

Grand master Pierre d’Aubusson & senior Knights Hospitaller. It is reckoned to have reached its pinnacle during the 12th and 13th centuries, following the Crusades, one of the products of which was the establishment of the Hospitallers and Templars, two of the best-known Medieval chivalric orders. These provide a functional definition to the word ‘chivalry’ but as a code of conduct, chivalry developed over the course of the Middle Ages.

The word ‘chivalry’ is derived indirectly from the Medieval Latin and Latin words caballarius and caballus, which translate to mean ‘horseman’ and ‘nag, pack-horse’ respectively. ( Public Domain ) There Was No Consensus on Chivalry Konrad von Limpurg as a knight being armed by his lady in the Codex Manesse (early 14th century). The Nine Worthies: Are These the Most Chivalrous Men in History?.Women Without Virtue Need Not Apply! The Medieval Nine Worthy Women.France and England Didn’t Own Chivalry: Have You Heard of the Polish Knight Zawisza Czarny?.Moreover, there is no unanimous agreement as to what this code of conduct consisted of. Despite being often referred to as a ‘code’, chivalry was not codified during the Middle Ages.

In essence, this ‘code’ dictates the manner in which a knight ought to conduct himself. One definition of a Medieval knight is that he was “a man who served his sovereign or lord as a mounted soldier in armor”.Ĭlosely associated with this functional definition of a knight is the so-called ‘code of chivalry’. The knight is probably the first character most people call to mind when they think about the Middle Ages. And those codes? Well, they differed too. They didn’t even agree it was necessary to be chivalrous. But wait, not all knights were chivalrous, nor did they have a universally agreed upon idea of what chivalry meant. The chivalry of a Medieval knight is indisputable, right? I mean, they had a Code of Chivalry and everything.
