Chivalry

CHIVALRY. - I. HISTORY. - The origin of this characteristic institution, which permeated so much of medieval life, is not clear. It is found fully constituted at the end of the 11th century, and in the 12th century it is in full flower; but on the one hand its first origins go back to the early Middle Ages, and on the other it continues, albeit with by now different characteristics, into the Renaissance and beyond. In this constant development of its, and particularly in its best period, it is quite natural that chivalry should present itself to us with characteristics differing from country to country, and above all in France, in Germany and in Italy. Once the great and slow military transformation had been accomplished, chiefly as a result of the barbarian invasions, thanks to which the prevailing and decisive weapon of the army was no longer the infantry but the cavalry, with the establishment of the Carolingian empire the army came to be composed entirely of knights, who are free landowners serving at their own expense: the warrior is still always the free man. And on the other hand, to maintain a good horse and its equipment, and sometimes one or more servants and one or more spare horses, a certain prosperity is required, which in a period when the economy had reverted to a state of nature only or chiefly landed property can give. But with the predominance of feudalism property too tends to be transformed into feudal property, and the army likewise comes to be formed of feudal knights; toward the

At the end of the 10th century, the term miles is equivalent to a warrior on horseback bound by oath to his lord. In France, however, where the fief under Frankish law is transmissible only and entirely to the firstborn, there arises an ever more numerous category of cadets, bound to no lord because they are not proprietors, and thus placed outside the ranks of true feudal life, to whom only enough is granted to equip themselves and a horse.

Throughout the whole of the 10th century these knights appear from the sources and from the chansons de geste as particularly turbulent elements, eager for adventure: through their action feudal anarchy seems to reach its climax. But already at the beginning of the 11th century the Church begins its provident action to restrain them, to tame them, to turn so many exuberant and disorderly energies toward pious and generous deeds; and the State too, which is consolidating itself anew and recovering vigor and authority, supports the work of the Church. On the other hand, in these knights, poor and restless, needs are shared and aspirations too are shared; and from this comes the possibility of creating a common spiritual bond and a common order on the basis of an association among equals: equals first of all in courage, in the common contempt for danger, and then, following the action of the Church, in a series of ever higher moral obligations, such as the protection of churches, of widows, of orphans, of all those who find no defense and protection in the existing regime. Thus, as Pivano acutely maintained, chivalry can establish itself as an institution with characteristics of its own, born in the feudal world but not properly feudal itself; that chivalry is open to all nobles, and every knight can make another knight; and it fills with itself, with its own work and its deeds, the period that runs from the beginning of the Crusades to the end of the 12th century; and it gives life to a whole chivalric literature, in verse and in prose, and spreads its ideals and its customs throughout the whole Romano-Germanic Europe and makes them prevail in the feudal world, truly creating a single chivalry. In Germany the major nucleus of this seems at a certain moment to have to be sought, as Delbrück would have it, above all in the ministeriales, that is, in the new category of warriors that the State had created alongside the free feudatories, taking them from among the free and the unfree, and ennobling them by giving them lands sufficient for their own maintenance and that of a horse, with the relative equipment: milites par excellence, placed under the direct dependence of the king or of dukes and counts, or even scattered in small courts, in the feudal manner. And in all of Italy, where the Lombard fief predominates, with a patrimonial character and therefore divisible among all the sons, chivalry identifies itself with the myriad of small feudatories, who play so great a part in the formation of our Communes.

Cadets of the nobility, ministeriales, milites, end up by feeling themselves united in a single great ideal; and the religious motive accompanies the new knights in the Crusades, in the struggle for German expansion toward the Baltic, in the reconquest of Spain, in the very struggle that the Communes in Italy wage in defense of their autonomies against the German emperors. Chivalry is open to all, and in Italy especially the newly rich are easily elevated to knightly dignity: which does not prevent communal chivalry from knowing how to compete bravely with the Germanic. But all these struggles allow the knights not only to acquire glory, but also lands and fiefs and noble titles, so as to consolidate their position economically and politically as well. And then, from the beginning of the 13th century onward, chivalry tends not only to merge ever more with the true feudal nobility (all the more so since in France too the Frankish fief becomes less rigid and even cadets obtain a part, however smaller, of the fief, with corresponding feudal dependence), but also to shut itself up in a caste, reducing or entirely suppressing the acceptance of non-nobles into its ranks; not only that, but it tends to become an aristocracy within the aristocracy. But precisely now its flourishing declines: with the death of Louis IX in France, with the end of the Hohenstaufen in Germany. It seems to become more rigid and austere, rejecting unsuitable bourgeois elements; but in this way it no longer welcomes even many elements that are not noble, yet morally most worthy and physically fit; and that noble rivalry among equals, through which the most worthy could truly rise, fades away. Monarchical power tends ever more to bridle it and to make of it an instrument in its direct service; and sovereigns create knightly orders, emphasizing in them above all the duties of loyalty and faithful subjection, alongside the warrior and Christian virtues. In Italy more than ever, where chivalry had had less firm and deep roots, it is worn away in a formalism ever more empty the more pompous it becomes, and on the contrary it continues to welcome unsuitable elements, although there still arise from the feudal and knightly stock those vigorous companies of adventure which toward the end of the 14th century would free Italy from the scourge of the ultramontane companies. But in reality the great ideals in whose name, and also, at least in part, to whose advantage, it had at first fought and triumphed, have everywhere faded away. - See Pl. LXIX.

