A profoundly intelligent book which combines the results for monumental research with elegance and lucidity. DAILY TELEGRAPH (Review of the 1970 edition) The concept of chivalry is one of the central ideas of the medieval world, linking the practicalities of warfare to the highest levels of literary and religious idealism. To understand it, it is necessary to give equal weight to the worlds of reality and imagination in order to examine the complex interaction between the two which produces chivalry. The warriors and knights of early medieval Europe show the first stirrings of a chivalric order. The chansons de geste and the early romances, the biographies and handbooks for aspiring knights, provide an intellectual reflection of the new mood. The physical and social constraints of chivalry were perfectly met by tournaments, which developed from training for warfare into spectacular pageants. The study draws new parallels between chivalry and christian belief, and shows how, from the church's changing attitude to war as reflected in the crusades, the military orders emerged. Only as methods of warfare were transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the medieval knight finally transformed into the Renaissance courtier. The Knight and Chivalry, first appeared in 1970 and has now been completely revised and updated to take account of the latest research.