Chivalry

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See also order of chivalry

Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene.--Costume of the End of the Fifteenth Century, from a Miniature in a Latin Psalm Book (Manuscript No. 175, National Library of Paris).

Chivalry refers to the medieval institution of knighthood and, most especially, the ideals that were (or have become) associated with it. It is usually, for example, associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honour and courtly love. The word comes from the French word chevalier which means knight.<ref>Etymology: English from 1292, loaned from Old French chevalerie "horsemanship," from chevaler "horseman" from Medieval Latin caballarius "horseman"; cavalry is from the Middle French form of the same word.</ref> The English word cavalier comes from the same root. Ultimately the word gained an aristocratic connotation, as it distinguished the wealthy knight on horseback from the peasant infantryman walking with his pike and the artilleryman dragging his vulgar machinery.

Medieval chivalry is most easily defined when broken up into three basic but overlapping areas:

Chivalry in relation to countrymen and fellow Christians: this contains virtues such as mercy, courage, valor, fairness, protection of the weak and the poor, and in the servant-hood of the knight to his lord. This also brings with it the idea of being willing to give one’s life for another’s; whether he would be giving his life for a poor man or his lord.
Chivalry in relation to God: this would contain being faithful to God, protecting the innocent, being faithful to the church, being the champion of good against evil, being generous and obeying God above the feudal lord.
Chivalry in relation to women: this is probably the most familiar aspect of chivalry. This would contain what is often called courtly love , the idea that the knight is to serve a lady, and after her all other ladies. Most especially in this category is a general gentleness and graciousness to all women.

These three areas obviously overlap quite frequently in chivalry, and are often indistinguishable.

Different weight given to different areas produced different strands of chivalry:

warrior chivalry, in which a knight's chief duty is to his lord, as exemplified by Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle
religious chivalry, in which a knight's chief duty is to protect the innocent and serve God, as exemplified by Sir Galahad or Sir Percival in the Grail legends.
courtly love chivalry, in which a knight's chief duty is to his own lady, and after her, all ladies, as exemplified by Sir Lancelot in his love for Queen Guinevere or Sir Tristan in his for Iseult

One particular similarity between all three of these categories is honor. Honor is the foundational and guiding principle of chivalry. Thus, for the knight, honor would be one of the guides of action.

Over the ages chivalry has seemed to have taken on a different meaning. A quotation often associated with this idea comes from Edmund Burke: "The age of chivalry is gone." [1], often misquoted as "The age of chivalry is dead." When this concept changed it did away with the first of the two duties, or sections of chivalraic code dropped and leaving only the meaning that a man is to be courteous to a lady. This is a meager definition at best, because it loses the whole motivation behind the action (duty in relation to God). We have seen that honor is the guide of action to the chivalrous man; but what happens to honor when we remove the standard for honor? Without God honor becomes meaningless, motives become warped, and chivalry is no longer chivalry; mercy shown to others and honor shown to a lady both have to be based on honor of and service to God. We now have no standard to base what is honorable and what is not.

Although honor was the guiding principle for chivalry there were certain chivalric codes that knights followed. There were several lists written down during the Middle Ages. One example code can be found in the book Chivalry by 19th century French historian Leon Gautier.

Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions.
Thou shalt defend the Church.
Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.
Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born.
Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.
Thou shalt make war against the Infidel without cessation, and without mercy.
Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.
Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word.
Thou shalt be generous, and give largess to everyone.
Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.