The History of Chivalry: Knighthood and Its Times (Vol.1&2) (Annotated)

In The History of Chivalry: Knighthood and Its Times, Charles Mills offers a sweeping two-volume account of medieval knighthood, tracing chivalry from its martial and feudal origins through its ceremonies, ideals, romances, crusading energies, and gradual decline. Written in a richly allusive, early nineteenth-century historical prose, the work combines antiquarian learning with narrative elegance. Mills situates chivalry not merely as a military institution, but as a cultural code shaping manners, literature, religion, love, and honour in medieval Europe. Charles Mills (1788–1826) was an English historian deeply engaged with the Middle Ages and the Islamic and Crusading worlds, subjects that also informed his histories of Mohammedanism and the Crusades. His interest in chivalry reflects the Romantic era's fascination with medieval institutions, heroic conduct, and the moral imagination of the past. Though writing before modern academic medievalism, Mills brought seriousness, breadth, and literary sensitivity to his reconstruction of knightly culture. This work is recommended to readers interested in medieval history, Romantic historiography, and the enduring myth of knighthood. It remains valuable both as a study of chivalric ideals and as a revealing document of how the nineteenth century reimagined the medieval world.

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Charles Mills (1788-1826) was an English historian. His works include History of the Crusades for the Recovery and Possession of the Holy Land, History of Mohammedanism and History of Chivalry. Mills was a follower of Edward Gibbon. A few months before his death he was elected one of the knights of the British Order of Saint John, in recognition of his History of the Crusades.