Chivalry Today Podcast

Whatever else you may say about our current state of affairs, this is undoubtedly the golden age of binge watching. And for those with any sort of interest in knights and armor and epic adventures, one of the binge-worthy series of choice is certainly Game of Thrones.

Whether you’ve seen the series a dozen times since its first season aired on HBO in 2011, or you’ve used your self isolation practice as an excuse to finally see what all the nerd-culture fuss is about, George R.R. Martin’s heroic fantasy is a great story – and it is unarguably the defining icon of medievalism (that is, the pop culture perception of medieval history) of the current moment.

But how closely does Game of Thrones mirror real events and personalities of the Middle Ages? Why are we, as Americans in particular, so fascinated with a period of Western history that (in many ways) is the polar opposite of American ideals? And what can the novels and the television series of GoT tell us about our own understanding, or rejection, of the code of chivalry?

Ken Mondschein is a medieval researcher, historical fencing practitioner and instructor, and avid Game of Thrones fan. He is a long-time participant in medieval reenactment activities with groups like the Society for Creative Anachronism, and is a certified fencing instructor (specializing in historical fencing) with the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association. He received his Ph.D. in history from Fordham University and has taught inter alia at University of Massachusetts, Boston University, and Westfield State University on topics ranging from the history of time and science, to imperialism and global interconnectedness, to (of course) the history of jousting, armor, and courtly culture. He has been widely published in both academic and popular online and print publications. His books include “Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise,” “On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping,” and “The Knightly Art of Battle.” 

One of Ken’s most recent books is “Game of Thrones and the Art of Medieval War,” from McFarland Books. Ken joined host Scott Farrell to discuss the parallels between the world of Westeros and the European Middle Ages, and how the universe of Game of Thrones provides a mirror for us to consider our own perceptions of ambition, duty, and chivalry in the modern world.

Hard to believe that it was just three months ago, in October of 2019, that the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a truly remarkable exhibition called

The Last Knight – the Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximillian I. Hard to believe, because as we record this episode of our podcast, the exhibition is in its final week of opening to the public.

The exhibition has caused a lot of excitement in the world of medieval enthusiasts – and well beyond. At the opening of the gallery, host Scott Farrell talked with Dr. Tobias Capwell, curator of arms and armor at the Wallace Collection, as they had discovered that they were both planning trips to New York to see the exhibition, and realized that, by sheer misfortune, they were going to miss each other at the museum by literally just a few hours. But since the two weren’t going to have a chance to meet up at the gallery itself, they thought it would be fun to compare notes before, and after visiting the gallery in a two-part podcast episode that everyone could share – whether you’ve been to the Met during the run of this exhibition or not.

In our first episode, Dr. Capwell spoke about the biography and cultural importance of Emperor Maximillian in our perception of knightly culture, and the ideals of chivalry. Now, after both having had the privilege of enjoying the gallery in person, Dr. Capwell joins Scott again for a sort of post-game analysis on their respective visits to the museum, and the success of this gallery in expanding the understanding of chivalry, knighthood, and the armor makers’ art in the 15th and 16th century.

It seems among the world of medieval history enthusiasts as well as serious students of the historical fighting arts, the New York Metropolitan Museum’s temporary exhibition The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximillian I, has become something of a pilgrimage for the devout – at least to judge from the number of friends and colleagues seen on social media posing for “selfies” in front of the 15th century Helmschmid armor that greets visitors to the gallery.

As we learned from our last episode, a conversation with Wallace Collection curator Toby Capwell, this exhibition was more than three years in the making, it includes some 180 items on loan from museums and collections all over the world, and it isn’t hyperbole to say that it represents a level of experience and scholarship that most of us aren’t likely to see again in our lifetimes.

So, as a team of “armor geeks” from Chivalry Today was coordinating an excursion from San Diego to New York to see the gallery, we were delighted to discover that Christian Tobler, a trailblazer in the field of fighting-manual translation and fellow practitioner of the art of the German longsword, was going to be there on the same day. We subsequently made plans to meet Christian at the Met and use the opportunity to spend the day admiring (which is to say “obsessing over”) this extraordinary exhibition together. After a long day of peering through glass at armor and swords, we sat down for coffee and started discussing what we’d seen, and decided that this was a conversation that really needed to be shared with others.

Thus, Christian Tobler, author of books like In Service To The Duke and Fighting With the German Longsword joins host Scott Farrell to talk about their shared experience in the Met’s The Last Knight gallery.

To see images of Scott and Christian touring the gallery and viewing the items discussed in the podcast episode, visit the photo album on the Chivalry Today Facebook Page.

