Greatest Knight, The - The Power Behind Five English Thrones

By: Harper Collins

Type: Softcover

Product Line: Historical Reference Books (Harper Collins)

Last Stocked on 12/22/2025

Product Info

Title
Greatest Knight, The - The Power Behind Five English Thrones
Publisher
Category
Author
Thomas Asbridge
Publish Year
2015
Pages
464
Dimensions
5.25x8x1"
NKG Part #
2148221546
Type

Description

A renowned scholar brings to life medieval England’s most celebrated knight, William Marshal—providing an unprecedented and intimate view of this age and the legendary warrior class that shaped it.

Caught on the wrong side of an English civil war and condemned by his father to the gallows at age five, William Marshal defied all odds to become one of England’s most celebrated knights. Thomas Asbridge’s rousing narrative chronicles William’s rise, using his life as a prism to view the origins, experiences, and influence of the knight in British history.

In William’s day, the brutish realities of war and politics collided with romanticized myths about an Arthurian “golden age,” giving rise to a new chivalric ideal. Asbridge details the training rituals, weaponry, and battle tactics of knighthood, and explores the codes of chivalry and courtliness that shaped their daily lives. These skills were essential to survive one of the most turbulent periods in English history—an era of striking transformation, as the West emerged from the Dark Ages.

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