From Childhood to Chivalry

The Education of the English Kings and Aristocracy 1066-1530

Nicholas Orme

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138304192
• eBook ISBN: 9781351397490
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Originally published in 1984, this is a study of the kings and the aristocracy who ruled England between the Conquest and the Reformation. Not, as usual, about their adult lives, but how they became the people they were through childhood and education. The first such study of its kind, it follows noble boys and girls from birth through the care of their nurses, masters and mistresses, until they left home for further training in noble households, monasteries and universities. The author examines the theories and treatises on noble education, again for the first time.

The rest of the book broadens into a wide cultural survey as Dr Orme describes the skills and ideas which noble children learnt. He explains how they mastered speech and literacy; worship and behaviour; dancing, music and applied art; athletics and training for war. This part of the study is a handbook of noble pursuits in medieval times. In his final chapter the author considers the nature of noble education in the middles ages, and examines how and whether it changed at the Renaissance.

Nicholas Orme has written a comprehensive study, spanning 450 years of English history and making a major contribution to social and cultural history, as well as the history of education. His book will be invaluable to historians and medievalists of all disciplines, and essential reading from those who study the Renaissance.

Index

Abberbury, Sir Richard, master, 19 n

Acaster, Roger of, master, 24

Adela, d. of William I, 159

Aegidius Romanus - see Giles of Rome

'ages of man', 5-6

Albertano da Brescia, author, 104-5

Aldfrith, king of Northumbria, 142-3

Aidon, Thomas, master, 24

Alexander III, king of Scotland, 192

Alfred the Great, 16, 50, 143, 192

almsgiving by children, 132

André, Bernard, scholar, 23, 127, 155

Angle, Sir Guichard d', master, 19 n, 123

Anwykyll, John, schoolmaster, 35

archery, 198-205; mentioned, 17, 41, 193-4, 226, 231, plate 17

Arderne, Sir Peter, 96

aristocracy, definition of, x-xii; ecclesiastical see clergy; lay: books written by men, 90, 95-6, 99-109, 125, 154-5, 195, 224-5; books written by women, 162-3, 232; education of men, summarized,

211-12; education of women, summarized, 212-13; greater (magnates), 13, 24, 37-40, 44, 46-7, 52, 55-60, 61-3, 67-74, 76-7, 95-7, 148; lesser ('gentry'), 16-17, 25, 29, 52, 61-2, 72-4, 76-7, 127, 148-9, 193

Aristotle, advice to Alexander, 87, 90, 95, 100, see also Secretum Secretorum; on art and music, 167, 175; on children and education generally, 6, 14, 17, 35, 114, 182-3; on the curriculum, 113; on literary studies, 113; on physical education, 35, 182-3; Politics of, 90-1; and Renaissance writers, 226, 228, 232—3

arms, training in, 181-91; mentioned, 40-1, 215, 231, plate 16

art, 174-7, 230

Arthur, son of Henry VII, 13, 18 & n, 23, 31, 103, 105, 127, 155, 204

Ascham, Roger, author, 17, 204-5

Ashby, George, author, 102, 130, 146

Astiey, Joan, nu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• One Growing up at home
• Two Away from the family
• Three The literature of education
• Four Language, belief, behaviour
• Five Letters and other arts
• Six Arms and athletics
• Seven From 'Medieval' to 'Renaissance'
• Bibliography
• Index