On October 7 of 2019, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art opened an exhibition called The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximillian I. This display is an ambitious undertaking, featuring more than 180 pieces from museums and collections throughout America, Europe and the Middle East. Maximillian’s passion for the trappings of knighthood and chivalry were expressed not just in the armor-maker’s art, but also in painting, stained glass, manuscripts, and even in the new (for the time) artistic medium of the printing press. The exhibition will run through January 5, 2020.

While it is on display, this collection will certainly attract enthusiasts and experts from all over the world – and one of them is Dr. Tobias Capwell, arms and armor curator at the Wallace Collection. Although he hasn’t visited the Maximillian gallery yet, he’ll be traveling to New York in just a few days to do so … and by happy coincidence, a team of folks from Chivalry Today, including podcast host Scott Farrell, will also be in New York to visit the exhibition later this month.

So, before our respective visits, we thought it would be interesting to compare notes to get a sense of what to expect in this exhibition, why Maximillian had such a profound influence on the image of knighthood and chivalry, and how an acclaimed exhibition like this looks from the perspective of an art historian and curatorial expert.

Dr. Capwell joins host Scott Farrell to share some pre-visit thoughts on the Maximilian exhibit, to help all of us understand the significance of this gallery, and to give some context on how a German Renaissance prince helped shape our image of knighthood and chivalry in the 21st century.

Visit The Last Knight multimedia experience at the Met’s website;

Learn more about the galleries at The Wallace Collection

One of the challenges of studying history is to avoid looking into the past with a myopic view – to think that people of times past were somehow more simplistic, predictable, or uniform than we are today.

When we study a historical period like the Middle Ages, we should strive to appreciate the depth and complexity of individuals who lived in that world, to recognize that people in the past pursued various (sometimes even bewildering or contradictory) interests, ideals, and vocations throughout their lives – just as we do today.

A single, hour-long historical documentary, no matter how well researched and presented it is, risks giving that sort of tunnel-vision image of the medieval world, and (particularly) knights who lived in it. How many TV shows have you seen that give you the impression that each and every man of knightly status in the medieval world wore armor, went jousting, and was constantly preparing for battle?

For another approach to understanding the life of a Late Medieval knight, you might want to check out a documentary series called “The Knight” on the YouTube channel Modern History TV. This series of 32 episodes (plus lots of behind the scenes “Knight Extra” shorts) strives to present a well-rounded, very human image of the medieval knight in a way that – perhaps – no other documentary project before has done, exploring armor, swords, jousting, and war horses, yes … but also cuisine, fashion, hobbies, society – and the ideals of chivalry that were interwoven through the culture of the period, even as the role of the knight as a figure of military dominance was on the wane.

Just what does this video series have to tell us about the world of the Late Medieval knight that’s different from anything you can find in a history book? Can exploring the professions, material, and culture that surrounded medieval knights give us more understanding about the people who wore armor and rode to battle in the Middle Ages? And is there a lesson to be learned about the relevance of chivalry today by following along on this one-man journey through the exploration of “modern history”?

Jason Kingsley is CEO of Rebellion Video Games, and it was under his guidance and creative vision that the company’s Rebellion Production division produced the “Modern History” documentary series. Fulfilling the job of host and narrator, Jason accompanies viewers through the world of the medieval knight as he sees it – with curiosity and enthusiasm, but also with objectivity and clear eyes, as he looks not just at the elements that created the iconic image of the “knight in shining armor” but also how military tactics, sports equipment, fashion, and even business practices today are still, to a degree, affected by medieval history.

Jason joins host Scott Farrell in this episode to talk about his quest to explore the ideals of chivalry in both his personal and professional endeavours.

Whatever your standard for virtuous behavior – the code of chivalry, the Ten Commandments, the practice of good sportsmanship, or the Golden Rule – that fact is that the vast majority of us don’t manage to put those principles into practice each and every day of our lives.

By the same token, most of us aren’t seeking to do harm to our fellow human beings. Few people set out on a deliberate campaign to be fraudulent, cruel, or selfish at every opportunity. We tend to exist (most of us) in that middle ground, between stainless virtue and shameless vice, in an area that might be termed the “character gap” – a place that surely would have been familiar to medieval authors who wrote about the importance of chivalry while noting its frequent lack among the knightly class. It’s a place that is still observed today by proponents of chivalry and honor, who know that talking about justice, integrity, compassion, and fairness, and practicing such chivalric virtues are two very different things.

What is it that causes this gap between our intentions and our actions? Why, throughout history, have average people (even those of knightly status) had such trouble living up to noble ideals, and what can modern studies into behavior and psychology do to help us bridge this “chivalry gap”?

Dr. Christian Miller is the AC Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University, where his research and work focuses primarily on contemporary ethics and the philosophy of religion. He has written about the intersection between traditional philosophy and virtue ethics, and modern psychological and clinical research for the Wall Street Journal, Slate Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, Christianity Today, and other notable print and on-line media for both popular and academic audiences. He is also the philosophy director of The Character Project, a collaborative effort to guide and support work into researching the commonalities between philosophy, theology, and psychology.

