Chivalry (Medieval Studies)

The admittance of individuals into a chivalric order was an important tool of late medieval diplomacy which contributed significantly to the reinforcement of political and cultural ties between the order’s leader and admitted member and between their respective social circles. Therefore, this paper analyses the presence of such chivalric orders in medieval Bosnia, with special emphasis placed on the Aragonese Order of the Stole and Jar through the prism of an alliance concluded between King Alfonso V of Aragon (r. 1416-1458) and Stjepan Vukčić (r. 1435- 1466), the Grand Duke of Bosnia who later became the Duke of St. Sava. The most of the individuals admitted to this Order were diplomats who visited Alfonso’s court in Naples. However, the privileges granted to Duke Stjepan Vukčić in 1444 constitute an exceptional case. According to a preserved document, he was granted the right to accept fifty new members and provide them with the insignia of the Order. The paper further contains an analysis and transcription of the text as well as a photographic reproduction of an authorized copy of this charter.

The present paper will investigate pardon letters or “lettres de rémission” granted to soldiers by the Valois dukes of Burgundy from 1386 to 1482. During this period, the chancery records contain 885 remission letters by which the prince granted his pardon to individuals who committed a crime and petitioned for mercy. This large amount of documents includes more than 15 percent of pardons granted to petitioners who served or had served the dukes in their armies. In the narrative parts of their letters, these soldiers insisted on their military pasts as a good reason to be pardoned. The purpose of this paper is to study the contents of these military pardons to underline how they contributed to shape a collective military identity in the Burgundian State. Following the works of Christopher Allmand, according to whom fifteenth-century leaders undertook to transform their soldiers into professional State agents, I will argue that military pardons were used by the dukes of Burgundy as a tool of social disciplining. Because they granted a large amount of pardons to their soldiers who affirmed their military identity in their petitions, the dukes promoted the military service as a motive to be forgiven. And because they only forgave simple homicides and refused to pardon typical war crimes such as pillage, rape, or even desertion, they indicated which kind of behaviour was worthy for the good Burgundian soldier, and which one was not.

Compte rendu critique de l'ouvrage de Sébastien Nadot sur les tournois, joutes, pas d'armes et emprises, qui est une version légèrement remaniée de sa thèse soutenue à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
Critical review of a book written by Sébastien Nadot, based upon his thesis.

“Mirror of Chivalry: Salâh al-Dîn in the Medieval European Imagination,” in Images of the Other: Europe and the Muslim World before 1700. Cairo Papers on Social Science 19:2 (Summer, 1996), 7-38. Republished in J. Tolan, Sons of Ishmael: Muslims through European Eyes in the Middle Ages. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.

This paper discusses the depiction of ambushes in chronicles of the High Middle Ages. Identifying ambushes in this period is particularly difficult, as the Latin term 'insidia' could also be used more generically to refer to stratagems, snares and cunning ploys. This paper combines evidence from contemporary chronicles, Patristic and medieval theological writing and Anglo-Norman epic verse to examine the variety of situations in which ambushes were used by medieval combatants and the different lessons that historians drew from tales of warriors ambushed (or ambushing) unawares.

The Georgian Cross, the Cross of Saint George, is simply a red cross upon white field, defined heraldically as blazon argent, a cross gules.  It may be of various forms, i.e. latin, greek, formée/pattée, moline, potent, etc.  This cross has been well-known as the blood-red holy symbol of its namesake Catholic knightly saint since the 12th Century; as a national symbol of England since the 12th Century; as an orderly symbol and Christological cultic symbol of the crusading Knights Templar (1119-1314); as a banner-borne battle symbol of the Teutonic Order during the 14th Century (perhaps in honour of the recently-destroyed Templars); as a feudal symbol of the Saint George’s Shield (1406-1499) and consequently of the Swabian League (1488-1534); and as a chivalric crusading symbol of Sankt Georgs-Orden (Habsburg-Österreich) (1469-1598).  Moreover, it has been simply and generally a symbol of Christian warriors for about a millennium.

Par l’intermédiaire d’une étude sérielle basée sur neuf manuscrits tirés d’œuvres romanesques, poétiques et encyclopédiques, nous tenterons de déterminer quelle place l’iconographie réserve aux dames représentées dans les enluminures de tournois et de joutes à la fin du Moyen Âge.
Nous considérerons les images au regard de leur contenu textuel en prenant également en compte les variations des motifs iconographiques présentes au sein de ce corpus. Ce faisant, nous nous intéresserons au statut sujet-agent de la dame, spectatrice des hourds ou cavalière des lices. Des tournois jusqu’aux pas d’armes, la dame évolue auprès d’une aristocratie masculine combattante et apparemment dominante. Une complexité émerge cependant de son statut figuratif et symbolique, construit entre un idéal chevaleresque imaginaire basé sur les vertus courtoises et morales, et les joutes, reflets d’ambitions culturelles au service d’un pouvoir politique réel.

