Not for nothing are the Middle Ages also known as the Dark Ages. The light of antiquity has always burned brightly through the centuries - but the Middle Ages have tended to be passed over, and the achievements of a thousand years have rarely been considered worth preserving. Magnificent manuscripts and libraries were dispersed; the stones of the great cathedrals, castles and cities were often re-used without a thought for the unique architectural triumphs that were being destroyed forever. Mediaeval thought and behaviour, so remote from modern times, came to seem contradictory and wrong-headed, and soon posterity ceased to take the trouble to understand it.

During the last two hundred years, this has changed. The Romantics (particularly in Germany) took a great interest in the Middle Ages. King Arthur captured imaginations throughout Europe. The Gothic revival set in. And gradually, a subtler understanding of the era of the Crusades, of belief and superstition, of barbaric legal codes and weird social practices, replaced the old cliché of the Dark Ages.

This book aims to satisfy the curiosity many people today feel about the Middle Ages. With its emphasis on central Europe, it attempts an all-round picture of medieval thinking, belief and society. The seven essays examine different aspects of the Middle Ages, and the book includes 131 illustrations, many of them in colour.