Courtly Love and Chivalry

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Courtly Love and Chivalry

• A code of behavior for Medieval knights

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The Medieval Knight

• Medieval knights were generally younger sons of
  noble families.
• Young noble boys would learn the arts of combat
  and etiquette in noble households, serving as
  squires befoe becoming full-fledged knights.

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• As a member of the first estate, a knights
  role in the world was to protect his country by
  fighting in wars.
• Honor in battle was his aim, and he was expected
  as well to be humble, courteous, faithful to his
  lord and his wife, and unmotivated by material
  gain.
• The Knight in the Canterbury Tales is an ideal in
  this way.

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Eustache Deschamps Du Bachelier dArmes

• You who desire the order of chivalry
• Must lead a new life,
• Lie awake in prayer devotedly,
• Flee sin, pride, and villeiny,
• Must defend the Church,
• The widow also, support the orphan,
• Be brave and guard the people,
• A valiant, loyal man who takes nothing from
  others.
• Thus a knight must govern himself.

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You must have a humble heart, always must labor
in And pursue the deeds of chivalry, Fignt in
just wars, be a great crusader, Engage in
tournaments, and joust for your lady, Must always
act honorably So that no man can find fault with
you Nor find cowardice in your deeds, And among
all people you must hold yourself to be
least. Thus must a knight govern himself.
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You must cherish your lords rights, And above
all guard his lordship, Show generosity, be a
true judge, Follow the company of valiant
men, Listen to and learn from their sayings, And
comprehend the brave deeds of heroes, So that you
can acieve great exploits, As Alexander the Great
did in former times. Thus must a knight govern
himself.
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• Since knights were only supposed to think about
  and practice warfare all the time, they ran into
  trouble during peacetime.
• Knights with nothing to do were liable to start
  wandering the countryside raping and pillaging.
  This is not just because they were bored -- much
  of their livelihood was composed of money and
  goods taken from the enemy during and after
  battle.

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• To keep knights from doing this, rulers would
  either drum up an excuse to send them off to war,
  engaging them to battle for an ally, for example,
  or invite them to demonstrate their fighting
  skills in staged tournaments.
• Tournaments became an increasingly popular form
  of entertainment during the Middle Ages, drawing
  spectators from all over -- including ladies.

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Courtly Love

• Associated with these tournaments was the idea of
  courtly love an idealized form of love that
  ennobled a knight and pushed him to fight his
  best.
• The rules of courtly love required each knight to
  fight for a particular lady, and to gain honor in
  her name.

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• A courtly lover swore unwavering devotion to one
  lady, who was coy at first and made him prove
  himself before she would bestow her favors.
• Desire to impress his lady drove a knight to
  valiant acts and compelled him to act politely.
• In this relationship, the lady had the upper
  hand, and the knights duty was total humble
  servitude and submission.

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• An ideal lover was lovesick all the time, struck
  to the heart by Cupids arrow and wasting away
  from the pains of love.
• This was love for loves sake, not for mercenary
  reasons -- which were the main factors
  determining marriage at the time.
• Consequently, ideal courtly love was adulterous
  love. Only with an unattainable woman could a
  man love for loves sake.

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• The ideals of chivalry and courtly love were
  similar both required men to act polite and
  fight nobly.
• Both courtly love and chivalry hinged on a
  concept of absolute loyalty chivalry to ones
  lord and courtly love to ones lady.
• Both had a religious connection the chivalrous
  knight fought for God and country and fulfilled
  his God-given role in the world courtly love was
  in many ways a religion of love, with rituals and
  commandments.

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Realities of Chivalry

• In real life, knights were not as perfectly
  faithful to their lords and modest as the rules
  of chivalry required. Knighthood was their
  profession, and they fought to maintain
  themselves. Regular pillaging was a major
  component of this, and along with pillage,
  slaughter of innocent townspeople or
  less-than-noble acts were not uncommon.
• On the other hand, ideals of bravery were not as
  compelling as chivalry demanded, and amorphous
  concepts of honor did not always hold water
  when faced with real mortal danger.

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Realities of Courtly Love

• Likewise, what was idealized as love for loves
  sake often boiled down to lust.
• Adultery, although romanticized in literature and
  art, was a major sin in Medieval society.
• Nor did a knight necessarily devote himself to
  one lady for life The Knight of La Tour Landry
  describes young knights flirting with one lady,
  pledging undying love, and then on being turned
  down, seeking out another lady to pledge undying
  love to.
• Doubtless some ladies actually did bestow
  themselves on young knights, but to do so was
  adulterous lust, not the ennobling union of
  romance literature.

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• The ideals and rules of both chivalry and courtly
  love may have been invented to keep order in a
  system in which younger sons (who did not inherit
  the family estate) became members of strangers
  households. Encouraging hormonal young men to
  fight for a noblemans name and sublimate his
  aggressions in (unconsummated) love for the
  noblemans wife would keep them from spending
  these energies in more destructive ways.

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The End
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Bibliography

• Miller, Robert, ed. Chaucer Sources and
  Backgrounds. New York Oxford UP, 1977.
• Schwartz, Debora. Backgrounds to Romance
  Courtly Love. Online. Accessed 9/23/03.
• Tuchman, Barbara. A Distant Mirror The
  Calamitous Fourteenth Century. New York Alfred
  A. Knopf, 2002.