Chivalry has its detractors. Of course there are the very boring objections that it’s sexist or patriarchal or retrograde or whatever—too boring to spill much ink on. A more interesting claim, which I come across regularly, is that chivalry was ackshually invented in later, more romantic centuries and written back on to the Middle Ages by revisionists. Taking it further, some say medieval knights were just blood-thirsty criminals and hooligans who dressed up their misdeeds in the cunning garments of chivalry. Everything for these people must be seen through the lens of Howard Zinn-style history. The instinct to disbelieve and debunk anything heroic and good speaks to the skeptical turn of the modern mind; it says more about us than about the thing being debunked.
There’s no doubt that many knights will fall short of an ideal. That’s pretty much the point of an ideal—to aim higher than most will attain. But the skeptics seem to be going further than this.
What’s needed are the words of an actual knight. We can do no better than to turn to A Knight’s Own Book of Chivalry by Geoffroi de Charny (1306-1356) who comes “as close to the genuine voice of knighthood as we are likely to get,” in the words of Richard Kaeuper. Charny was a warrior of great renown, twice chosen by the King of France to bear the Oriflamme into battle—one of the supreme honors which could be bestowed on a French knight. The chronicler Froissart reports that it took “at least five” English and Gascons to take him down at the Battle of Poitiers, where he died with his king’s banner in his hands.
So Charny was no mere theorist, but a practitioner of the chivalric arts. He wrote his manual in order to spark a chivalric revival in France, where men had lost their way, turned soft and decadent, and were suffering repeated defeats to the English as a result. It was hoped that this text would be the founding and guiding document of a great order of French knights, the Company of the Star, but that organization died out shortly after it was launched. Charny’s text lives on, though, and gives us the best glimpse into how the chivalric mind works.
And what does it tell us about how actual knights viewed chivalry? The book contains three main themes about chivalry: prowess, honor, faith.
1) Chivalry is a martial code
A knight exists for the purpose of fighting, defending, protecting. So he ought to be good at those things—a knight who cannot fight is not much of a knight. If this seems obvious enough, we only need to recall the efforts to reduce the code of chivalry to mere manners, as though any man who holds a door open for a lady ought to be called chivalrous. Charny means something far more difficult than just holding doors open. Readers might even be taken aback at Charny’s obsession with prowess. “He who does more is of greater worth,” the knight repeats at least ten times.
He doesn’t provide anything like a training program, but instead emphasizes the importance of ascending the hierarchy of knightly deeds: starting with jousting, then tournaments, then fighting in local wars, and culminating with adventuring off to faraway one. Even before he dons armor, a boy gets a head-start by simply admiring heroes and men of prowess from his earliest days; he naturally develops the desire to become an excellent one himself. And though chivalry is a practical way of life rather than an academic one, the would-be knight will want to study military arts; Charny even suggests field trips: students should go to the sites of sieges and observe tactics.
He also suggests that a man might prowess-maxx through conversation, dancing, and singing in the company of ladies. Though romantic love is far from Charny’s focus—this fixation on romance is a feature of modern, not medieval, chivalry—yet his interactions with the fairer sex can drive a man to achievement. Good and wholesome flirting can cultivate “gaiety of heart and liveliness of body” and “set them off on the right road and provide a beginning for those who would never have known how to perform and achieve the great and honorable deeds through which good men at arms make their name.”
The knight’s life must be dedicated to becoming as formidable as he can be.
2) When it comes to the things of this life, honor matters most
Charny’s manual offers a deeply unironic view of honor, especially for those who have been taught to sneer at this old virtue. Our teachers and popular culture train us to think honor is not only problematic but also unimportant. Not so for Charny. For him it is a straightforward and crucial matter, often reflecting a wholesome simplicity of heart which falsely sophisticated people cannot tolerate. A knight should live for the pursuit of honor.
And how does he earn it? Usually through great deeds, acts of prowess. Prowess wins honor. The man who shows himself to be of greater worth will be celebrated accordingly. For Sir Geoffroi honor is both an external recognition, but also the internal reality recognized. He certainly acknowledges that there will be cases when credit is withheld from worthy people, but he regards these to be exceptions to a general rule: that the truth about your character comes out and forms your reputation.
