Studying at York
Knights, Chivalry & Tournaments - From the Normans to Victorians - CED00095C
- Department: Centre for Lifelong Learning
- Credit value: 10 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Summer Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
This module aims to:
- Introduce students to the changing nature of knighthood during the medieval and early modern periods and how it has been re-envisioned by Victorian and 20th century popular imagination.
- Use contemporary literature, images and artefacts, (virtual, visual or tactile), to reconstruct the nature of medieval knighthood and its reinterpretations
- Introduce students to the origins of tournaments, the reasons why they changed, the equipment needed, how they were used as control mechanisms by medieval and early modern monarchs and their modern reconstruction, or reinterpretation, as entertainment.
- Analyse the changing nature of chivalry, the impact of courtly love literature, and chivalry’s reinvention in the Victorian period as a gentleman’s code of honour.
Module learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able:
- To understand the reasons why knighthood, chivalry and tournaments developed, changed, declined and were reinvented within the contexts of different time-periods.
- To identity, assess and evaluate key turning points, significant events and individuals in these changes
- To critically evaluate contemporary source material- textual, images and artefacts (virtual or tactile)
- To critically evaluate historical articles and deconstruct popular reconstructions and reinterpretations.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
The tutor will give regular individual verbal and written feedback throughout the module on work submitted.
The assessment feedback is as per the university’s guidelines with regard to timings.
Indicative reading
- Anglo, Sydney, Spectacle, pageantry, and early Tudor policy(Clarendon Press, 1997)
- Ayton, Andrew, Knights and Warhorses: Military Service and the English Aristocracy Under Edward III (Boydell Press: Suffolk, 1994)
- Barber, Richard, The reign of chivalry (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2005)
- Barber, Richard, and Juliet Barker, Tournaments: Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in
- the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1986)
- Barker, Juliet R. V., The Tournament in England, 1100-1400 (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 1996)
- Bevington, David M. & Holbrook , Peter The politics of the Stuart court masque (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1998)
- Coss, Peter R. , Heraldry, pageantry and social display in medieval England (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2002)
- Crouch, David, Tournament (Hambledon, 2005)
- Curry, Anne, The Hundred Years War, 2nd edn (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003)
- Kaeuper, Richard W. Chivalry and violence in medieval Europe (Oxford University: Press Oxford, 1999)
- Keen, Maurice Hugh, Nobles, knights, and men-at-arms in the Middle Ages, (Hambledon Press: London, 1996)
- Keen, Maurice Hugh, Chivalry (Yale University Press, 2005)
- Saul, Nigel, For Honour and Fame: Chivalry in England, 1066-1500, (Bodley: London, 2011)
- Strickland, Matthew, War and chivalry: the conduct and perception of war in England and Normandy, 1066-1277(Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1996)
- Strong, Roy C. The cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan portraiture and pageantry (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977)
- Vale, Juliet, Edward III and Chivalry: Chivalric Society and its Context 1270-1350
- (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1982)
- Young, Alan,Tudor and Jacobean Tournaments. (London: George Philip, 1987)