The Influence of Literature on Knights during the High Middle-Ages - Research Paper Example

 The Influence of Literature on Knights during the High Middle-Ages Introduction “The age of chivalry is gone- that of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever”,1 thus lamented Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, written in 1790, just after the fall of the French monarchy. An age of chivalry, an age of undying romance and of never ending glory; this is the picture that has been etched into our minds by some of the well known literary works, about the high Middle-Ages. In today’s context the term ‘chivalry’ has almost become synonymous with the term ‘knight’, a popular warrior class that existed during the twelfth, thirteen and fourteenth century Europe. These knights were highly eulogised characters, and based on their real life exploits, much folklore were created by various authors, during those times. In the twentieth century, when we think of knights, we picture one in shining armour, rescuing his lady love, by beating all odds and dangers that come his way. A knight, in historical perspective, is a term denoting a special warrior class, which existed from 400A.D. till around 1400 A.D. (in Italy, in rest of Europe till 1500A.D.), the time frame better known in history as the Middle-Ages. These warriors or knights were primarily cavalrymen, heavily armoured, possessed weapons, and played an important part in many of the major battles of those times. Chivalry was a sort of ‘code of conduct’ practised by these warriors, which formed an integral part of this whole social order, collectively known as of knights. This code of conduct was later integrated with the regenerating social circumstances of the Renaissance period. It soon became an intrinsic part of the literary classics, and deviating from the path of a true representation of the then social order, acquired the nature of a mythical folklore which had all the elements of ‘courtly romance’, yet bearing very little semblance to the real life scenarios of the high Middle-Ages. This study will take an in-depth look into the social order that was known as ‘knights,’ and will examine closely the code of ethics that came to known as ‘chivalry’, a term so popular in the world of classical literature, that it unconsciously creates almost two different worlds; the ancient world that is chivalrous, and the modern world lacking chivalry. Walter Scott very aptly frames this notion in his essay, “excepting only the change which followed from the introduction of the Christian religion, we know no cause which has produced such general and permanent difference betwixt the ancients and the modern, as that which has arisen out of the institution of chivalry”2. We will examine various literary classics that lay so much premium on this concept of chivalry, and find out the meaning of the term ‘courtly love,’ that is proximately associated with it. This study will also explore various historical books and articles to see whether the knights of the middle ages were truly what the classics portrayed them to be, or whether they were mere myths, a figment of imagination, only to be found within the pages of a classical literature. Body The medieval institution known as “knighthood”- This study will start its course by first taking a close look at this eulogised warrior class known to us as the knights. These knights are comparable to the French militia known as Chevalier, or the German Ritter. There are other variants in the Indo European language, like cavalier or rider, which mean the same and are an allusion to the horse, which formed the knight’s carrier. A warrior on a horse has been a symbol of power and bravery, right from the start of the human civilisation. This is evident in the various artistic representations, which we find from the ancient civilisations, showing mounted soldiers (like paintings of soldiers riding eques from the Roman civilisation, and hippeus from the Greek civilisation). Similarly, knighthood is also analogous to skilled horsemanship. Here Kaeuper describes a painting from the thirteenth century, that depicts a knight and which serves to integrate the two most important elements pertinent to knighthood in medieval Europe, “the bifoliate illumination brings chivalry and religion into the same conceptual framework...it presents a mounted knight fully encased in mid-thirteenth century armour...at the top of this page a Latin inscription...from the book of job...[reads] ‘Militia est vita hominis super terram’ (human life on earth is militia)”3. Here the word militia obliquely refers to ‘knighthood’, which symbolises fight and struggle. Thus, we can easily understand through this pictorial representation that knighthood in the Middle-Ages was symbolic of the Christian ideology, and its struggles synonymous with the struggle of Christianity against all that is sinful and evil. In the book Prose Lancelot this relationship is explained in great details. According to this book, the horse that carries the knight is a symbolic representation of the Christian religion, the saddle resting on a blanket represents humility, his sword is God’s word (as in St. Paul’s), while his lance represents perseverance. The shield bears the sign of the holy Christian trinity, thus endorsing the idea that a knight is a warrior who stood for christen ethics, morality and religious rights. This deep rooted connection between the concept of knighthood and Christianity is also explained in the book written by a knight named Ramon Llull. His book Book of the Order of Chivalry is a sort of manual that served to help in training future knights. In this