A series of illustrated essays and sketches explores the social institution of knighthood, tracing training, domestic life, courtly love, dueling, death rites, and the careers of individual knights. Chapters examine female warriors and noted champions, the ceremonies and fortunes of chivalric orders, the roles of monarchs as knights, sham investitures, and the material culture of arms and armor. The work mixes anecdote, biography, and institutional history, surveying military and ceremonial orders, stage portrayals, and the moral tensions between chivalric ideals and everyday conduct.