“To be a great knight, you ought to have consideration of civilians, for women. The greatest knights are inspired by the love of some lady out there and want to impress her and win her love by doing great deeds.”
~Jennifer Goodman Wollock
When one thinks of knights, they often imagine the romanticized, idealized man in shining armor, atop a glistening charger. The sun glints off of his helm and the feathered plume flows in the breeze. He is the picture of gallantry, of honor, and of chivalry. A dainty band of silk is tied about his arm, signifying his loyalty to a specific noblewoman.
However, when thinking about mankind’s nasty habit of glossing details over in literature, can we really picture such a man galloping across the moors of Europe? Can we really believe in a handsome, well-armed knight fighting for the honor of his lady and little else? When we look at today’s world, we see violence, hatred, and immorality all around us. The writer of Ecclesiastes laments, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (NIV, Ecclesiastes 1:9). Why, then, should knights be any different?
Chivalry was instituted by the Church, in an attempt to curb the violence of the medieval knight. Professor Wollock states that the knight was “a hired thug … like a heavy tank,” from whom “church councils were praying to be delivered.” Such glorious standards of chivalry came due to a necessity, as the Middle Ages were “a time of routine military violence with massive civilian casualties” (Gershon). The Church began popularizing the romantic idea of chivalry and literature began coming out, focusing on the chivalric code of conduct. That code of conduct runs as follows, as found in The Song of Roland:
To fear God and maintain His Church
To serve the liege lord in valor and faith
To protect the weak and defenseless
To give succor to widows and orphans
To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
To live by honor and for glory
To despise pecuniary reward
To fight for the welfare of all
To obey those placed in authority
To guard the honor of fellow knights
To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
To keep faith
At all times to speak the truth
To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
To respect the honor of women
Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
Never to turn the back upon a foe
However grand this may seem, there is no evidence present to inform us how far-reaching this code was or how well the knights obeyed it. Unfortunately, what we do know shows that the code of chivalry, “focused mostly on … the noble class that knights were part of, often at the expense of the poor” and the rules on the treatment of women were predominantly applied to those of nobility (Gershon). In the literature centered on King Arthur and his knights, the code of chivalry is idealized and not necessarily true to life, as much writing is wont to be. In the context of history, we cannot say for certain that this code, perpetuated and encouraged by the Church, was particularly successful, but it had at least a little effect, as shown from the writing. Literature tends to reflect ideals of cultures, as seen from the violent ordeals of the knights in books like Le Morte d’Arthur, and it follows that chivalry had an impact to some extent.
Regardless of how it was practiced at the time, chivalry remains a glorious, high standard of honor today. While the history is fascinating, ambiguous, and intriguing, the honorable nature of the ideal is not to be shunned or bent to suit one’s mood. The romantic image of a knight may be false to reality, but is nonetheless an admirable figure.
Works Cited
Gershon, Livia. “Chivalry Was Established to Keep Thuggish, Medieval Knights in Check.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 23 Jan. 2019, https://www.history.com/news/chivalry-knights-middle-ages.
“God Speed” Edmund Blair Leighton