirteenth century, traitors in England were subjected to spectacular rituals of public execution that could include drawing, hanging, disembowelling, beheading, quartering and bodily display.
Figures of Female Militancy in Medieval France
These days when chivalry is everywhere on the decline, and no one dares to tourney anymore, and all knights are cowards, women are all the more courageous in battle.’
The Court of Beast and Bough: Contesting the Medieval English Forest in the Early Robin Hood Ballads
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.
“Mediterranean Falconry as a Cross-Cultural Bridge: Christian – Muslim Hunting Encounters”
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.
Reading about Lancelot in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde
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.”
“Kan he speke wel of love?”: Luf talk and Chivalry
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…
Strategic Insights: The Battle of Crecy
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.
Convents, Courts and Colleges: The Prioress and the Second Nun
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.
Civic Knighthood in the Early Renaissance: Leonardo Bruni’s De militia (ca. 1420)
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.
Tournament: Martial Training or Elaborate Game?
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?
Chivalry, Adultery, Ambiguity: The Image of Tristan and Isolde in Medieval Art
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.
From destrier to danseur: the role of the horse in early modern French noble identity
This study argues that horses and horsemanship played a crucial role in refashioning noble identity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France.
Modeling the Joust
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.
The Household knights of Edward I
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.
The Fate of the Warrior’s Soul: Crusading, Chivalry, and the Formation of English Knighthood
When and how did knights stop thinking they were going to hell?
A Chivalrous Man is Not a Gentleman: A Look at Chivalry in the Age of Chaucer
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.