In popular imagination few phenomena are as strongly associated with medieval society as knighthood and chivalry. At the same time, and due to a long tradition of differing national perspectives and ideological assumptions, few phenomena have continued to be the object of so much academic debate. In this volume leading scholars explore arious aspects of knightly identity, taking into account both commonalities and particularities across Western Europe. Knighthood and Society in the High Middle Ages addresses how, between the eleventh and the early thirteenth centuries, knighthood evolved from a set of skills and a lifestyle that was typical of an emerging elite habitus, into the basis of a consciously expressed and idealised chivalric code of conduct. Chivalry, then, appears in this volume as the result of a process of noble identity formation, in which some five key factors are distinguished: knightly practices, lineage, crusading memories, gender roles, and chivalric didactics. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer Review Content). Contributors: Dominique Barthelemy (Sorbonne and EPHE, Paris), David Crouch (University of Hull), Jeroen Deploige (Ghent University), John D. Hosler (U.S. Army Command and General Staff College), Sara McDougall (City University of New York), Jean-Francois Nieus (University of Namur), Eljas Oksanen (Portable Antiquities Scheme, London), Nicholas Paul (Fordham University), Joerg Peltzer (Heidelberg University), Nicolas Ruffini-Ronzani (University of Namur), Louise Wilkinson (Canterbury Christ Church University), Claudia Wittig (Ghent University)

About the Author
David Crouch is former Professor of Medieval History at the University of Hull and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Reviews

UEber zahlreiche neue Erkenntnisse zu Teilaspekten und Texten hinaus, zeigen die Autoren eindrucklich auf, wie gewinnbringend es ist, auch die alten strukturgeschichtlichen Forschungsmustermuster, die von vielfach starren Voraussetzungen und Formen ausgingen, zu hinterfragen. Die Autor:innen erlautern damit, wie sich zwischen dem 11. und 13. Jahrhundert ein Normen- und Wertegeflecht einwickelte, welches fur die laikale Elite habituell pragend wurde. Dadurch leisten sie einen wertvollen Beitrag dazu, die Vorbedingungen von "knighthood" und "chivalry" aus verschiedenen Perspektiven besser zu verstehen. Das Werden des Rittertums ist als langwieriger gesellschaftlicher Prozess zu begreifen. Seine Erforschung ist, wie auch Joerg Pelzer in seinem Beitrag schreibt (S. 69), eine gesamteuropaische - und moeglicherweise auch daruberhinausgehende - Aufgabe.
Sebastian Schaarschmidt, H-Soz-Kult, 20.10.2021, .

The volume itself is handsomely produced by Leuven University Press and contains numerous illustrations. All of the contributions have something important to offer. Specialists in their respective regions will need to read the most relevant chapters, and historians of the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and central Europe will wish to test the ideas contained here on their own patches of ground. But the editors have also managed to forge a volume which is more valuable than the sum of its collective parts. It achieves two particularly important aims. Firstly, it forces numerous national historiographies to talk to one another, which is extremely beneficial if sometimes intellectually uncomfortable. The Anglophone reader (and reviewer) in particular will find much new here, not least in the frequent use of literary evidence rather than administrative or legal material. Secondly, our understanding of the key theme of the nobilisation of the knight is greatly enhanced by the conceptual richness and sound scholarship of this volume.Matt Raven, Virtus. Journal of Nobility Studies 2021

David Crouch and Jeroen Deploige's invaluable collection, Knighthood and Society in the High Middle Ages, offers a rich and rewarding survey of just such questions. Offering a range of perspectives informing readers of the current state of chivalric studies, this well-organized and consistently engaging collection features historians focusing on late-medieval Western Europe, primarily in French, Provencal, German, Flemish, English, and Crusading contexts. With excellent essays thinking generally about chivalry balanced with richly sourced local studies, and with each essay framed by effective abstracts and conclusions, this insightful and thought-provoking volume should be on the shelf of any medievalist working on materials related to knightly culture.Randy P. Schiff, The Medieval Review, April 2022, https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/34193/37618

Avec une profondeur historiographique louable, David Crouch et Jeroen Deploige proposent un etat de la recherche sur la chevalerie. [...] Mais au-dela meme de l'interet thematique specifique de chacun des chapitres, 'Knighthood and Society in the High Middle Ages' a le merite d'inviter a repenser la maniere dont les medievistes conceptualisent la chevalerie et concoivent son rapport avec la societe medievale.
Arnaud Montreuil, Memini [En ligne], 28 | 2022, mis en ligne le 27 decembre. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/memini/2081 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/memini.2081

