Covers the transformation of northern European society from what has been seen as a "chivalric" to a "courtly" mode in the course of the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. It will provide a broad introduction to the secular history of later medieval society. Topics to be investigated include the rise of the dynasties which emerged in the campaigns of the Hundred Years War and the aristocratic lifestyle of warfare, hunting, tournaments, chivalry, castles and conspicuous consumption enjoyed by the combatants.