WAR & CHIVALRY - Warfare and Aristocratic Culture in England, France, and Burgundy at the End of the Middle Ages by Vale, Malcolm

Athens, 1981, Univ of Georgia, US first U edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6x9, FINE/FINE CONDITION, v, 206, illus, maps, notes, bibliog, index.-----------------------------------------------------"Even if it were no more than a fiction, these fancies of war as a noble game of honour and virtue have still played an important part in developing civilization, for it is from them that the idea of chivalry sprang and hence, ultimately, of international law," wrote the noted medieval historian Johan Huizinga.This book examines some of the ways in which these conceptions were expressed, whether in theory or practice, in the thick of battle or in the political behavior of the nobility. It is not a study of the military as an institution. Its concern is with the relationship between ideas and behavior among an elite for whom war was not only a profession but a justification for their social position and privileges.The author has consulted such sources as eye-witness accounts of battles, newsletters, account books and other financial records, and military memoirs. The formal records of secular orders of chivalry, such as the Toison d'Or and the Croissant, are used to demonstrate the influence of chivalrous ideas on war and politics.Vale begins with a review of the literature of honor and virtue and proceeds with an account of the Orders of Chivalry in the fifteenth century. Using contemporary accounts, he discusses chivalric display, the tournament and its function, heraldic display, and medieval funeral ceremony. The techniques of war are described, including the use of cavalry and infantry and the impact of firearms. The author concludes by examining the changes in warfare in the fifteenth and sixteenth century and the response of the nobility to them.