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History of Chivalry

CHIVALRY,  (Fr. chevalerie, horsemanship, knighthood, from chevalier, horseman, knight, from cheval, horse, from Lat. caballus, horse). In the Middle Ages the body of customs and ideals relating to the duties and privileges of knighthood. It owed its development partly to feudal usages, with which it had many relations, and partly to the Church, which adopted and altered the customs of chivalry to further its own control of society. Chivalry probably had its origin in the ancient Germanic custom of arming the youth solemnly in the presence of the warriors. Tacitus refers to this usage, and it seems to have prevailed throughout the early Middle Ages. The chronicles record that Louis the Pious, at the age of 13, received his arms from Charles the Great, and that Charles the Bald, at the age of 16, received his arms from Louis. The cavalry, after the middle of the eighth century, grew to be the most important part of the army, and as feudalism developed there was a tendency to fix the customs for the assumption of the arms and to define the duties of the knight. The last were to a great extent the regular duties of a vassal, which included bravery, fidelity, and loyalty. The conception of knightly honor, which grew up slowly, was comparatively late. The Crusades and the intense interest in religious matters in the twelfth century tended to make chivalry more Christian. It was held to be the knight's duty to defend Christianity, to protect the Church, and to battle against the infidel. Lanfranc Cigala, a little later, wrote: "I do not hold him to be a knight who does not go with a willing heart and all his might to the aid of the Lord, who has so great need of him."

According to the mediæval conception of chivalry, no one was born a knight. The candidate for the honor was sent, at the age of about seven, to act as page or valet in the household of some knight. There he obtained his education, and when old enough might become a squire. The duty of the squire was to attend the knight in battle or in tournament, to care for his horse and weapons, and to act as his aid. In time the squire might be made a knight. The distinction could be conferred in the earlier period by any knight; at a subsequent period the monarchs claimed the sole right to confer knighthood. The age when the squire became a knight varied; there are cases where the honor was conferred on boys of 10 or 11, but later it was usual to defer it until the age of 21 or later. In fact, some squires never became knights, in order to avoid the expense of the ceremony. In France, in the thirteenth century, a royal order punished with a fine noble squires who had not become knights by the time they were 24 years old.

The ceremony of admission into knighthood, known as "dubbing," usually took place on a festival, although squires were often made knights on the battlefield, in recognition of deeds of bravery. Occasionally before a battle took place the dignity was conferred upon a considerable number. The essential parts of the dubbing in the early twelfth century were the collée, or accolade, a blow upon the neck or shoulder, and the running la quintaine- i.e., tilting on horseback against a figure stuffed with straw. Later there was a symbolical and mystical development, which made the process of initiation mainly a religious ceremony. According to one ritual of the fifteenth century, the following were the details of the ceremony: after bathing, as a symbol of purity, the candidate "watched" his arms for a whole night before the altar of some church or the grave of some saint, and in the morning he confessed, often aloud, attended communion and mass, and listened to a sermon on the duties of purity, fidelity, honesty, the protection of the Church, widows, orphans, ladies, and all who were oppressed. A priest then blessed his sword and other pieces of armor; a knight made him take oath to fulfill all his duties; then the accolade, which consisted of three strokes with the sword, was given solemnly, and the following sentence uttered: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I make you knight." The knight who had given the accolade embraced the new knight, and girded him with his sword; the godfathers put on him the golden spurs, the symbol of knighthood; and the lords and ladies present assisted in clothing him with the other pieces of armor. Lastly, he mounted on horseback and ran la quintaine.

At the end of the twelfth century and later, chivalry was profoundly influenced by the popular romances of Arthur, Charlemagne, and other famous heroes. Manners became less brutal, and a spirit of knight-errantry grew up. It became the fashion to be rash, imprudent and extravagant in conduct. The Orlando of Ariosto and Don Quixote have made the follies of declining chivalry familiar to all. Chivalry was at its best in the twelfth century, in the fourteenth was declining rapidly, and in the fifteenth was thoroughly decadent. Knight and squire gradually became mere titles of honor which might be hereditary.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol V (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 250.