The Green Knight: History, Myth, and Modern Shame -- A Historian's View
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
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The Knight on Horseback Is a Nuclear Weapon of the Middle Ages
The knight on horseback was basically like the nuclear weapon of the middle ages. If they weren't somehow constrained by social convention and by a sense of honor and shame, then there was nothing to stop them from simply riding around the countryside raiding and pillaging and causing chaos. It was gradually in th eleventh century, beginning with the peace and truce of god movement, that knights were compelled to restrain themselves. They had to swear oaths on holy relics not to attack women or children or clergy,. And to only fight one another only on certain days of the week and the year - when some sort of legitimate cause of war was in play. The ability to meet an opponent in a fair fight
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