Author : Richard W. Kaeuper
Release : 2001
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 588/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe by : Richard W. Kaeuper
Download or read book Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe written by Richard W. Kaeuper. This book was released on 2001. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval Europe was a rapidly developing society with a problem of violent disorder. Professor Kaeuper's original and authoritative study reveals that chivalry was just as much a part of this problem as it was its solution. Chivalry praised heroic violence by knights, and fused such displaysof prowess with honour, piety, high-status, and attractiveness to women. Though the vast body of chivalric literature praised chivalry as necessary to civilization, most texts also worried over knightly violence, criticized the ideals and practices of chivalry, and often proposed reforms. Theknights themselves joined the debate, absorbing some reforms, ignoring others, sometimes proposing their own. The interaction of chivalry with major governing institutions ("church" and "state") emerging at that time was similarly complex: kings and clerics both needed and feared the force of theknighthood. This fascinating book lays bare these conflicts and paradoxes which surrounded the concept of chivalry in medieval Europe.