Courtly Love and Chivalry
A code of behavior for Medieval
knights
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 fullfledged knights.
• As a member of the “first
estate,” a knight’s 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.
Eustache Deschamps: “Du Bachelier
d’Armes”
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.
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.
You must cherish your lord’s 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.
• 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.
• To keep knights from
doing this, rulers would
either drum up and 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.
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.
• 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 knight’s duty was
total humble servitude and
submission.
• An ideal lover was
lovesick all the time,
struck to the heart by
Cupid’s arrow and wasting
away from the pains of
love.
• This was love for love’s
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 love’s sake.
• 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 one’s
lord and courtly love to
one’s 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.
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.
Realities of Courtly Love
• Likewise, what was idealized as love for love’s 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.
• 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 nobleman’s
name and sublimate his
aggressions in
(unconsummated) love for
the nobleman’s wife
would keep them from
spending these energies in
more destructive ways.
The End
Huzzah!
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.