Chivalry

As feudalism declined, kings and nation-states became more important. At the same time, the arts of warfare changed in ways that made horse-mounted knights outdated. Conflicts like the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) were larger and required more men, making the old feudal armies composed of a king’s knights insufficient. Kings began to rely on professional mercenary soldiers. The introduction of the English longbow increased the importance of archers, and the development of gunpowder finally forced the armored knight from the battlefield. By the end of the Middle Ages, chivalry survived only as a code of behavior and a set of beliefs and rituals. The society for which it had been fashioned was quickly disappearing.

As the military importance of the knight declined, the rituals of chivalry acquired greater meaning. For many knights, the ceremonial duties of chivalry now became prohibitively expensive as pageants and tournaments increased in number and duration, and a knight’s armor and equipment became more and more elaborate. In fact, many squires who could have become knights actively chose not to do so, because of the large financial burdens that were now a part of knighthood.

Originally the codes of chivalry had crossed regional and national boundaries, and the knightly class throughout Europe had been linked by ideals of Christian purpose, benevolence, and valor. However, as the power of the nation-states increased in western Europe, knights came to see themselves as waging war for the glorification of their nation and the extension of their king’s power. To encourage the nobility’s patriotism, kings developed new national chivalric orders. One of these, the Order of the Garter, was used in England at the end of the 14th century to reward knights and nobles for their participation in decisive battles during the Hundred Years’ War. The Order of the Garter quickly became an exclusive social distinction, and it was soon copied in France, Bourgogne, and the Spanish kingdoms as well. Knights of the Garter in England or Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Burgundy were drawn from the class of feudal knights as a whole, but were not limited to those of any one lord. Thus a king might award membership in these orders to cement alliances with other important princes and nobles. Members of these chivalric orders did not perform any important military function; instead they ritualized chivalry and subordinated it to the rising power of European kings.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, chivalric ideals and customs continued to survive among the European nobility. By this time their importance consisted largely of keeping alive the memory of the knight’s warrior tradition and in serving as a mark of the nobility’s social distinction. At the same time, literary figures throughout Europe began to utilize the code of chivalry to serve as a model for the nobility and gentlemen at court. In Renaissance Italy, Baldassare Castiglione used his Book of the Courtier, first published in 1528, to fashion his advice for men and women at court based on knightly etiquette. In the two centuries that followed, many writers fashioned similar advice for both courtiers and worldly gentlemen. By the beginning of the 19th century, the figure of the knight had become romanticized. Writers saw the knight as pioneering the concept of romantic love and representing the highest expression of Christian ideals and civility. In the 19th century, romantic authors like Sir Walter Scott began to attribute modern manners to medieval knights. Their work shows the ongoing adaptation and vigor of the concept of chivalry, a concept that continued to undergo significant historical development long after the age of medieval knights had passed.