E-Books →Chivalry and Violence in Late Medieval Castile (Warfare in History)

This book explores the roots of the disorder that plagued Castile in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, identifying the ideology of chivalry and its knightly practitioners as the chief instigators of the violence that destabilized the kingdom. The author argues that chivalry was far from being a code of good behaviour, scrupulously observed, but rather encouraged knights to avenge themselves violently upon their neighbours, pursue a zealous holy war against Islam, and tear at the social fabric of Castilian society. Their powerful ideas and values shaped the course of Castilian history in the crucial years before the unification of the Spanish kingdoms.
SAMUEL A. CLAUSSEN is Assistant Professor of History at California Lutheran University.