Honor calls men to be ready ride off on adventures and campaigns to prove themselves—so anything that diminishes that readiness also threatens honor. Charny is particularly concerned about attachment to luxurious living, soft beds, fine food and wines. A man can partake in these when they are given to him, and should enjoy them, but he must not grow too accustomed to them—for they can mar his readiness. The pursuit of honor usually means pain, suffering, deprivation. There rarely are fine feasts and soft beds on campaign.
Then there's the fear of death. The man of honor knows there are worse things than dying and knows that who seeks to preserve his life will lose his honor:
And while the cowards have a great desire to live and a great fear of dying, it is quite the contrary for the men of worth who do not mind whether they live or die, provided that their life be good enough for them to die with honor. And this is evident in the strange and perilous adventures which they seek. For this reason the above mentioned men of worth say that a man is happy to die when he finds life pleasing, for God is gracious towards those who find their life of such quality that death is honorable; for the said men of worth teach you that it is better to die than to live basely.
This leads us into the final thesis.
3) A knight should be a religious fanatic
Not only did Charny see no tension between religious devotion and a military career—he compares the life of the knight to the life of the priest and declares the knight’s to be more difficult and demanding in the service of God. The knight ought to respond to these demands with proper religious fanaticism:
“Of all the men in the world, of whatever estate, whether religious or lay, none have as great a need to be a good Christians to the highest degree nor to have such true devoutness in their hearts nor to lead a life of such integrity and to carry out all their undertakings loyally and with good judgment as do these good men-at-arms who have the will to pursue this calling, as has been set out above, wisely and according to God's will.”
The key to all this is humility, which is a matter of simply remembering that the virtues for which you are honored are ultimately blessings from above. Humility and honor thus make a lovely pairing. “Be certain,” he says, “that there is no wisdom, worthiness, strength, beauty, prowess, or valor that may be found in anyone and may remain and endure save only by the grace of our Lord.” He repeats this point again and again.
Humility necessitates an understanding of the cooperative nature of our part in God’s providence. You do you part in developing the virtues and putting them to good use. Knightly prowess is the best example: a man might train maniacally and thus develop his ferocity to its utmost. But even still, he did not make himself and is not the ultimate source of his strength. He is like a gardener of his own capabilities—watering, nourishing, and pruning them so that they develop to their fullest, but not creating them. The good gardener will do his work with this in mind. Should you forget where your virtues come from, the Lord might be forced to remind you by taking them away.
And because he partakes in such a dangerous way of life, the knight must be right with God at all times. He will want to go to confession often—the man whose soul is prepared for death can fight harder.
To read Charny’s book is to encounter what we would call a “religious fanatic.” He encourages his fellow knights to be fanatics as well. It wasn’t a just a pious posture he put on, not a matter of window dressing, but the repeated expression of a sincere, simple, and devout heart. He closes the manual with an exhortation: “Remember that if you love God, God will love you. Serve him well: He will reward you for it. Fear Him: He will make you feel secure. Honor Him: He will honor you. Ask of Him and you will receive much from Him. Pray to Him for mercy: He will pardon you. Call on Him when you are in danger: He will save you from it. Turn to Him when you are afraid, and He will protect you. Pray to Him for comfort, and He will comfort you. Believe totally in Him and He will bring you to salvation in His glorious company and His sweet paradise which will last forever without end.” And in the very last line he ask others to “pray for him who is the author of this book.”
Conclusion
This chivalric life asks a lot of a man. The good news is that such a demanding life is ultimately the most pleasing. “It should, therefore, be recognized firmly,” Charny says, “and with certainty that deeds of valor, a good way of life, and good undertakings are more pleasant to carry out than are the above mentioned bad ones; for those who perform deeds of valor do so gladly, confidently, and without fear of reproach; and those who lead a good life can fittingly go anywhere freely and without fear.” This is how a spirited man should want to live. Even a knight’s suffering can become dear to him—that suffering is the price you pay for honor.
Charny has more to say about the knightly life—about conduct, about noblesse oblige, about attire, and so on—but the three theses show what chivalry is. It wasn’t made up, as the Zinn-wannabes claim. It was a code that protected Christendom when its enemies were banging on the gates, and it shaped the Western experience.
And some suggest it’s an ideal whose time has come again. See below.
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For some reason, the thumbnail is showing my book rather than Charny's, but when you open it Charny's is the main picture—as it was meant to be!
Quite a great job with this article! I would like to read more expansions on the work of Charny.