Middle Ages

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Chivalry

The skill and bravery of knights in both tournaments and war were often celebrated in poems and stories. Long epic poems were written in the vernacular to celebrate the prowess of knights in battle. Knights did not want to be known only for their physical strength, however. Poems called romances celebrated the virtues of knights: their loyalty, generosity, piety, and polite behavior. Romances generally took place in a fantasy world, such as the court of King Arthur. They told of great knights, such as Lancelot, who were witty at court, gentle with ladies, devoted to God, and brave in battle—and who often got into trouble trying to be all these things at the same time. When Lancelot's lady, Guinevere, told him to do his worst in battle to prove his love for her, the poor knight had to make a fool of himself in a tournament until she reversed her command.

These ideals of love and bravery were expressed primarily in literature, but real knights both inspired these poems and tried to live up to them. Chivalry, which comes from the French word for horse, cheval, was the knight's way of combining bravery, honor, generosity, piety, and courtesy.

It is unclear how much knightly behavior in the Middle Ages was truly chivalrous, but there is little doubt that this is how knights thought of themselves. The biographer of William the Marshal considered William a model of chivalry. After years of brave battling in tournaments, William was noticed by Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of Henry II of England. William served Eleanor by coaching one of her young sons in the skills of a warrior. William was pious as well, going to the Holy Land on a Crusade and gaining fame for his fighting there. Later in life he was richly rewarded. He married well, and although he was from fairly lowly origins, he became King John's most important adviser.

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Castles and Sieges

Medieval courts were crowded places and castles were generally small and cramped. Although they were marvels of engineering, especially the great stone castles built high on hills, they were built for defense, not for comfort or family life.

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One characteristic castle type was the so-called motte-and-bailey. It consisted of a tower built high on a mound, or motte, surrounded by a ditch and a wooden or stone stockade. Sometimes peasant families huddled just outside the castle, in an enclosure surrounded by yet another wall. Castles were prestigious in addition to being practical, and in the 12th century lords liked to build castles that were very high and impressive. To make them more difficult targets, castles were sometimes built in round or wedge shapes. This helped deflect enemy artillery stones. Water moats helped prevent enemies from digging under the walls and undermining the castle from below.

Much of medieval warfare consisted of trying to capture castles. This was called a siege. Two principal weapons were used. One of these was the battering ram, a very thick beam of wood tipped with iron that was suspended from a frame. The battering ram was moved right next to the enemy's castle and the beam was swung back and forth to break through the wall. The other major weapon was the catapult, a mechanical device that hurled stones with great force against the castle walls from a distance. In addition to these weapons, attacking armies had other techniques. Armies would often try to dig underneath the walls to either gain access to the castle or to cause the walls to collapse. Sometimes armies tried to weaken the castle's defenders by hurling dead horses or dead men over the walls to frighten or sicken those inside. Once the defenders were weakened, the attackers would lower themselves onto the walls from large wheeled towers that were moved next to the castle.

Very often none of these tactics worked, and the castle had to be starved into submission. This could take a long time. The occupying army had to support itself on the countryside, which it plundered for food and fodder. If the defenders of the castle had enough supplies on hand, they could sometimes hold out until the invading army gave up and went home. See also Fortification and Siege Warfare.

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Art and Architecture

The most extraordinary buildings of the Middle Ages were the churches. Toward the end of the 11th century, a style of church building called Romanesque was prevalent. Beginning in the mid-12th century and becoming more and more popular in the next few centuries was the style called Gothic.

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Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque architecture was the style of the churches of the great Benedictine monasteries. Their most characteristic feature is the round arch. These arches are used for the doors and windows of the church, as well as for the church’s vault, the structure that supports the ceiling. Because the round arches give the vault a tunnel-like appearance, they are often called tunnel or barrel vaults. Romanesque churches are very large and were built with thick stone walls to hold the weight of the heavy arched vaults. Inside the church, the walls were decorated with paintings of important religious scenes or events in the lives of the saints. Massive columns leading from floor to vault were decorated with sculptures depicting scenes from the Bible or from other religious texts. Because there were no rugs or tapestries, the sounds of the monks' prayers echoed from one end of these churches to the other.

Outside, at the west end, many Romanesque churches had three portals, or doorways. The central one was the main entrance to the church and was much taller and wider than the other two. Along the sides of the portals were columns with sculpted biblical scenes. Above each portal was a tympanum, a half circle filled with figures that usually depicted a major event in the life of Christ or a scene of the Second Coming. See Romanesque Art and Architecture.

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Gothic Architecture

During the 12th and 13th centuries people began to want lighter, more soaring church buildings. These ideas led to the style called Gothic. Churches built in the Gothic style are higher and more compact than Romanesque churches, and they appear lighter even though they are not. Gothic churches use pointed arches rather than round ones, making their vaults seem to soar. Their windows, also pointed, open up to give more light. Stained glass gives the light a jewel-like glow. Unlike Romanesque churches, Gothic churches do not have walls that bear the weight of the vault. This job is done by the flying buttresses, arches outside the church that evenly distribute the vault’s weight and carry it to the ground. Thus the inside of a Gothic church looks delicate, with light shining through huge windows and without the imposing walls of Romanesque churches, but the outside of a Gothic church looks like a porcupine bristling with flying buttresses. Even the stained glass looks gray and massive from the outside.

In this way Gothic churches express a mystery. On the outside they give no hint of what they will look like within. The churchmen and architects who designed and built these churches intended these buildings to express still another mystery—the wonder of God. Suger, the abbot of the monastery of Saint-Denis, got the idea for such a church from the writings of a Christian mystic who went by the name of Dionysius and who wrote at the beginning of the 6th century. Dionysius taught that God was the 'Divine light,' the source of all things seen. Suger built his church so that the light streaming through the sacred stories depicted in his stained glass windows would act like this divine light. He wanted the light’s glow to illuminate the mind of the worshiper and lead him or her to God. The Gothic church building itself was meant to be part of the religious experience.

The Gothic style became popular for city churches, especially large cathedrals. It was first adopted by the cities in the region around Paris, and later cities in the rest of France, England, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, and even central Europe began building cathedrals in the Gothic style. Since Gothic churches were enormously expensive and took years—sometimes centuries—to build, they were always community enterprises. City guilds raised money to help build them. Some guilds even paid for their own stained glass windows. In turn, church construction created new jobs for city carpenters, stone masons, glass cutters, and many other workers. See Gothic Art and Architecture.