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Examples of courtly love in medieval literature
Courtly love in shakespearean times
Courtly love in shakespearean times
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In relationships today we have a set of boundaries that are what we think of as common knowledge. Clearly, it is a horrible thing to take a woman by force. What most of us don't know is that these rules and expectations derived from Eleanor of Aquitaine's Courtly Rules of Love. Eleanor has done may amazing things throughout her life, one of these was writing the Rules of Courtly Love with her daughter, Marie in 1174 to write down standards for relationships that Eleanor wished were expectations at the time of her marriages. Eleanor's adult life was one of tragedy in terms of love. She was married off to protect the Aquitaine in which she inherited at the mere age of 15. She was first married to Louis VII in 1137 and had a rough marriage until …show more content…
Eleanor married King Henry II. This marriage was doomed from the start and there are many rules that stand out of the Courtly Rules of Love that bloomed during her marriage with Henry. Her tenth rule especially, stating that Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice is true as proved by Eleanor's life. Henry was extremely avarice and it was a huge part of why the marriage between him and Eleanor did not go well. Eleanor had what henry wanted, the land. Eleanor needed a husband to keep her safe so the land wouldn't end up in the wrong hands and so she would be physically safe. Henry's lust for land was always strong and with the land, he got when he married Eleanor meant he technically had more land than the king of France, something he had always wanted. Their marriage was a political match, they both got what they needed but it was all politics, rather than a marriage of love and want. When you marry with avarice something is bound to go wrong. Another way Henry’s avarice played a part in the downfall of the king and queen of England was when he killed the Archbishop of Canterbury out of greed and selfishness. On December 29, 1170, he did one of the most horrific crimes against the church, he had Thomas A Becket hacked to death in the cathedral of Canterbury. Henry allowed his avarice to take over and the results of …show more content…
His actions are well known throughout the history books, and the affair influenced Elanor’s writing of the rules, as represented in her 3rd rule, No one can be bound by a double love. According to a bio of Eleanor on history.com, “While the reasons for the breakdown of her marriage to Henry remain unclear, it can likely be traced to Henry’s increasingly visible infidelities.” Henry had a longtime affair with The Fair Rosamond daughter of Walter de Clifford, throughout his marriage with Eleanor. King Henry was not very good at hiding his affair and he did eventually marry Rosamond. While the exact timeline for the affair with Rosamund is unknown it is proven through history that the affair was long. According to Teresa McLean, in the book, Medieval English gardens, “The bower was a maze, in the center of which Henry II made love to Rosamund Clifford, his mistress, where Queen Eleanor could not discover them.” Throughout the marriage, Henry made an attempt to conceal the affair from his wife by keeping Rosamund in a maze in his park at Woodstock. Eleanor however eventually found out and devised a play to take down her husband. This affair tore their marriage to shreds and caused the beginning of the fight against King Henry, and the creation of the Courtly Rules of
The achievements and expertise of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Hildegard of Bingen were similar in that both contributed to literature. Although Eleanor of Aquitaine was often up to her knees in political affairs, nevertheless found time to cultivate the arts and patronize literature (Lindenmuth, 2005, p.1). At the royal court at Poitiers, she dedicated much of her money toward the patronage of all kinds of rising artists in all areas, but she’s best known for promoting the troubadours and romance writers (Lindenmuth, 2005, p.1). Eleanor herself greatly contributed to the rules of courtly love (Au, p.1), whose key features became humility, courtesy, and adultery (Delahoyde, Courtly Love, p.1), but her main contributions to literature were indirect.
John Kempe, the husband of Kempe, was a relationship abuser. Although that term was unknown at the time, there is evidence that he had complete ownership over his unwilling wife. However, it is important to note what some of the laws were of marriage at the time, so they can be applied to the text. “It seems clear, however, that women, then as now, were most vulnerable in the home, at the hands of their own kin. Legislators gave great leeway to the men of the household to discipline their women…” (Bennett, Karras 107). Discipline, at the time, was legal to be given by the man of the house, and there were no repercussions for him to face; “Corporeal punishments of the wife and children were considered natural privileges of the father figure who acted as the king’s and ultimately as God’s proxy within the small family unit” (Classen 195). After giving birth to fourteen children, Kempe wanted to stop having sex, and stop having children. Without taking her wishes into account, John told her that she was not allowed to deprive him of sex. This is an example of how Kempe was used, in order for John to get what he wants:
Hero and Claudio represent the Elizabethan norm in marriage. Claudio is the shrewd, hardheaded fortune hunter and Hero is the modest maiden of conduct books and marriage manuals, a docile young woman. It is important to note that Claudio is more concerned with advancement in Don Pedro's army than he is with love. Therefore, Shakespeare illustrates to the reader through the near tragedy of mistaken identity that Claudio must learn that marriage is more than a business arrangement and become worthy of Hero's love and affection. Source: Ranald, Margaret Loftus. "As Marriage Binds, and Blood Breaks: English Marriage and Shakespeare". Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol 30, 1979: 68-81.
Love waxes timeless. It is passionate and forbidden, and a true head rush. Marriage, on the other hand, is practical and safe, a ride up the socioeconomic ladder. In "The Other Paris," Mavis Gallant weaves the tale of Carol and Howard, a fictional couple who stand on the verge of a loveless marriage, to symbolize the misguided actions of men and women in the reality of the 1950s, the story's setting. By employing stereotypical, ignorant, and uninteresting characters, Gallant highlights the distinction between reality and imagination.