Karel (Charlemagne), Elegast, and Eggeric are the three main protagonists of the medieval Dutch epos Karel ende Elegast. Each of them is a knight, but represents different characteristics. The Monarch, the Outlaw, and the Traitor share some chivalric values but present contrasts in their behaviour. This article examines these three characters and their relationships to chivalry. It focuses on the image of chivalry in the epos, and not on the historical aspects of knighthood. As it is one of the fi rst publications in Poland on Middle Dutch texts, it also outlines the chivalric literature in the medieval Low Countries.

Discusses the role of the Internet enabling "affinity groups", in this case influenced from the corpus of Arthurian romance blended with the historical literature on feats of arms. The emphasis is on the nature of the affiliations and the resulting social networks.

Le chevalier occupe une place de choix dans les différentes manifestations de l’art roman. Il apparaît sur tous types de supports et sur des œuvres de nature diverse. Cette prolifération de la figure du noble guerrier pose un certain nombre de problèmes d’interprétation, car elle est en mesure de faire référence à des réalités éloignées (bien que connectées) d’ordre historique, littéraire, symbolique, etc. Il convient donc de distinguer entre ces différents types de représentations tout en les replaçant dans leur contexte d’origine afin d’essayer de comprendre le message véhiculé par chacune de ces images, sachant que la teneur de celui-ci oscille sans cesse entre bien et mal. Ainsi, les valeurs chevaleresques s’opposent aux violences guerrières, le combat contre les ennemis de Dieu aux condamnables déprédations et ainsi de suite.

“All of our images of the adolescent – the restless, searching teen; the Hamlet figure; the sower of wild oats and tester of growing powers ... are masculine figures.” – Barbara Hudson

In the world of medieval romance, women run the risk of being misidentified, ignored, over-looked, confused with or suffused into the identities of men. Perhaps especially studies of Sir Thomas Malory’s Arthurian epic Le Morte Darthur, women frequently fall through the cracks of analysis, often only examined in terms of their importance in relation to Arthurian men or assumed to be “outside the chivalric code” (Kenneth Hodges 86). And yet, throughout the Morte, women not only aid knights on countless occasions but partake in adventures alongside them. In both of Malory’s “Fair Unknown” narratives, “The Tale of Gareth” and “La Cote Male Tayle,” the damsels who first issue the quest remain with the young knights for the entire story. The Fair Unknown tales are exemplary of a genre which is primarily read in terms of masculine identity formation, following the trajectory of a hero whose identity is at first unknown, who passes from youth to manhood and becomes a knight. However, Fair Unknown tales have the potential to be read as stories of not just male but female identity formation. In Malory, bold young maidens – Lyonet in “Gareth” and Maledysaunte in “La Cote” – actively initiate and participate in the quests alongside the two young heroes, Gareth and Brunor. In a male-dominated Arthurian world in which girls are frequently ignored or seen as peripheral functionaries in male-focused stories, these two narratives may be read as examples of overlooked female identity. The two young women can be considered “Fair Unknowns” in their own right, for they are adolescent girls whose identities are initially unclear, who – like their male counterparts – partake in rites of passage leading to experiences of self-discovery and communal reintegration. The power that female Fair Unknowns yield is in large part a power of words, which – like a knight’s skill with the sword – must be properly developed. Lyonet and Maledysaunte use their speech in transformative ways – to motivate, to heal, to restore, and overall to instill a greater sense of chivalric purpose and community in their young companion knights. At the same time, their speech also undergoes an essential transformation; notably, each woman has a reputation of her own to uphold which is linked to the quality of her speech and, ultimately, to her communal identity. Over the course of each story, the two women provide strong support for the Round Table fellowship. Their presence and the bearing they have on events and those around them demonstrates not only that in Malory’s Arthurian world men and women are dependent on one another, but that women are essential not only to the quest but to the maintenance of chivalric ideals.

A instituição de um ideal para as formas de amar nas cortes medievais marcou o desenvolvimento cada vez maior de uma “literatura” direcionada à divulgação das virtudes do denominado Amor Cortês - conjunto de códigos e posturas de conduta que influenciaram o comportamento dos homens e mulheres nobres daquela temporalidade. Ademais, tal ethos nobiliárquico pautou novas tomadas e representações da cavalaria medieval e sua relação com o universo feminino descrito nessa literatura cortesã. O roman Erec et Enide [Erec e Enida], de autoria do poeta francês Chrétien de Troyes (1135-1191), acaba por traçar uma representação literária e histórica dessa nova cavalaria imbuída de valores como a docilidade, a honra e o respeito, configurando assim, o objeto de estudo do presente trabalho.

