Craig Taylor's study examines the wide-ranging French debates on the martial ideals of chivalry and knighthood during the period of the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). Faced by stunning military disasters and the collapse of public order, writers and intellectuals carefully scrutinized the martial qualities expected of knights and soldiers. They questioned when knights and men-at-arms could legitimately resort to violence, the true nature of courage, the importance of mercy, and the role of books and scholarly learning in the very practical world of military men. Contributors to these discussions included some of the most famous French medieval writers, led by Jean Froissart, Geoffroi de Charny, Philippe de Mézières, Honorat Bovet, Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier and Antoine de La Sale. This interdisciplinary study sets their discussions in context, challenging modern, romantic assumptions about chivalry and investigating the historical reality of debates about knighthood and warfare in late medieval France.

An investigation into three of the best-known cases tried under the Court of Chivalry reveals much about gentry military society.

Insights from English and French writers on one of the most significant armed conflicts of the Middle Ages

New approaches to the political culture of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, considering its complex relation to monarchy and state.

First extended survey of the subject, looking at the knights' activities, roles, background and service.

The motivations behind those who went on the Third Crusade examined through close investigation of their social networks.

Analyses of different aspects of the history of warfare in the Mediterranean in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.