Knights and Peasants. The Hundred Years War in the French Countryside.(Review)

It has long been recognised that the `official' war against England was not the only conflict being fought out in France during the late Middle Ages. In Knights and Peasants. The Hundred Years War in the French Countryside (Woodbridge: Boydell P., 1998; pp. xiv+144, 30 [pounds sterling]), Nicholas Wright, already known for his articles on the subject, presents the conflict between the man-at-arms and the peasantry as an important sub-text to the better known but more politicized contest of the War. What gives this book its interest is the way in which the author sets out to explain how the situation arose and how the participants reacted. By the time of the treaty of Bretigny, …