Customer Reviews

Knights and Peasants: The Hundred Years War in the French Countryside (Warfare in History)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book may be an eye opener for many people with the classic view of the honorable knight, it wasn't so, at least not in France. When the armored gentry of the country were free to use the peasants for target practice, one can begin to understand the reasons for the many years of French civil unrest. This difference in social systems may also reveal a reason for the deep rooted fear of England amongst the French upper class, for in England the peasants had rights, and they were under the protection of their local Lord, as well as the king. A knight could and was prosecuted for doing the same thing to an English peasant as what a French knight might do with impunity! After reading this book it makes me wonder why it took the French people so many years before their complete rebellion.