Historians have tended to understand medieval conduct through the eyes of Enlightenment historians, seeing superior conduct as 'knightly' behaviour, categorising it as chivalry. This book shows what superior lay conduct was in Europe before chivalry, and maps how and why chivalry emerged and redefined superior conduct in the late twelfth century.
Crouch handles the model and the exceptions with aplomb. His sources are primarily literary; as he himself says, his monograph is largely a study of "genre." Using normative sources such as conduct manuals, of which he displays a masterly command, Crouch exhaustively details the pan-European development and debate on elite self-definition via modes of behavior in the high Middle Ages.