René d’Anjou’s Livre des tournois is famous as the most substantial
account of the organisation of a medieval tournament that has come down
to us. It survives in eight manuscripts, most of which have an almost identical layout; the best of these is a magnificent work of art in its own right.

But these manuscripts are striking in another way: as a group, they show
that this work is one of the first illustrated manuals, in which text and
image are complementary, and form a single whole. The copyists understood
this, and followed the original because the layout and exact images
were an essential part of the whole. Justin Sturgeon’s interdisciplinary
study reveals the patterns and relationships which give the manual its very
specific character.

The study begins by exploring the relationship between the work’s images
and the way in which heraldry forms a visual counterpart to the narrrative
in the text We then turn to the subject matter and to René’s authoritative
use of sources, both written and practical, and how they relate to
late-medieval tournament and court culture. The author shows that René
was drawing on specific precedents toconstruct his idealized version of
such an event. Analysis of the visual presentation uses spatial and ritual
theory to engage with a series of spectacles surrounding the punishment
and review of the noble tourneyers, and their impact on group identity and
status. The last section of the book concentrates on the physical manuscripts.

The evidence from all eight known medieval manuscript copies is
used to construct a new understanding of the provenance and transmission
of the work, before turning to scrutinize the reception of two copies in
detail. The conclusion draws together threads of identity, authority, and
the importance of the Livre des tournois as a product of the culture and
circumstances of its production.

The second volume is a series of appendices to the main text, including
the first scholarly edition of the source manuscript to make use of all eight
medieval manuscripts,with tables anddiagrams showing the relationship of
all the extant manuscripts.

The third volume contains 300 supporting images, ncluding detailed high
resolution close-ups of vital examples, and images that utilize a special
technique, developed by the author, of highlighting important details
within images while identifying clearly where they are to be found in the
picture as a whole.

It is fair to say that it is probably the first instance of a technical handbook,
and the existence of eight copies which reproduce text and illustrations
using the same illustrations and the same layout, represent a group which
has no immediate parallels among medieval books. Presenting the important
comparative material has required the design of tables of illustrations,
and the use of highlighting of particular details, in a way which uses the
tools now available in digital imaging to great effect.

Kassel (Alemania): Reichenberger, 2001.
A lo largo de esta monografía se ofrece un análisis atento y detallado de las representaciones de la esfera sobrenatural en los cuatro libros del Amadís de Gaula, de Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, que desempeñan un papel de enorme trascendencia en el diseño de las aventuras de los libros de caballerías del siglo XVI que reiventará Miguel de Cervantes. Esta importancia se revela significativamente en tres niveles: en primer lugar, en un plano genérico, pues, de acuerdo con la clasificación que el refundidor brinda en su prólogo inicial, se erige como uno de los pilares de la definición de la obra en tanto que "historia fingida", que alberga "las cosas admirables fuera de la orden de natura". En segundo lugar, en un plano estructural, su presencia vertebra y dinamiza la trama, tanto a través de la materia onírica y de las profecías, como de diversas pruebas mágicas que propician su continuidad. Por último, en un plano vinculado a la tradición cultural, resulta incuestionable que certifica también un emplazamiento en el sendero abierto por las trayectorias de la materia artúrica y de las leyendas troyanas en suelo hispánico.

Esta investigación aporta una nueva metodología para el estudio de magias, milagros y maravillas en la narrativa de fines de la Edad Media, que concilia las aproximaciones más venerables con las nuevas teorías sobre el imaginario aristocrático y la estética de la recepción. Por otra parte, introduce una reinterpretación del legado amadisiano perdido (siglos XIII-XV) y de la ideología caballeresca durante la época de los Reyes Católicos. Se trata, por consiguiente, de un estudio que puede resultar de especial interés para todos aquellos estudiantes e investigadores de la prosa de ficción española de los siglos XV y XVI, como consecuencia del puesto singular que ocupa la refundición de Rodríguez de Montalvo.

