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Essay / Chivalry and Violence in the Hundred Years' War servants of their virtuous kings and guardians of the Christian faith. But this is not an accurate view of medieval chivalry, but rather a representation of the romantic mythology of chivalry and what it aspires to be. Medieval knights and men-at-arms were primarily practitioners of violence, whose mentality and worldview were underpinned by chivalric ideals, particularly the primacy of honor and prowess. Yet chivalry was also a complex ideology filled with intrinsic tensions and contradictions, inherent in some of the very ideals of chivalry, not just the lamentable inability of fallible men to achieve them. Chivalric culture simultaneously celebrated and revered qualities such as honor, prowess, loyalty, courage, and mercy, alongside more "civilizing" values associated with life at court. Although most historians admit that it is difficult to establish a universal definition of chivalry, precisely because its exact influence on the practical conduct of affairs is notoriously difficult to assess, as it can mean different things to different individuals at different times. different eras, it is nevertheless clear that for a very long time, European aristocrats motivated their ideals. As such, the study of noble conduct, as gleaned through the confrontation of theoretical prescriptions with actual aristocratic practice, remains of central importance to medieval history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay In his seminal 1984 study, Maurice Keen defined chivalry as an "ethos" that constituted the norms, values, practices and the rituals of the medieval aristocracy. society from the High Middle Ages. More recently, Richard Kaeuper has proposed a more circumscribed definition of chivalry, such as the values, ethos, and ideals of chivalry, either practiced by the knights themselves or as described by writers of the time. Chivalry in the latter sense is often associated primarily with courtly romances, which offered a very heroic and idealized view of chivalric values and behavior. This gave rise to one final way of defining and using the term "chivalry": as an eternal ideal of elegant, civilized masculinity, reflecting a modern, nostalgic fantasy of a world of medieval knights who treated war as a game noble. John Gillingham defined chivalry "as a code in which a key element was the attempt to limit the brutality of conflict by treating prisoners, at least when they were men of 'gentle' birth, in a relatively humane manner." I suggest that compassionate treatment of high-ranking vanquished enemies is a defining characteristic of chivalry. Finally, Craig Taylor chose to use the term "chivalry" as a "proper noun", to refer to the people who formed the chivalric or aristocratic class, rather than chivalric culture in its broadest sense or the ideals, norms or the ethos. of chivalry. » There are, however, methodological and historiographical problems inherent in examining chivalry. First, in order to evaluate the influence of chivalry, and more particularly of chivalric texts, on its public, it is necessary to measure the behavior ofknights and men-at-arms in relation to the theoretical prescriptions adopted in the Chronicles of Froissart. Of course, it is virtually impossible to state an individual's motivations in a particular situation and thereby demonstrate that an action was a direct result of the ideas and values presented in specific texts. Indeed, Sidney Painter said he found no time in the age of chivalry "when knights refrained from rape and manslaughter, protected the church and its clergy, and respected the rights of non- powerless combatants in war." In reality, chivalric texts like the Chronicles of Froissart offered a subtle and complex discussion of chivalric values, simultaneously upholding values that were undoubtedly influential and popular with their audiences, such as honor, prowess, loyalty and courage, but also asking important questions about tensions. inherent in chivalry and these ideas, encouraging moral debates about the differences between virtues and vices. Indeed, Froissart questions chivalric violence, especially when it is directed against civilians, as in his accounts of the sieges of Calais (1347) and Limoges (1370). Indeed, in the later books of his Chronicles and in his revisions of earlier material, Froissart increasingly explored the distance between the high ideals of chivalry and the brutal reality of war and politics. Froissart was not content with describing the reality of chivalrous behavior, but rather sought to advocate a higher standard, articulated and justified through the idealistic and romantic models he recounted. His Chronicles offered a complicated mix of celebration of prowess, bravery, and adventure, as well as thought-provoking discussion of the consequences of violence and the casualties of war. In this essay, I will use the term "chivalry" according to Taylor's definition, that is, to refer to the people who formed the chivalric or aristocratic class, because chivalry is indissolubly linked to the martial world of the aristocratic knight to horse. Thus, the existence of chivalry rested on that of the knight: no chivalry, no chivalry. Furthermore, I resist the temptation to use "chivalry" as a theoretical term in the way that some military historians have used it recently. As Kaeuper has convincingly argued, "to define chivalry in terms of the more romantic and civilized messages that were supposed to be offered by chivalric literature would be to ignore the overwhelming presence of contradictory themes in exactly the same texts, especially l powerful encouragement to violence and aggression. .' This essay will explore the fundamental pillars of the main martial qualities that were celebrated in chivalric culture: "honor, courage, prowess, loyalty and mercy", particularly the dichotomy between chivalric theory and practice. Of course, it would be unrealistic to expect knights and men-at-arms to conform to such fanciful standards. Yet prowess and honor were so ingrained in chivalric culture through the constant celebration, glorification, valorization and encouragement of earning honor through displays of prowess and courage, whether in tournaments , jousting or on the battlefield and were therefore by nature necessarily violent. that attempts to control such powerful impulses by proscribed moral and legal measures were inevitably compromised. Indeed, more moderate qualities such as mercy, magnanimity and restraint have been distorted by.
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