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Item Condition: Used; Very Good. Slight foxing on page edge.
THE AGE OF CHIVALRY
THE AGE OF CHIVALRY, as I
have called this book, deals only
with the comparatively brief period
known as the high Middle Age. That
crowded and formative time saw the
first evolution of parliament, the be-
ginnings of the legal profession, the
legislative reformns of Edward I and
the beginnings of an English 'estab
lishment. It witnessed that great
king's attempt to unify Anglo-Saxon
and Celtic Britain under a singie
law and monarchy.
It was the tỉme recorded by
Froissart, of Arthurian chivalry and
the foundation of the Order of the
Garter, when England fought her
giant neighbour, France, for the
Plantagenets hereditary dukedom
of Aquitaine...
Of England's six kings during the
13th and 14th centuries, two were
dethroned and murdered, two suff-
ered defeat in civil war, and only
one escaped armed dictation by his
subjccts. Yet the same period saw
the building of our Decorated and
carly Perpendicular cathedrals and
churches; the emergence of English
as the national speech and its ex-
pression in the poetry of Langland
and Chaucer; the genesis of the
Inns of Court and the Oxford and
Cambridge colleges.