book Llull produced certain symbols, and explained in great details the religious meaning that each part of the knight’s armour held, including his carrier horse. In the twelfth century, we find a certain section of the knights grouping under the flag of Christianity, and forming the ‘Military Order’. These groups were created with the sole purpose of fighting crusades against the Islamic invaders and other non-Christian pagan religions. The most famous of these ‘military orders’ was the group known as the ‘Knights Templar’. Formed under the patronage of the Roman Catholic Church at around 1118, it lasted for about 2 centuries, until it was ruthlessly persecuted and destroyed in 1307 by King Phillip IV of France. The formation of this rather volatile group under the church’s patronage is clear when we read the book ‘In Praise of the New Knighthood’ where we find the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, a powerful figure head of the Roman Catholic Church of those times, writing a letter to Hugh de Payens, (who is said to be a founder of the Knights Templar) endorsing the formation of this military order. Clairvaux writes, “He [the templar knight] is truly a fearless knight and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith just as his body is protected by armor of steel....Not that he fears death--no, he desires it. Why should he fear to live or fear to die when for him to live is Christ, and to die is gain? Gladly and faithfully he stands for Christ... Go forth confidently then, you knights, and repel the foes of the cross of Christ with a stalwart heart”4. This type of ‘military order’ formed under the church, was an amalgamation of the armed forces with conservative religious ethics. Many of the well known knights were of the monastic orders, like those belonging to the orders of St. Thomas and St. John, which helped in many of the charitable causes like caring for the poor and needy. Thus, through various literary articles, books, and paintings from the Middle Ages we can now establish the close connection that medieval knighthood had with the theology of Christian morals and beliefs. A very different image from what many of the literary classics portray as a brave warrior fighting to save his lady love, and the picture that we envision whenever we hear the word ‘knight’. Another very famous literary representation of the medieval knights was by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his rendering of the story of King Arthur in his book Historia Regum Britanniae or History of the Kings of Britain5 (1130 A.D). This rather inaccurate and whimsical rendition of the chronological order of the’ Kings of Britain’ has little value when seen from the perspective of history, but nevertheless of high literary value, as it speaks of the medieval times, and gives us the story of King Lear and his 3 daughters, for the first time. In 1485 we find another piece of literary work known as Le Morte d’ Arthur or The Death of Arthur complied by Sir Thomas Malory. This piece of classical literature is invaluable in the sense that it is written in the best form of Arthurian literature, and has inspired many famous writers of a later period. This book tells us various mythical stories of the legendary figure of King Arthur, his Queen Guinevere, the chief knight Sir Lancelot who was also the queen’s lover, and the very famous ‘Knights of the Round Table’. It is this book which starts the trend of associating chivalry with knights, making them noble warriors, sworn to vindicate the ethical values of bravery, loyalty, piety and honour. This tradition was carried forward to the Renaissance period when the chivalrous code of conduct was given further prominence with even more elevated idealistic values, leading to the formation of a new form of literature that came to be known as ‘realism’. This is evident in the very famous literary work of Miguel de Cervantes know as the Don Quixote, where these idealistic values of the knighthood were placed in context of the reality seen at the time of Cervantes, and the incongruity of the whole situation has been marvellously captured by the author in his work. Apart from these books, there were also other well known literary works on medieval knights, like that of Book of Chivalry by Geoffroi de Charny, the few surviving narratives by Chandos Herald and Froissart, The Song of Roland and The Canterbury Tales. All these books give us an insight into the lives and times of the medieval knights. A brief look into these literary pieces tells us about the average knight and his activities at the times of war, peace and also during the very popular tournaments of the medieval ages. The modern picture of knights is extraneous to the reality that went into preparing oneself to become a knight during the middle ages. “In order to become a knight, a boy of the aristocratic family would begin his apprenticeship at the age of seven. He would abandon his childhood games for those of a soldier and would serve first as a page at a court of a noble friend of his father, at fourteen he would become a valet or squire, and he would receive his first sword to serve the knight, with whom he would share the rigours of training in the risks of combat”6. Finally at the age of 21, or even earlier if from the royal family, or if displaying exceptional strength and skill in the techniques of warfare, he was declared a knight by the king. This honour of bestowing knighthood had a fixed ceremonial procedure which was “signified by a fist on the shoulder, later by touching the shoulder with a sword and a kiss on the left cheek, between the knight and his patron”7. So, definitely not