History Of Chivalry

“Is Chivalry really dead?” To answer this question we must first address how chivalry began and understand what chivalry really is:

During the medieval years in Europe, the principals within chivalry were from a combination of complex moral, military, and aristocratic ideals. These ideas were strongly influenced by the church and the knights of the time. What resulted from this combination of ideals is what we know today to be chivalry. The world chivalry originated from the French word for knight, chevalier. It began its rise in the late 11th century based on a model for knighthood and began to decline in popularity during the 14th century. This time period within Europe was strongly influenced by the church and the military classes, and

The rules of Saint Benedict date back to the 6th century, they were so popular because they were easy to follow and practice. Saint Benedict believed that all humans were naturally flawed and that we must try to follow the will of God through practice and prayer. The amount of corruption and sin caused the push to cleanse the church and go back to how the faith used to be and to rid the church of sin. The church wanted to promote virtues and other good qualities to the nobles and knights during the time frame of the rise of chivalry. The many strong moral values that are embedded within the beliefs of chivalry came directly from the Catholic Church, and this is where the fusion of military, nobility, and religion

When we look beyond combat we see that knights were governed by a working set of ideals and ideas. These chivalric ideals are shown being tested in the poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In this poem, the main character Sir Gawain, who is a knight for King Arthur, is one of the most elite knights in the kingdom. He is looked up to because of his amount of courage and honor, and his dedication for the code of chivalry. However, these traits are tested when the Green Knight arrived at King Arthur’s feast and offers the King to a challenge. The King accepts, however, Sir Gawain volunteers so the King does not have to risk his own life. This is the first proof that Sir Gawain follows the chivalric code for knights because he has loyalty for his king and that he will risk his own life for his