For Honour and Fame by Nigel Saul
* The world of medieval chivalry is at once glamorous and violent, alluring yet alien. Our popular views of the period are largely inherited from the nineteenth-century romantics, for whom chivalry evoked images of knights in shining armour, competing for the attention of fair ladies - with pennons and streamers fluttering from castle battlements. * But what is the reality? Were the rituals and romance of chivalry designed to provide an escape from the brutal facts of almost continuous warfare? Or did they instead help regulate the conduct of war and moderate its violent excesses? * Nigel Saul charts the introduction of chivalry by the Normans, the rise of the knightly class as a social elite, the fusion of chivalry with kingship in the fourteenth century and the influence of chivalry on literature, religion and architecture. He shows us a world of kings and barons, castles and cathedrals - a world shaped by Richard the Lionheart and the Crusades, by Magna Carta and the rule of law, by battles like Bannockburn and Crecy, by the Black Death and by tournaments, round tables and the cult of Arthurianism. * Structured around the related themes of war, politics and knighthood, For Honour and Fame tells the story of England from the Norman Conquest to the aftermath of Henry VII's triumph at Bosworth in the Wars of the Roses. Wide-ranging, vivid and authoritative, this is the first book to treat chivalry as part of the wider history of medieval England.
"Clear sighted history" * Guardian *
"Professor Saul's achievement is to provide for the first time a holistic overview of English chivalric culture in its historical perspectiveThis is a fine book, whose richness of texture defies a brief review, but which will undoubtedly become a classic" * BBC History Magazine *
"Saul can make the most unpromising material speak to us with a directness that can surprise even those who are already familiar with it. This is a rich book that does ample justice to its complex theme" * The Times *
"Professor Saul's achievement is to provide for the first time a holistic overview of English chivalric culture in its historical perspectiveThis is a fine book, whose richness of texture defies a brief review, but which will undoubtedly become a classic" * BBC History Magazine *
"Saul can make the most unpromising material speak to us with a directness that can surprise even those who are already familiar with it. This is a rich book that does ample justice to its complex theme" * The Times *
Nigel Saul is Professor of Medieval History in the University of London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Society of Antiquaries. His publications include Richard II, A Companion to Medieval England, Death, Art and Memory in Medieval England and, most recently, The Three Richards.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781847920522 |
| ISBN 10 | 1847920527 |
| Title | For Honour and Fame |
| Author | Nigel Saul |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2011-06-09 |
| Number of pages | 432 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |