The Middle Ages; Czech Medieval History; Knighthood; Chivalric Culture; Cultural Transfer; Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

The article focuses on the spread of chivalric culture, a specifi c phenomenon part of the processes of social transformation in the Czech lands between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The article attempts to challenge existing research assumptions in the Czech lands, within which the research on knighthood is methodologically subordinate a priori to accepting the explanatory model of the so-called ?Central European type of state?, a concept which confi nes the process of knowledge creation with respect to knighthood into a narrow paradigmatic constriction and thus limits alternative perspectives that are inconsistent with this explanatory model.