In the judicial duel, procedure and ceremony collapsed into one another in a way that had powerful resonances for the later Capetians kings of France. What bothered King Louis IX and his grandson Philip IV about duel was its violent and vengeful aspects. What allowed Philip IV and his son Philip V to reconsider was duel’s discrete and formal practice. It was this that allowed their governments to decouple judicial duel from seigneurial (private) war. Although war was similar to duel in being an avenue for the violent pursuit of one’s rights, it differed in its wider scope and therefore essentially uncontrollable nature. Duel’s dual nature as ritual and procedure thus ensured its survival in the courts of later medieval France. Duel’s formalism also meant that it could serve to express chivalric values like honour, bravery, and luxury. These aspects may help to explain duel’s renewed efflorescence in the early modern period, in which duelling became an avenue for the vindication of aristocratic honour. The development of an elaborate, aristocratic ceremonial practice, however, happened much later than has been previously understood. Indeed, chivalric spectacle is only one aspect of the later medieval history of duel, a subject that requires fuller study.

By comparing two knights of two different eras, can we record the evolution of chivalry?

William Marshal (c.1147-1217) lived during the age in which chivalry was mid-way through it evolution. He lived the life of a knight who had to fight for his living and propelled himself through the ranks of the aristocracy due to his achievements on both the battlefield and the tournament. When he was knighted before the battle of Drincourt (1167) he held no land. However, upon his death he held the prestigious earldom of Pembrokeshire, lands in Ireland as well as being the Marshal of England during Henry III's infancy.

Richard Beauchamp on the other hand was born into a noble family. His father was part of the Lord's Appellant which rebelled against Richard II (1387) and from this the Beauchamp family lost all of their land. However, upon Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV) usurping the crown from Richard in 1399, Thomas Beauchamp found himself in royal favour. Like Marshal, Richard proved himself on the battlefield. He was present at the battle of Shrewsbury (1403) and ventured on a pilgrimage (similar to Marshal). Upon his return he loyally served Henry V in France and became the lieutenant of Calais.

Both of these knights lived in two different eras. Richard was more educated and learned of the ways of the chivalric culture than Marshal due to it's evolution. However, both were great warriors and leaders of men who extended their wealth. This dissertation discusses both of the lives of these great knights while comparing the differences of the late Twelfth and early Fifteenth Centuries.

The Aspremont-Kievraing Psalter (Bodleian Library, MS Douce 118) was created in Artois, France circa 1290-1310 for Joffroy d’Aspremont and Isabelle de Kievraing. The Psalter is the first half of a ‘hybrid text’, consisting of both the Psalms and liturgical hours, and typical of the late thirteenth century, when the popularity of the book of hours began to outpace that of the psalter. The Psalter’s accompanying text is a book of hours, MS Felton 2, National Gallery of Victoria. Both manuscripts are characterised by imaginative and elaborate marginalia, images of chivalry, fantasy, and piety that illuminate every folio. Although Margaret Manion has closely examined the Book of Hours’ marginalia, the Psalter’s has yet to be sufficiently studied.
By analysing the Aspremont-Kievraing Psalter’s marginalia, particularly its scenes of chivalry and heraldry, I will argue that these liminal images functioned on several levels, serving not only as an entertaining diversion from the text, but also as a record of familial events and achievements, an exemplar of wealth and piety, an illustration of medieval gender roles, and as an aid to devotion. I will posit that the diverse ways in which Joffroy and Isabelle may have engaged with their manuscript’s imagery speaks both to the multivalent nature of medieval reading, and to late medieval cultural and societal norms. Finally, I will hypothesise that the overarching theme of the Psalter’s marginalia is of the marriage of sacred and secular, illustrating the complex interrelations between two seemingly dichotomous aspects of medieval life.

Once grand-duke Jagiello of Lithuania had been crowned King of Poland and proclaimed the baptism of his native country in 1387, Poland got involved in a long lasting war against the Order of the Teutonic Knights, who used to invite knights coming from all over Europe twice a year to wage war on its enemies. This situation went on even after the famous battle of Grunwald (1410) and the council of Constance (1414-1418). French noblemen were among the more assiduous “guests” of the Order. Their testimonies concerning the so-called “reysen” against Lithuania let us understand how this type of crusade were lived by the noblemen taking part in it, which shed a new light on the perception of the conversion of Lithuania in Western Europe as well as the persistence of the Lithuanians as an archetype of “Saracen” villains.

In this article, I use some French written sources (mainly Philippe de Mézières’ Songe du Vieil Pelerin and the deeds of French crusaders compiled by various chroniclers) concerning the crusades against Lithuanians or the Turks to show that the Lithuanian crusade was mainly seen as an aristocratic activity, disconnected from conversion goal, and that this phenomenon was hardly criticized by Philippe de Mézières – one of the rare French author who mentioned the Christianization of Lithuania as early as 1389. Thus, according to the French sources, the enthusiasm for the Baltic crusades declined between the battles of Nicopolis (1396) and Grunwald, which is showed by the experiences of the last French crusader, Guillebert de Lannoy. In conclusion, I question whether the accusations launched by the Polish and Lithuanian ambassadors at Constance are corroborated by the French perception of the crusade, and to which extent the downfall of the Order’s Baltic crusade was linked with the Constance trial and the growing perception of Lithuania as a Christian country.