“‘La magnificence et la galanterie n’ont jamais paru en France avec tant d’éclat que dans les dernières annèes du règne de Henri second.’ (p. 35)... However, this image of classical perfection is quickly fractured by the mention of the event that guides the life of the court-the passion of Henry II for the Duchesse de Valentinois Later in the narrative, the heroine, like the reader, asks for further explanation for this unusual passion between a woman not only much older than the king, but one who, in addition to having been Henry’s father’s mistress, also has several other lovers..” (Judovitz, 1038-1039)
...decided that he would marry Elizabeth’s oldest daughter but before that could happen , Tudor attacked England and conquered and executed the king ,Richard lll. After he executed him, he crowned himself as King Henry VII and married princess Elizabeth who was the descendant of Elizabeth Woodville. This marriage was a result of bonding the family of Lancaster and York and to strengthen his status
Henry VIII was a bad man who got away with beheading two of his wives and based his whole opinion about them on their looks. He had six wives Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard, and Katherine Parr. Each wife had a different role in his life and each he loved differently. Henry VIII had a long life with some parts better than others.
He was a human that had emotions, he experienced grief with the multiple miscarriages and deaths of his sons and the betrayals of his wife’s, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Also the death of Jane Seymour, the only wife to give him a male heir, brought him into a depression. These events changed Henry’s perspective of his own self, that he was without a legal heir, his health was horrendous and he was being betrayed by those closest to him. Lipscomb describes the transformation of Henry from the popular prince to the tyrant king know today. As shown, “the last decade of his reign, Henry VIII had begun to act as a tyrant. The glittering, brilliant monarch of the accession, toppled into old age by betrayal, aggravated into irascibility and suspicion as a result of ill health and corrupted by absolute power, had become a despot”. Henry is not thought of as the good Christian, but Lipscomb writes throughout this book that Henry was very serious about his religious affiliations. Lipscomb portrays Henry VIII as, “a man of strong feeling but little emotional intelligence, willful and obstinate but also fiery and charismatic, intelligent but blinkered, attempting to rule and preserve his honor against his profound sense of duty and heavy responsibility to fulfil his divinely ordained role”. In other words he was an emotional mess that did not know what to do with his feelings, so he bottled them up and south to seek
Luckily for his career, Henry VII died that same year, allowing him to become active once more as an under-sheriff of London, where his mannerisms and process of decision earned a reputation for impartiality and fairness that went echoing about the city . Life once again resumed a steady pace, until in 1511, when his life was shaken by his wife , Jane, died in childbirth, giving rise to another inner crisis – once again he had the chance for a sort of monasticism, but rather than fear sin, he remarried within a month to Alice Middleton before entering the decade of his life where the sights of current Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, as well as the King’s began to create the stage for his downfall after having seen his talents in Parliament, hearing of his reputation, and his time as under-sheriff, he soon was recruited as an ambassador to the Low
The tales of King Arthur and many of their numerous characters are well known in literature. The Arthurian world is one of the great myths of modern times. Those great pieces of literature have many common themes, one of them being courtly love “L’amour Courtois”. This paper talks of courtly love as seen in King Arthur’s world especially examining “Yvain or the Knight with the Lion” and “Lancelot: or the Knight of the Cart”. Furthermore, one of the goals is to show how that courtly love could be seen in today in our world.
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around the knights and their chivalry as well as their romance through courtly love. The era in which this story takes place is male-dominated, where the men are supposed to be brave and honorable. On the other hand, the knight is also to court a lady and to follow her commands. Sir Gawain comes to conflict when he finds himself needing to balance the two by being honorable to chivalry as well as respectful to courtly love.
During the Middle Ages, Courtly love was a code which prescribed the conduct between a lady and her lover (Britannica). The relationship of courtly love was very much like the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege. The lover serves his beloved, in the manner a servant would. He owes his devotion and allegiance to her, and she inspires him to perform noble acts of valor (Schwartz). Capellanus writes, in The Art of Courtly Love, “A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved”. The stories of Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes illustrate the conventions of courtly love.
...better worth keeping than Eleanor” (220) proves to be a correct evaluation, because Henry and Eleanor apologize profusely for their father’s rude treatment of Catherine, and nothing could be a better demonstration of their regret than Henry’s proposal to her.
In the Middle Ages, when The Canterbury Tales was written, society became captivated by love and the thought of courtly and debonair love was the governing part of all relationships and commanded how love should be conducted. These principles changed literature completely and created a new genre dedicated to brave, valorous knights embarking on noble quests with the intention of some reward, whether that be their life, lover, or any other want. The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, accurately portrays and depicts this type of genre. Containing a collection of stories within the main novel, only one of those stories, entitled “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, truly outlines the 14th century community beliefs on courtly love.
King Henry VIII didn’t even claim Queen Elizabeth I until she made it obvious that she was respectable at everything she did and was very intelligent to be so young. On top of all her knowledge, she was a girl and in that time period girls weren’t respected like they are today. Because Elizabeth’s mother, Anne, could not provide the King with a son she was executed on false charges of incest and adultery in 1536 on May nineteenth (“Queen Elizabeth I Biography”). Elizabeth was only three years old when her mother was accused of such actions. Following her mother’s death, Elizabeth went through countless step mothers. One of which giving the King his longed for son, King Edward VI (“Queen Elizabeth I Biography”). King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour twelve days after Elizabeth’s mothers’ execution. However, Jane passed away due to childbed fever ("Queen Elizabeth I: Biography, Portraits, Primary Sources."). It was Henry 's sixth and final wife, Katharine Parr, who had the greatest impact upon Elizabeth 's life. A kind woman who believed passionately in education and religious reform, it seemed as if Katharine was a devoted stepmother and took pride in helping Elizabeth further her