Whether it be a gallant, armour-clad noble racing to the rescue of an imperilled damsel, or a blood-soaked warrior engaged in a savage massacre, the image of the knight in action is inimitably linked to our popular conception of the medieval world. Knights stood at the forefront of European history for centuries, serving as conquerors and keepers of the peace in a barbarous era fraught with conflict and immortalised as heroes in epic myths and romanticised tales.

Revered as the greatest knight of his generation, William Marshal, the subject of my latest book, personified both the chivalrous qualities and grasping ambition of this warrior class. Born the landless younger son of a minor English nobleman, Marshal served no fewer than five kings of England and was on intimate terms with the likes of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart. Having helped to negotiate Magna Carta and stem the tide of French invasion in the early 13th century, Marshal ended his days as one of the richest and most powerful barons in England.

The real-life Lancelot of his era, Marshal lived through what many saw as the golden age of chivalry, in which the rituals, practices and ideals of knighthood were first established. Yet he was from far being the only knight, whether historical or fictional, to leave his mark on the middle ages. Here are 10 of the best works revealing the careers of other famous medieval warriors.

1. Beowulf, anonymous



More than 1,000 years ago, audiences were transfixed by the stirring tale of Beowulf’s battle with the monster Grendel, and the story - replete with magical swords, an evil witch and even a dragon - retains its power to this day. In strict terms, Beowulf was not a knight, but rather a Scandinavian warrior, immortalised in an epic Old English poem composed in the early middle ages (but perhaps not written down until the eighth century). JRR Tolkien was one of the work’s greatest (and most influential) fans.

2. The Quest for El Cid by Richard Fletcher



Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, or El Cid (the Master), was the legendary champion of the Spanish reconquista. Like William Marshal, El Cid was a self-made man who rose through the ranks, serving both the Christian kings of Castile and the Muslim lords of Zaragoza in the 11th century. Fletcher’s masterful biography penetrates the myths surrounding Díaz de Vivar to expose a warrior who was neither a crusading zealot nor a nationalistic hero, but a man of his time: an ambitious, land-hungry mercenary who used his martial prowess to achieve advancement.

3. Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by Chrétien de Troyes



One of the first works of European literature to explore the ideals of knighthood within the fictionalised setting of the Arthurian court, Chrétien de Troyes’ 12th-century Old French poem told the story of Lancelot’s quest to free a captive Queen Guinevere, and their subsequent, ill-fated love affair. Chrétien’s work spoke to a world increasingly fixated by the status and role of knights, and the idea of chivalry.

4. Richard I by John Gillingham



Gillingham’s outstanding biography of Richard the Lionheart – England’s consummate warrior-king – reset our understanding of a monarch once derided as a brutish thug. In a beautifully crafted work packed with insight, Richard emerges as a learned and deft politician, but a figure who also strove to prove his knightly prowess and crusading devotion.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘England’s consummate warrior-king’, Richard I, the Lionheart. Photograph: Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

5. Life of St Louis by John of Joinville



The story of Louis IX of France’s catastrophic Egyptian crusade, now available from Penguin Classics in an excellent new translation, chronicles the lives of both the pious king and his faithful knight, Joinville. As an eyewitness to the 13th-century campaign, Joinville was able to pack his text with intimate details of his experiences, and he was often disarmingly honest about the horrors of medieval war.

6. Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine by Richard Barber



Barber provides the best introduction to the so-called Black Prince, Edward III’s illustrious son and heir who was the victor at the battle of Poitiers (1356) and who died before he could accede to the English throne. The first Duke of Cornwall, Edward was a military genius obsessed by notions of chivalry and Arthurian legend. He founded the knightly Order of the Garter and championed England’s cause in the hundred years war, yet was not above using devious and brutal tactics, including scorched-earth raids on enemy territory that left the peasantry reeling.

7. Book of Chivalry by Geoffroi de Charny



A wonderful companion piece to any work on the Black Prince, the Book of Chivalry was written by one of Edward’s leading opponents, the French knight Geoffroi de Charny, who met his end at the battle of Poitiers. The treatise sought to establish a code of behaviour for medieval knights, espousing the ideals of valour and courtesy, yet he wrote at a time when the crippling expenses associated with knighthood (including armour, weaponry and horses) meant that the warrior class was undergoing a recruitment crisis.

8. Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman by Frances Stonor Saunders



The shift in military culture that began during the lifetimes of de Charny and Edward the Black Prince was perfectly epitomised by the infamous career of Sir John Hawkwood, the English mercenary who made his name (and fortune) fighting in the war-torn, pestilence-ridden world of late 14th-century Europe. With a marked capacity for ruthlessness, Hawkwood was distrusted by many of his employers, but that did not stop him acquiring wealth and influence to rival that of a prince.

9. The Knight’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer



Chaucer’s first Canterbury Tale offers a story about medieval knighthood transposed into the imagined (and idealised) world of ancient Greece. Worth reading for the glimpse it provides of a late medieval world still fascinated by the notions of chivalry and courtly love, yet conscious of the destructive violence associated with the warrior class.

10. Le Morte d’Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory



Writing in the 15th century, as the middle ages drew to a close, Malory distilled and adapted the accumulated medieval legends of King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table and established a new canon of Arthurian tales. As a work that has done so much to influence our vision of knighthood and chivalry, Le Morte d’Arthur is still an essential read.

• Dr Thomas Asbridge is reader in medieval history at Queen Mary, University of London and the author of The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power Behind Five English Thrones, available from the Guardian Bookshop for £16.