Chaucer's Knight

About Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary

 

'Terry Jones's brilliant work of literary and historical detection'

The Observer

 

Since it was first published in 1980, Terry Jones's study of Chaucer's Knight has proved to be one of the most controversial books ever to hit the world of Chaucer scholarship.

 

In Chaucer's Knight Terry Jones questions the accepted view of the Knight as a paragon of Christian chivalry, and argues that he is in fact no more than a professional soldier who has spent his life in the service of petty despots and tyrants around the world.

 

This new edition includes a preface that reveals the startling discovery of the historical figure on whom Chaucer based the character of his Knight.

The Author

Terry Jones

Educated at Oxford, Terry Jones worked in theatre, wrote revues and scripts for the BBC before becoming one of the creators of Monty Python. He has written many books, including Who Murdered Chaucer? (Methuen), Chaucer's Knight (Methuen), Crusades, Medieval Lives and Barbarians, and children's books such as The Knight and the Squire. He lives in London.

Reviews

'Jones's analysis of Chaucer's text is painstaking, his pursuit of the historical example is thorough, his conclusions appropriate'

Peter Ackroyd

'A masterly exciting book'  

The Economist

'Terry Jones's brilliant work of literary and historical detection'

The Observer