Kriegskunst, III, Berlin 1923; A. Abram, Chivalry, in The Cambridge Medieval History, VI, Cambridge 1929, p. 799 ff. Piero Pieri

II. CHIVALRIC EDUCATION

It has a great and particular importance of its own in the history of pedagogy, because of the many ends toward which it tended ("my soul to God, my life to the king, my heart to the lady, honor for myself") and because of the consequent development of elements of the spiritual life, which helped to shape a personality both free and disciplined, adventurous and yet faithful.

The situation, in fact, of chivalry in relation to the State and the Church required a special education, and the knight had to learn first of all to conquer himself, to overcome his inclinations and his whims in order to make himself fit to defend, and to make triumph, truth and right. The principal virtues, therefore, were moderation and self-mastery; these were followed by: love toward God, delicate and respectful love toward the lady, undaunted love of arms and of risk, a high sentiment of honor and duty, fidelity to the given word, truthfulness, the pleasantness, yet sustained and detached, of conversation and manners, gentleness and mercy. Outwardly: decorum, dignity, nobility; in a word: courtesy.

Until the age of 7 the future knight remained under the care of his mother and of the gentlewomen, who instilled in him the first principles of Christian education; games occupied most of his time. At 7 the boy became a page, and generally passed to the court of a prince or of a castellan, whose honor and pride it was to show guests a numerous group of pages, and where his main occupation was to learn to serve his lady or castellana, and also his lord, accompanying him hunting or on journeys. Religious instruction was not neglected, but entrusted to the chaplain. The rest of the time was spent in exercising himself to acquire the seven "probitates" of the knight: swimming, horsemanship, throwing the arrow, dueling or fencing, hunting, the game of chess, the art of rhyming. On the long winter evenings, the page could listen to the chaplain narrating to him the deeds of the Old and New Testaments and the legends of the saints; or sometimes hear the singer, who, having come to the castle, delighted them, playing the viol and accompanying it with the tale of the exploits of ancient knights.

At 14 the page or "domicellus" (=donzel) became squire, receiving from the priest, at the foot of the altar, the sword and the sash, which he girded on after they had been blessed; while the assistants, promising in his name love and loyalty, fastened the silver spurs to his feet. From that moment arms became his principal occupation; and the office consisted in accompanying his lord in war, carrying his arms for him, or hunting, taking an active part in it.

At about the age of 21, the squire was armed knight. Before that, however, he had set out to accomplish some exploit, with a ring on his arm or leg as a sign of vow. The ceremonial was imposing and rich in symbols. On the evening of the vigil the candidate takes a bath, then receives and puts on a black tunic (symbol of death), a white tunic (symbol of purity) and a vermilion mantle (symbol of the blood he must be ready to shed for the faith); then, fasting, he goes to the chapel and there keeps the vigil of arms; in the morning, after Confession, Mass, Communion and the blessing of the sword, he listens on his knees to the reading of the duties that will fall to him. Then the godfathers slip a small shirt on him and over it the coat of mail, and gird on him the iron leg-pieces and the sword. Then comes the solemn oath to remain valiant and faithful. Lastly his lord, striking him three times flat with the sword, says: "In the name of God, of St. Michael and of our Lady, I make you a knight."

In practice, as in all human things, not all knights showed themselves faithful to their ideal; nor did the institution always show itself equal to the nobility and the height of its task; the ironies of the novella literature and of the heroicomic epic prove this in part; nevertheless it always remains true that chivalry represented an effective contribution to the resurgence of justice and gentleness in a time of easy and common tyrannies and oppressions.

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