'A tour de force.....The world of the Angevin court is splendidly recreated, and Dr Crouch succeeds admirably in explaining the reality of the chivalric ethos. For him, the celebrations after a battle had more in common with the atmosphere in the bar of a rugby club than with that of the enclosures at Henley or the ski-slopes of Klosters - Dr. Crouch is adept at finding striking modern parallels'. History Today 'a refreshingly readable book, it makes a contribution to medieval studies quite out of proportion to its size' TLS ' Crouch resurrects a lost world in fluent, economic and readable prose, often enlivened by colloquialisms and contemporary parallels' Southern History 'Written in a racy, accessible, idiosyncratic style, which might have appealed to the Marshal himself, it should be read by everyone interested in medieval people, politics and society' Archives William Marshal is the one medieval knight who had a contemporary biography written about him. He was THE knight of all knights as far as we are concerned today. He is the only medieval man whose authentic experience of arisTOCratic military life is preserved for us.