The Knight in History Quotes

“Scutage was an aspect of two fundamental historic trends in twelfth-century Europe that profoundly affected the knights. The first was the increasing concentration of power in the hands of a few kings and great princes that gradually professionalized warfare. The second was the economic upturn from the depressed state of the ninth and tenth centuries to the Commercial Revolution of the eleventh and twelfth centuries that raised living standards and inflated prices.”
― Frances Gies, The Knight in History: From lawless warriors to legendary knights—Frances Gies traces the Templars, Crusades, and chivalry across a thousand years