a very rosy picture of the life we generally associate with knights of the medieval times. In fact, a look at history would show us that Bertrand du Guscelin (a French knight of the 14th century and later, also the Marshall of France) had started wrestling with the street boys when he only 14, and at the same age had also started to organise various ‘tournaments’ of his own where he often played the role of a referee. The word ‘knight’ came from an old form of English language that spelled ‘cniht’ meaning a boy or a young servant. This word has a common etymological source from another German word ‘Knecht,’ meaning a servant. So it is of little wonder, that all knights started their career as page boys in the court of their father’s friends. By the age of 15-16, he would be ready to participate in tournaments and battle fields, and had to be an able marksman and an extremely skilful horse rider. Being able to ride a horse was one of the most important parts of becoming a knight, and such was its importance that a disgraced knight would have his spurs cut off, meaning that his career as a knight was over for good. Thus, from above accounts it is very clear that the medieval knights were primarily a highly specialised and professional group of soldiers, who were replacing the “citizens’ armies” of classical antiquity that consisted mainly of heavy cavalry (Cataphracts). Knighthood in Europe symbolised two main things, which were, rise of the feudal system and the coming of the light cavalrymen. Both these developments took place under the emperor Charlemagne, who is credited with the starting of this system of knighthood, in and around 732A.D, with the Battle of Tours, while fighting against an Arab invasion. They were soon being termed as ‘militiamen’ (from the Latin word ‘miles’) and became the ones with the power of the real arms force. With each passing year, this warrior class grew stronger, and with confusion ensuing in the various European states in the 9th and 10th centuries, turned this group into an extremely powerful order of the elite society. However, it was not necessary that all knights were from nobles, neither were all noble family members trained to become knights. In fact, when Louis VI was knighted, it was kept a secret from his father, who mistrusted all members of the militia that were composite and professional in nature. However after Louis’s knighthood, it became a tradition to knight all French emperors8. Thus, knights became noblemen only from twelfth century onwards, and their positions were also made became hereditary during the thirteenth century, and it was mainly during these times that we see the rise of classical literatures that represented knights as warriors in a shining armours, adept at all forms of chivalry and courtly love, and riding high to rescue the lady love from captivity. It is to these forms of literary writing that Richard Francis Burton refers to when he says “Were it not evident that the spiritualising of sexuality by imagination is universal among the highest orders of mankind, I should attribute the origins of love to the influences of the Arabs' poetry and chivalry upon European ideas rather than to medieval Christianity”9. Chivalry in the context of medieval knighthood and literary classics: Chivalry, the word is derived from its French counterpart “chevalerie" which refers to a warrior on horse. However, between the 11th and the 15th centuries, various literary classics have used the word ‘chivalry,’ each with a different meaning. So the term can be looked at with a different perspective, in context to various authors, time periods, and also different places. In today’s context chivalry has however taken an entirely new meaning, and refers to courteous behaviour of men towards the women. During the early medieval period chivalry referred to a code of conduct for the knights. The feudal system of the middle ages made it essential for the knights to pledge their service and loyalty to a certain lord. The code of conduct was applicable to this pledge, and a true knight always abided by these codes. These codes have been documented in the first French literary classic “The song of Roland’ which was written in 1098. This book describes the eighth century knights, and here chivalry (Charlemagne’s code of conduct) refers to courage in the battle field. The chivalry codes in this classic are “To fear God and maintain His Church/ To serve the liege lord in valour and faith/ To protect the weak and defenceless/ To give succour to widows and orphans/ To refrain from the wanton giving of offence/ To live by honour and for glory/ To despise pecuniary reward/ To fight for the welfare of all/ To obey those placed in authority/ To guard the honour 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 honour of women / Never to refuse a challenge from an equal/ Never to turn the back upon a foe”10. So the early codes of conduct related to chivalry were an amalgamation of Christian, moral and military ethics. The Arthurian codes of conduct written in the 12th century were modified by its author, and chivalry in this piece of classical literature was represented by “Honour, Honesty, Valour and Loyalty”11. Again in the 14th century we find another change when we read the codes complied by the Duke of Burgundy. It reads as “Faith/ Charity/ Justice/ Sagacity/ Prudence/ Temperance/ Resolution/ Truth/ Liberality/ Diligence/ Hope/ Valour”12. So we find a change in perception of the meaning of the word chivalry over time and also according to the whims of the author, who simply followed the social edicts of his times. Kaeuper makes it more clear when he says “we need to remember