Dr. Miller’s new book is The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Published in 2017 by Oxford University Press) which explores recent research into the social and psychological value of honorable, virtuous, and decent behavior, and why we so often fail to live up to those qualities.

Dr. Miller joins host Scott Farrell to talk about how the concept of chivalry plays into our understanding of good character, and how examining historical practices of chivalry in action can – perhaps – lend some insight on how we might bridge the “character gap” and become better people today.

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If you are one of the many medieval enthusiasts who enjoy this show, and who studies (or perhaps even re-creates) famous battles, dueling, jousting, hunting, knighthood, and the ideals and literature of chivalry, then I’ll bet you have a “bucket list” of arms and armor exhibitions that you have visited, or want to visit in your lifetime – places like the Vienna Art Museum, the Royal Armouries in Leeds, the Tower of London, or the Army Museum in Paris. You don’t even have to leave the US to enjoy a world-class display of medieval armor: the armor galleries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Higgins Armory Collection at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts attract thousands of visitors each year, and are among the best in the world.

But if you’re checking off the locales on your own “top ten armor galleries” list right now, there is a new name you may have to add: The Art Institute of Chicago, which (earlier this year) opened a completely purpose-designed space, the Deering Family Gallery and Exhibition, to house a permanent display of some 700 items of medieval and Renaissance arms and armor, along with various associated artworks in a collection called “Saints and Heroes” – most of the armor on display there has been off of public exhibition for more than a decade, and some items have never been publicly displayed before, ever.

In 2013 Jonathan Tavares took on the post of associate curator for arms and armor and European decorative arts before 1600 at the AIC, and was instrumental in the planning and creation of the armor gallery. Jonathan has studied historical arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has taught courses on fashion and armor at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology in NY City. He has lectured to academic groups including the American Society of Arms and Armor Collectors, and the Armor and Arms Club of Manhattan.

And – as if designing a world-class museum gallery didn’t keep him busy enough – Jonathan was also heavily involved in the recent episode of the PBS documentary series NOVA, called “Secrets of the Shining Knight,” which chronicled the reproduction of an entire set of 16th century Tudor armor from iron ore to finished product, which he worked on as one of the primary historical advisors to the show.

But apart from providing a new, publicly accessible home for this marvelous collection of armor, the Saints and Heroes gallery also invites visitors to contemplate these pieces of artwork within the context of the society and fashion of their times, giving us a glimpse into the quickly changing culture that was the real world of the Age of Chivalry – and was, in that respect, not so different from our own.

Of course, most medieval knights were hardly “saints,” and few of them really even qualify as “heroes,” so just why do the armor, swords, guns, and other items of armament we associate with them create such a heroic image in the minds of the people who see them – both in the Middle Ages, and in today’s world? Does our modern fascination with the romance of chivalry create a rosy mythology around instruments of warfare and death? Or is there a lesson to be learned in these medieval artifacts about the importance of ideals of courtesy, nobility, and heroism in a distinctly non-honorable age that we can apply to our own world?

Jonathan joins host Scott Farrell in this episode to talk about the newly opened gallery and what it has to teach us about knights of the middle ages and Renaissance, and the code of chivalry.

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Serious scholars of history might once have scoffed at the notion of undertaking an arts and crafts project as a means of historical study. In recent years, however, dedicated efforts into living history and immersive historical experimentation have proved that bringing history to life can, in fact, achieve a different sort of understanding to research and data taken from artwork, chronicles, and written records. Experimental historians have, of late, worked at redacting historical recipes with heritage food items, reproducing scientific discoveries using period instruments and methods and – perhaps some of the most celebrated – recreating or rebuilding military hardware using historically accurate materials and production methods.

If any of those endeavors sounds particularly interesting to you, then you are probably familiar with several episodes of the PBS series Nova, in which filmmakers have documented projects to reproduce military weaponry in Secrets of the Viking Sword, and Secrets of the Samurai Sword, and the episode in the series Secrets of Lost Empires in which two crews assembled a pair of full-size, functional medieval trebuchets on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland.

And now, Nova is turning this same sort of focus on another aspect of high-tech historical craftsmanship in their new episode titled Secrets of the Shining Knight. In it, a team of experts will attempt to replicate a well-known harness originally crafted in the 16th century in England’s renowned, state-of-the-art Greenwich Armory, putting their knowledge and skill to use to replicate both the construction and function of the original piece.

