A definitive look at the early history of St George's Chapel, one of the most important medieval buildings in England. Developed and improved by Edward III, the Chapel became the spiritual home of his newly-instigated Order of theGarter and, in the process, a new Camelot for the English monarchy. St George's Chapel, Windsor, is one of the most famous ecclesiastical foundations in Britain. Established in 1348, its origins are closely bound up with those of the Order of the Garter, which was founded by Edward III at the sametime. The collection of essays in this volume sets Windsor in its context, at the forefront of the political and cultural developments of mid-fourteenth-century England. They examine the early history of the Chapel, its tieswith Edward III's chivalric ambitions, the community of canons who served it, and its place in the institutional development of the English Church. Major themes are the role of the Chapel in the early history of the Order and itsinfluence on other collegiate foundations of the late middle ages; and much attention is devoted to the mighty building campaign at the Castle started by Edward III which made Windsor the grandest royal residence of its day.

Studies of ways in which the rapidly evolving society of medieval Europe developed social, legal and practical responses to public and private violence. Violence was endemic in the medieval world, to an extent most modern people find shocking. Violence was part and parcel of the public world of institutions [church, state, chivalry] and the private world of households. In an age of dynamic expansion it was present everywhere, and contemporary response to it was contradictory: it was both wrong and at the same time a regulatory feature of society. This book brings together the views of a number of scholarson aspects of violence in medieval society, in England and the larger canvas of western Europe, from the eleventh to the fifteenth century. There is analysis of the tension between the practice of violence and hopes for reform; discussion of violence in literature; examination of assertive political acts and judicial duels and tournaments; and observations on the domestic scene and resistance to seigneurial impositions. Professor RICHARD W. KAEUPER teaches in the Department of History at the University of Rochester. Contributors: SARAH KAY, RICHARD W. KAEUPER, MATTHEW STRICKLAND, SEYMOUR PHILLIPS, M.L. BOHNA, PAUL HYAMS, AMY PHELAN, JULIET VALE, MALCOLM VALE, JAMES A.BRUNDAGE, BARBARA A. HANAWALT, EDMUND FRYDE