This volume opens with the story of a knight returning home from the Crusades, thus setting the scene for descriptions of castles, medieval villages, monasteries, cathedrals, and many of the other features that marked the lives of people of that era. The medieval social system is described, with kings, churchmen, and lords as leaders, and craftsmen and peasants as subjects. Feudalism, rules of chivalry, carnivals, banquets, and the weapons of war...