But as fascinating as exploring the fine points of Renaissance metallurgy and forging skills might be, this project is hardly limited to uncovering the facts about engineering, design, and craftsmanship. Like products from specialty makers today, things like architectural monuments and military achievements (like swords and armor) have a great deal to tell us about the culture surrounding them. What were the aesthetics, the values, and the principles of the people who crafted and admired such items? What can studying and replicating a piece of armor from history tell us about the 16th century understanding of the values of chivalry? (A very complex and even contentious topic, even in the days of Tudor England.) And what can it tell us about our own perceptions – and misperceptions – about the knightly code today?

Jeffrey Wasson is founder and chief craftsman at Wasson Artistry, and he is unarguably one of the finest American armor-makers working today. He has crafted museum-grade replica armor for jousters and historical combat and military experts all over the US and Europe, and his work has even been featured prominently in the 2004 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, which offered a custom harness for customers to bedeck their own “lord a-leaping” in Gothic plate armor for the mere cost of $20,000.

When Nova needed an expert platener (that is, a specialty plate armor maker) to head up the reproduction project for Secrets of the Shining Knight, they turned to Mr. Wasson who, working with metalsmith Ric Furrer, took on the job of studying and reproducing this remarkable historical artifact.

Jeffrey Wasson joins podcast host Scott Farrell for a conversation about his work on the upcoming Nova episode, and what it might help us discover about the culture of knighthood and the code of chivalry.

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Below, watch the trailer for Nova: Secrets of the Shining Knight, airing Oct. 4, 2017

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Anyone who has read Christian Cameron’s historical adventure novels, such as the William Gold series, knows that creating a detailed medieval setting is one of his fortés. He is an author quite skilled at describing battles, armor, and fighting tactics, and at getting inside the personalities and motives of the men and women who lived in that era.

And any of Christian Cameron’s reading fans who follow him as an author know that he is pretty dedicated to the adage: Write what you know. When he’s not at the keyboard, Christian can be found taking part in reenactments of Ancient Greek military life, exploring the wilderness using historically accurate medieval camping kit, and donning full 14th century armor to test his skills in friendly duels known as Deeds of Arms.

But this past summer, Christian’s medieval fighting efforts took on a new and distinctly chivalric spirit when his Western Martial Arts study group decided to use their skills, equipment, and passion for historical detail as a platform for charitable fund-raising, which they called their Deed of Alms.

Christian Cameron joins podcast host Scott Farrell to talk about the genesis of this outstanding idea, and how it fits in with the notion of chivalry as he has studied it, as he depicts it through the characters in his novels, and as he and his friends try to live it in the world today.

Posted by Matt Lima on Sunday, July 23, 2017

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Martial arts practice today is a relatively commonplace affair. In dojos, gyms, and studios all over the country (in truth, all over the world) students practice judo, karate, fencing, kendo, escrima, wrestling and boxing as part of their everyday lives – lives that don’t involve duels, assassination attempts, or open warfare. Though these sports maybe confined to tournaments and exhibitions today, in ages past the men and women who practiced these arts were (possibly) preparing to employ them in a very different set of circumstances. Knowing the right way to fight at the right time against the the right opponents could mean the difference between life and death – but using the wrong fighting skills at the wrong time against the wrong people could, in a similar vein, mean the difference between a case of self-defense and a criminal charge, sport and treason, or honor and dishonor. Context, in this regard, was everything.

Today there is a renewed interest in the combative activities known as historical European martial arts (or HEMA) – and thousands of enthusiasts worldwide are exploring the arms, armor, (and fighting skills) of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, secure in the notion that their function is merely enjoyment and physical fitness, rather than dueling and battle.

But does practicing sword fighting with friends on the weekends result in an incomplete understanding of what is, at it’s core, a culturally integrated methodology of the controlled and systematic application of violence? Can we claim to be studying the “true art” of sword fighting without having an awareness of the circumstances in which that art was meant to be applied? And is an understanding of the code of honor that drove people to master such martial arts historically, as important to their practice today as the mastery of the physical techniques themselves? What does the context of historical martial arts teach us about the context of our own understanding of chivalry?

Richard Marsden (shown at left giving a workshop at a recent HEMA conference with one of his favored fencing weapons, the Polish saber) is one of the co-founders of the respected Phoenix Society of Historical Swordsmanship, and past president of the HEMA Alliance – an international network of groups studying the sword-fighting arts of past times. He’s won various medals and trophies at historical fencing competitions for his skills with the longsword, rapier, and in particular the Polish saber, which was the topic of his book, by the same name, published in 2015.

This year, Richard has a new book on the shelves: Historical European Martial Arts In Its Context: Single-Combat, Duels, Tournaments, Self-Defense, War, Masters, and their Treatises, published by Tyrant Industries and available through Amazon.com. In this podcast episode, Richard joins host Scott Farrell to talk about the context of chivalry in the combative arts throughout history.