Knight: The Warrior and World of Chivalry

by Robert Jones

From a life-long student of the medieval long sword and medieval history comes a comprehensive overview of the Age of the Knights. Jones shows that behind the popular image of the knight in shining armor lies a world that is both more complex and more fascinating. Were knights glory-seeking, bloodthirsty thugs that lay ravage to the Holy Land or simple Christians serving their king? Jones explores the myths and controversies behind their battle-effectiveness and chivalric code. He also examines knighthood as a "career path" and investigates the role of the knight in law and justice. Lavishly illustrated and drawing on rare first-hand accounts, this book reveals the world of the knight in all its tarnished glory.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Historical, Medieval History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Nikolay Genchev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastically rich in information, but rather boring to read.

[Anna Shiverdecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always a challenge for a writer to cover a large span of time and geography when trying to keep succinct and clear on one subject, and this is no different. There is a good general overview of basics and some historical accounts of relevant events, but it's all very cursory. Still, I think it touched on all the important aspects and had great illustrations. It's a good reference book and a good jumping off point if you want to get into medieval chivalry subjects or that period of history. There are certainly some figures and battles I'd like to learn more about after reading of them in here.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard for me to pinpoint what exactly it was that made this book less enjoyable then expected. It was informative, if a bit long-winded in certain areas. The chapter on arms and amour spends a frustratingly exorbitant amount of time on why we know what we do about arms and armour and why it's difficult to know more and not enough time on the connection to the knight. I understand information from the time period must be extremely limited but I just felt it dragged on too long. I don't need the entire history of the sword in order to read how and why knights used them. It was a bit of an overload at times. That said, I am willing to admit the possibility exists that I went into reading the book with a preconceived notion of what to expect and when I didn't get it, I became slightly disgruntled. Not the fault of the author and the book, again, is quite informative, almost textbook like.

[Tammy Bertelsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of good information, but I thought it was a boring read. My teenage son loves it though.