that these works are, in conscious intent at least, more often prescriptive than descriptive; they advance ideals for what chivalry should become, in other words, more often than they mirror an ideal already transformed into social reality”13 So the entire creation of a mythical concept of the chivalrous knight and his ‘courtly romance’ with the ‘lady of the manor’, by the writers of the high Middle-Age literary classics, are mostly fictitious imaginations, based only a little on the changing social atmospheres of the later medieval ages. So, it is as Barron tells us “the paradox of romance in all periods is that it expresses man’s need to see life not as it is but as it might be, yet the very formulation of the ideal rests upon his awareness of personal and social imperfections”.14 Courtly love as portrayed by the writers of medieval classics: The concept of medieval ‘courtly love’ is closely intertwined with the concept of chivalry. Here again we come across literary classics that present pictures of well dressed courtiers and elegant ladies, in fact, the dress plays an important part in the ‘courtly love’ literature. It as Burns tells us “a closer look a courtly garments will show further that fictive amorous encounters do not only enable and privilege the rise of men’s status through the practice of love...but that the deployment of rich clothes can also enable, symbolically, an increase in the social status of women in love... [And] expression of female desire...can be registered...through fabric and clothes”15. Interestingly enough, the literature of this era, being not yet bound by the tyranny of conservative mindset, also explores many areas of liaisons, out of the realms of heterosexuality. Here Scultz tells us “because the only records of courtly love are literary, we will never know the extent to which it actually did function as a social norm...but still...the study of courtly love adds an important chapter to the history of sexualities that were not peripheral”16. There are quite a number of well known classics written on ‘courtly love’ during the Middle Ages. The most famous of this is the tale of King Arthur and his 12 knights. This piece of writing, in fact, creates the base, for most of the writings that followed later, on the same topic of ‘courtly love’. Here we find a knight setting off for an adventure where he has to rescue his lady love. He also has to set right a deed gone wrong, kill a dragon, and also break a magic spell, meanwhile finishing off an incomplete task, and in the process also finding the road to heaven at the end. In the course of the story the knight will face many dangers, misfortunes, will be tested for this strength, but he must at all times and under all circumstances, follow a certain code of conduct. The story would be replete with flying horses, giants, tournaments, wars and magical enchantments or spells. This trend is followed in innumerable number of books during the same time, and even later during the late medieval period. Another well known ‘courtly love’ classic was the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer, where The Miller’s Tale gives us a true representation of ‘courtly love’. Another well known book considered more seriously by the historians, is written by Andreas Capellanus and is named Art of Courtly Love, for his lover Countess Marie of Champagne. This book is a satire which mocks at the medieval codes of ‘courtly love’. It is felt that this work, though not a serious work of literature, gives some authentic pictures of those times, since one can generally assume that a person cannot mock something that is completely non-existent. Other works during this period include Orlando Furioso, by the Italian writer Ludovico Ariosto in 1516; Jerusalem Delivered in1580 by Torquato Tasso- another Italian author; and various poems on the theme of chivalry and courtly love by the British poets of the late sixteenth century, Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. Though there are many more such literary works on the theme of medieval ‘courtly love’, the historians find it extremely difficult to select the reliable ones. As Jaeger tells us “the ideals of that world originated in a particular social context as held and practiced values. But courtly literature is a hindrance to recovering that context. Here the origins of medieval courtesy are three and four times transformed, sublimated into the airy, unreal atmosphere of chivalric fairy tales, and hardly any path leads back to the social reality that nurtured it”17. So here it is seen that the literature of the high middle ages depicting ‘courtly love’ was not representing the true picture of those times, and was mainly based on the imagination and creativity of the writer. These “courts of love” portrayed mainly the fin d’amor or courtly love stories,18 which are based on rules of feudalism, where the knight has pledged to serve his Lord and also the Lady (the Lord’s wife). The romantic liaison between the Lady and the knight is actually an idealised relationship, presumably because it did not exist beyond the realms of the pages of the romantic stories. The lady in the story is shown to be in complete control of the love affair, and the knight being inspired by his lady love goes forward to perform great deeds that show his heroic courage and great skills, in order to win her love, and also be worthy of receiving her love. Such love stories were not possible in the medieval eras, as marriages within noble families took place based on pragmatic concerns and dynastic relations, rather than marrying for love, the later not even being considered and taken to be something of a