Miles in Armis Strenuus

The Knight at War

Bibliographic Data

ID11005534
AuthorsMichael Prestwich (corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume5
Pages201-220
Publication date1995-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Royal Historical Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0080-4401 • E-ISSN: 1474-0648
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3679334
OpenAlexW2131321985
LanguageEN
References cited14

W ar was more important to medieval knights than to many of their historians. They have been more concerned to debate shifts in the social status and numbers of knights, than to examine their military role. Varied scenarios of knights rising in social status, gaining a more powerful political voice as they became wealthier, and of declining knights, increasingly aggrieved at their failure to maintain their position in society, have vied one with another. Military obligation has, of course, proved to be a battlefield on paper for many historians, but debate on this has not always been informed by awareness of the muddy realities of war. It would be reasonable to suppose that major transformations in the social position of English knights were a response to, or at least a reflection of, changes in their military functions. Yet the only link that is commonly made is the assumption that changes in the social position of English knights were in some measure the result of the rising costs of the military equipment they needed to possess

Ancient history · Battlefield · Economics · Knight · Obligation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Sociology · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Scottish History and National Identity

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