In the western Mediterranean a new idea of cavalry develops together with the affirmation of the Catalan trade. Alfonso the Magnanimous will support a chivalric ideology based on both the warrior ethics and the merchant’s fides. Starting from these ferments, Ferdinando I will elaborate with the help of the jurists an original chivalric model aimed at strengthening the concept of “Service for the State”. This research tends to show the socio-cultural processes through which in the Aragonese Naples the ideals of chivalry contribute to the regulation of the ruling classes and mercenaries.

The conquest and colonisation of the northeastern Baltic Rim in the 13th century durably shaped religious and ethnic identities of and relations between the native population and the arriving crusaders. This article explores the codes and displays of hospitality in the anonymous ‘Livonian Rhymed Chronicle’, which are seen here as ways of conceptualising the relationship and conflicts between the Teutonic Knights and the pagan or apostate people in Livonia. It asks which consequences the framing of the host-guest relations might have had for the self-comprehension of the chronicle’s author and his audience. The analysis of the chronicle is pursued along three lines: the first focuses on the questions of chivalry, courtesy, and conversion; the second explores different renditions of a miracle story of inhospitality from the 1220s; the third focuses on the conceptual metaphors of hospitality as a way in which the Teutonic Knights accommodated their adversaries’ viewpoints. In its conclusions, the article argues how a broad focus on the institutions, concepts, and discourses of hospitality can help account for both confrontational and amicable attitudes between the colonisers and the colonised both on the Baltic frontier and among other European frontier societies.

El caballero es el guerrero más prestigioso de la Edad Media. Profusamente armado, montado en un magnífico corcel, parece invencible. Guiado por el código de la caballería, mientras lucha con su espada y su lanza, el honor y la gloria le esperan. Este libro ofrece la información esencial que se necesita para convertirse con éxito en un caballero en la Edad Media. Entre otras cosas enseña: • Cómo superar una ceremonia caballeresca • Qué armas y armaduras comprar • Dónde debería ir de cruzada • Cómo hacer fortuna en la guerra • A qué orden de caballería unirse • Cómo ganar en un torneo y encontrar el amor de tu vida • Qué hacer en los asedios y las batallas Basada en anécdotas contemporáneas y descripciones, combinada con reconstrucciones actuales, este libro, escrito por un historiador medieval, proporciona un vívido retrato de lo que era ser un caballero en la guerra.

Chivalric traditions continued to shape all aspects of life for those of high status in the late medieval and early modern periods. But this same period has most often been characterised as witnessing a decline of chivalry. Indeed William Worcester and William Caxton lamented this decline of chivalry and a related loss of English masculinity, grieving for the loss of French territories, all of which took an emotional toll on the English nation. Yet in fact Edward IV’s reign brought a revival of chivalry as his kingship was presented as the antidote to England’s humiliation through his embodiment of a chivalrous version of masculinity. From the start of his reign Henry VIII also made it clear that he wanted to go to war with France. He felt compelled to equal and to even surpass the victories of his martial hero Henry V not just for his own prestige, but also for England’s. This paper argues that by the late fifteenth century the English nation was more chivalric than it had been for decades as noblemen untied against a common enemy, thus displaying a range of emotions that included: nostalgia, anger and revenge.


This paper will also examine the role of the medieval tournament in establishing knightly bonds between the men of the tiltyard and both kings who held and competed in jousting contests. Friendships between knights were the most important bonds in the elite cultural system that constituted chivalric life. This paper identifies individuals such as William Hastings and Anthony Woodville in the reign of Edward IV who demonstrated chivalric masculinity because of his knightly expertise. For Edward in the absence of brothers in the tiltyard, these men provided a substitute for this familial connection; functioning as the king’s chivalric brothers- in-arms, who promised mutual support, encouraged acts of bravery and personal loyalty. This paper demonstrates that the mutual respect between Edward and these chivalric brothers saw them develop strong emotional bonds that transcended beyond the tiltyard and even beyond death.

The anonymous Old French "Ordene de chevalerie" (ca. 1220) has often been used as a document of the medieval European knighting ritual. The famous scene, however, takes place within a complex comic plot that calls into question historical description. I argue that the "Ordene" offers both a theory of funniness and a theory of crusade. Laughter—both menacing and pleasurable—punctuates an extended joke that ultimately exposes the serious drama of Christian-Muslim violence.