radical thought. So in this discourse, we discover three main bases for chivalric literature of the high middle ages. The first one being duty to god, the second one being duty to the pledged Lord and fellow countrymen, and the last one which is the most popular form, is duty towards women. The first form is seen in the tales of the Grail Legends involving Sir Galahad and Sir Percival, the second form is seen in Sir Gawain in the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, while the third one is seen in the tale involving Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. Conclusion The representation of the knights in the medieval literature thus seems to be imaginative in nature, far removed from the realism of daily lives. Historical evidences prove that the mental picture that we have of knights, a picture created by the literary classics of the medieval period, in fact, to some extent did not exist. Lives of the knights during the medieval periods, were not as easy as envisioned in these books, nor were the courtly ladies so easily available to make love. These well known classics are a good read as a mythical tale, but one should not go completely by the books, and should refrain from visualising the medieval period from these representations. As Jaeger aptly framed it, “Courtly literature is not a mimetic mirror but, rather, a mask hiding the reality that produced it”19. Notes 1. Edmund Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France, ed., Mitchell, L.G., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. 77. 2. Walter Scott. Miscellaneous prose works of Sir Walter Scott. Edinburg: Robert Cadell, 1847. 3. 3. Richard Kaeupe . Holy Warriors: The Religious Ideology of Chivalry. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press,2009. 2. 4. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. Conrad Greenia. 1996. Military Orders- In Praise of the New Knighthood (Liber ad milites Templi: De laude novae militae, prologue-chapter 5. 10th August 2010. Accessed at http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html 5. Lewis Thorpe, ed., Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966. 6. The Orders of Knighthood Through The Centuries. 3. Web. 10th August 2010. accessed at http://www.orderofcyprus.org/upload/File/THE%20ORDERS%20OF%20KNIGHTHOOD.pdf. 7. Ibid. 8. Jean Favier.  Dictionnaire de la France Médiévale. Paris: Fayard, 1993. 9. Richard Francis Burton. Charles Anderson Read. Ed,. The Cabinet of Irish Literature; Selections from the Works of the Chief Poets, Orators, and Prose Writers of Ireland - Vol IV. London: Read Books, 2007. 94. 10. Knights code of Chivalry. Web. 11th August 2010. Accessed at http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/knights-code-of-chivalry.htm 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid. 13. Richard Kaeuper. Chivalry and violence in medieval Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 33 14. W. Barron. ‘Knighthood on trial: the acid test of irony’, In Knighthood in medieval literature, ed. W.H. Jackson. London: Cambridge University Press, 1987. 103. 15. Jane Burns. Courtly Love Undressed: Reading Through Clothes in Medieval French Culture. The Middle Ages series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.3. 16. James Schultz. Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. xvii. 17. Stephen Jaeger. The Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals, 939-1210. The Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985. x. 18. Porter, Pamela. 2003. Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.5. 19. Stephen Jaeger, Ibid. Bibliography Barron, W, (1987). ‘Knighthood on trial: the acid test of irony’, In Knighthood in medieval literature, ed. W.H. Jackson. London: Cambridge University Press, 103. Burke, E, (1993). Reflections on the Revolution in France, ed., Mitchell, L.G., Oxford: Oxford university press, 77. Burns, J. (2002). Courtly Love Undressed: Reading Through Clothes in Medieval French Culture. The Middle Ages series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 3. Burton, R. (2007). Charles Anderson Read. Ed,. The Cabinet of Irish Literature; Selections from the Works of the Chief Poets, Orators, and Prose Writers of Ireland - Vol IV. London: Read Books, 94. Favier, J. (1993).  Dictionnaire de la France Médiévale. Paris: Fayard. Kaeuper, R. (2009). Holy Warriors: The Religious Ideology of Chivalry. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2. Jaeger, S. (1985).The Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals, 939-1210. The Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, x. Kaeuper, R. (1999). Chivalry and violence in medieval Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 33. Knights code of Chivalry . Web. 11th August 2010. Accessed at http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/knights-code-of-chivalry.htm Porter, P. 2003. Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 5. Schultz, J. 2006. Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, xvii. Scott, W. (1847). Miscellaneous prose works of Sir Walter Scott. Edinburg: Robert Cadell, 3. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. Conrad Greenia. (1996). Military Orders- In Praise of the New Knighthood (Liber ad milites Templi: De laude novae militae, prologue-chapter 5. 10th August 2010. Accessed at http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html Thorpe, L, ed. (1966), Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, Harmondsworth: Penguin. The Orders of Knighthood through the Centuries. 3. Web. 10th August 2010. Accessed at, http://www.orderofcyprus.org/upload/File/THE%20ORDERS%20OF%20KNIGHTHOOD.pdf. Read More