Changing Views of the Soldier in Late Medieval France

Abstract

What did late medieval society think of the soldier who featured so often in the chronicles and was, indeed, part of the everyday scene of that age? Frenchmen had ample opportunity of becoming accustomed to the sight of the soldier, and of hearing about his misdeeds. It was these abuses of power which made soldiers into the latrones publici of the public imagination. That popular opinion should react in this way was natural enough. Yet there already existed an ideal of the soldier, and a desc..