German Knighthood 1050-1300 (Oxford University Press Academic Monograph Reprints)

This is a thorough and original study of German knighthood as a class in its medieval heyday. Arnold draws on a rich array of descriptive detail from the lives of individual knights, their families, and various groups to examine knightly customs and practices, the impact of knighthood in the political world of the German Empire, and the curious status of most knights as at once noble and unfree. These unfree knights, argues Arnold, were above all professional warriors in an empire where violence for political ends prevailed—a harsh reality that dictated the structure and development of their class. Frontmatter Abbreviations (page ix) INTRODUCTION: Monarchy, Lordship, and Violence in the Medieval German Empire (page 1) CHAPTER I Knights and Ministeriales in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: The Emergence of a New Knighthood in Germany (page 23) CHAPTER 2 The Servile Legal Status of Ministeriales (page 53) CHAPTER 3 The Rights of Ministeriales in Written Custom (page 76) CHAPTER 4 Ministeriales as Vassal-knights and Retainers (page 100) CHAPTER 5 The Ministeriales and their Lands (page 140) CHAPTER 6 Ministeriales and Marriage (page 162) CHAPTER 7 The Household, Judicial, and Administrative Offices of Ministeriales, Knighthood and the Towns (page 184) CHAPTER 8 The Imperial Retinue of Ministeriales and its Part in German Politics (page 209) CHAPTER 9 Ministeriales and Violence (page 225) Conclusion (page 248) Bibliography (page 255) Index (page 283)