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The Knight in History
The Knight in History
The Knight in History
Ebook857 pages6 hours

The Knight in History

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A magisterial history of the origins, reality, and legend of the knight

“A carefully researched, concise, readable, and entertaining account of an institution that remains a part of the Western imagination.” —Los Angeles Times

Born out of the chaos of the early Middle Ages, the armored and highly mobile knight revolutionized warfare and quickly became a mythic figure in history. From the Knights Templars and English knighthood to the crusades and chivalry, The Knight in History, by acclaimed medievalist Frances Gies, bestselling coauthor of Life in a Medieval Castle, paints a remarkable true picture of knighthood—exploring the knight’s earliest appearance as an agent of lawless violence, his reemergence as a dynamic social entity, his eventual disappearance from the European stage, and his transformation into Western culture’s most iconic hero.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateAug 3, 2010
ISBN9780062016652
The Knight in History
Author

Frances Gies

Frances (1915–2013) and Joseph (1916–2006) Gies were the world’s bestselling historians of medieval Europe. Together and separately, they wrote more than twenty books, which col-lectively have sold more than a million copies. They lived in Michigan.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is obviously very well researched. And it is equally obvious that Gies knows what he is talking about. The knight is a very broad topic and spans over a long period of time and over many countries and cultures. So the information is pretty dense. Gies looks into the beginnings of knighthood and how the institution changed over time. From how the equipment and how they were funded and paid changed to how their function changed and they turned to poetry and song or how they ended up fighting for the church. It is impossible, of course, to pull the knight out of the history that he took part in and also impossible to go in-depth into all of that history but Gies strikes a pretty good balance. There were times when a lot of names were mentioned that didn't get much of an introduction and a history buff would probably have no trouble with that but some of the names ended up meaning nothing to me. But he also takes a close look at a couple of particular knights that gives the reader a better idea of the life of a knight more than an overview could do. It isn't the most readable history book I've ever read but that doesn't mean it wasn't interesting. You just have to have a true, and I would say, slightly more than casual interest to make it worth your time.

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The Knight in History - Frances Gies

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