Maurice Keen is one of my favourite medieval historians, not least because he takes the knightly class seriously. He is particularly good at building a picture by assembling a series of illustrative cases. Medieval history is somewhat less prone to some of the foibles of modern academic history, as medievalists are much more likely approach the
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History doesn't repeat. Historians merely repeat each other.
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This is an important point, and one easily missed from our modern (patriotic) point of view.
From a modern point of view, loyalty is assumed: the important thing is to put competent officers in charge of one's army. But from the medieval point of view, loyalty could not be assumed; even basic orderliness could not be assumed; what was important was to make sure that the officers were (relatively) loyal and orderly ( ... )
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