Dit soort bijdragen zorgt ervoor dat dit boek niet enkel interessant is voor specialisten. Het hoofdstuk van McDougall faciliteert bijvoorbeeld niet alleen vergelijkingen tussen verschillende Europese regio's, maar biedt ook een comparatief kader op langere termijn. Haar ruimere begrip van de ridderlijke familie problematiseert impliciet het idee van de 'uitstervingsgraad', een pijler van de meeste historische onderzoeken naar de (laatmiddeleeuwse) adel. Het is dit soort prikkelende insteken die helpen om het enigszins logge onderzoeksveld in nieuwe richtingen te duwen. En door het traditionele letterlijk met het nieuwe te bundelen, levert het boek van Deploige en Crouch daar een bijdrage aan.
Jim van der Meulen, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, Volume 135, Issue 1, Dec 2022, p. 128 - 129, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/TvG2022.1.014.MEUL

This excellent volume brings together scholars from different national backgrounds and methodological approaches in order to work toward a better understanding of chivalric identity. It includes an introduction by the editors and eleven essays divided across five thematic sections. While some of the contributors are well-known specialists in the field of chivalry and knighthood studies, others are not scholars one would necessarily expect to find in a volume dedicated to these topics. It is precisely this mix of insider and outsider perspectives that makes the volume compelling. Many of the essays address different questions-with different sources-than more traditional studies of knighthood and chivalry. The knight is examined through the lens of some of the most recent developments in economic history, military history, family history, Crusades studies, and women's studies (to name only a few) in order to situate chivalry and knighthood more firmly in current historiographical trends.

Jonathan R. Lyon, Speculum, Volume 98, Number 2, www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/724373

This is a collection of essays that will repay both specialists and a general audience interested in medieval knighthood and chivalry. Richard Abels, TSEG Vol. 20 No. 1 (2023), https://doi.org/10.52024/tseg.13625

Les forces du volume sont nombreuses. On retiendra la variete des angles d'analyse : la synthese erudite, l'histoire des femmes, les croisades et l'histoire litteraire se rencontrent ici, souvent au sein de la meme contribution. Il en ressort une sensibilite semantique tres fine, chaque auteur reprenant et definissant les termes cles de miles, chevalier, cavalier, chivalry, knighthood, pour les distinguer, les preciser, et parfois mieux les entrechoquer. On percoit ainsi " sur le terrain " comment la chevalerie a emerge en Europe aux XIe et XIIe siecles, a la fois comme phenomene social, construction litteraire et morale et reflexe identitaire soigneusement cultive ; l'on aimerait que soit desormais decortiquee avec la meme rigueur et erudition le pourquoi de cette genese, ainsi qu'y invitent les conclusions du volume.
Amicie Pelissie du Rausas, Le Moyen Age, 3-4/2022 (vol. 128)

Ce recueil est l'aboutissement de deux projets de recherche, " The Sacralisation of Knighthood ", mene par Jeroen Deploige et " The Genesis of Chivalry : Conduct in Western European Society 1000-1350 ", dirige par David Crouch, qui ont culmine avec le colloque " Noble Warriors or Warring Nobles ? The Complications of Knightly Identity in the High Middle Ages " tenu a Gand, en decembre 2015, dont il edite les actes en compagnie de quelques contributions inedites. Il se focalise sur la figure du chevalier dont les editeurs soulignent a la fois la dimension iconique, toujours aussi presente dans l'imaginaire et exportee par la fantasy dans le monde entier, et l'approfondissement historiographique dont elle a fait l'objet. Les dernieres decennies ont ainsi permis de passer de la conception du chevalier comme representant d'une nouvelle classe sociale emergente aux XIe-XIIe s. a celle d'une construction culturelle complexe, qui est finalement adoptee par toute la haute aristocratie et qui integre les conceptions chretiennes du combat spirituel et l'ideal du prud'homme. Les editeurs ont cherche a s'affranchir des prismes imposes par les approches et les traditions historiographiques nationales et souvent divergentes qui freinaient une veritable approche comparative et ont donc privilegie un ensemble ordonne de points de vue differents, tant sur le plan national que sur le plan disciplinaire, afin d'apprehender pleinement les marqueurs de l'identite chevaleresque en developpement, ses points communs et ses divergences en Europe occidentale. - C. de Vasselot, Scriptorium 2021-2

Il volume raccoglie una serie di saggi sulle connessioni tra la societa e la formazione dell'identita cavalleresca tra XI e XIII secolo, divisi in cinque sezioni: 1. pratica della guerra e nobilta, 2. cavalleria e lignaggio, 3. cavalleria e costruzione della memoria crociata, 4. le donne e la societa cavalleresca, 5. formazione dell'ideale di cavalleria. L'obiettivo della miscelleanea e di riunire dati provenienti da diverse tradizioni nazionali, con una particolare attenzione rivolta all'Inghilterra, alla Francia e all'impero tedesco. - Medioevo latino, XLIV (2023), https://www.mirabileweb.it/mel/knighthood-and-society-in-the-high-middle-ages/796707

Book Information
ISBN 9789462701700
Author David Crouch
Format Paperback
Page Count 330
Imprint Leuven University Press
Publisher Leuven University Press
Weight(grams) 495g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 18mm