Chivalry in Medieval England by Nigel Saul

Author:Nigel Saul [Saul, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, Medieval, Social History, Social Science, Customs & Traditions
ISBN: 9780674063686
Google: tAvYngEACAAJ
Amazon: 0674063686
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2011-09-05T14:00:00+00:00

Chivalry and Honour

What effect, if any, then, may chivalry be said to have had on the problem of knightly violence in medieval society?

It has been argued that chivalry contributed to the spread of disorder because it was rooted in the aristocratic honour code, which provoked violence in defence of self-esteem. The aristocracy’s sense of honour was one of the most striking aspects of their social behaviour in the Middle Ages. Honour may be described as the value which a nobleman placed on himself and the expectation he had that that value would be recognised by others. It found expression principally in terms of action and display. Honourable conduct was held to lie in such gestures as generosity, hospitality and open-handedness, and in the lavish display of wealth, loyalty, sexuality and martial prowess. The maintenance of honour was thus largely dependent on securing the attention of others and on the winning of peer esteem. Honour acted as a stimulus to aggression because the honourable man felt the need constantly to affirm his honour and, in doing so, he was bound to find himself challenging the honour of others. As Julian Pitt-Rivers has put it, when all other means have failed, the ultimate vindication of honour lies in physical violence.

In the twelfth century, as the nobility became more conscious of their position at the peak of society, so their interest in defining noble conduct and values became correspondingly stronger. Once an informal set of behavioural values was agreed – in other words, the code we call chivalry – the notion of honour was developed as a way of securing acceptance of those values from others on the nobility’s own terms.

What the fusion of chivalry with aristocratic honour did was lend a new vehemence and intensity to the conduct of disputes in noble society. It led to a greatly sharpened appreciation of the outward markers of rank, dignity and blood, and, at the same time, it encouraged the use of violence in the deeds by which honour was earned. Honour as such was not constituted one of the qualities or attributes which made up the chivalric ethic. Rather, it was one of the mechanisms by which that ethic was controlled and enforced. Disputes over rights which in other circumstances might have been settled peaceably were now fought with a new ardour. Whether a man won or lost in a dispute might have a major impact on his honour, in the sense of his standing in the eyes of others. Indeed, it might well be of crucial importance to his position in the pecking order of local society. It was above all his preoccupation with his local standing that made Sir Edward Dallingridge pursue his quarrel with Gaunt with such determination.

It is in another dispute involving Gaunt that we can best appreciate the importance which the nobility attached to the preservation of honour. This was the quarrel between the duke and the great northern magnate Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, which erupted in the summer of 1381.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.