Life and Death in the Late Middle Ages
In this French manuscript illumination from 1465, armored knights kill a priest and official in a castle and a peasant while he plows. In the background, other knights steal cloth from a woman (and the distaff on which she made it) and approach a man at work in a field. Aristocratic violence was a common feature of late medieval life, although nobles would generally not have bothered to put on their armor to harass villagers. (Musée Condé, Chantilly, France/The Bridgeman Art Library)