CHIVALRY AND ROMANCEJuly 20, 2004

Anderson and Zinsser, p. 304-350Aimee Barborka, 001070458

Eleanor of Aquitaine

OUTLINE

1. Primary Sourceso Origin, Purpose, Value, Limitations

2. Secondary Sourceo Courtly Love and Codes of Chivalryo Women Poets and “Courtoisie”o Chivalryo Wives and Daughters in the World of Centralized

Monarchies: The Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Centurieso Widows and Mothers: The Ninth to Seventeenth Centuries

- Rights of Widows Abused- Rights of Widows Asserted

o The New Flowering of Ancient Traditions- In Literature- The Positive Legacy- In Law and Practice- The Ideal Woman

3. Fun Facts!o Code of Chivalryo Rules in Love

PRIMARY SOURCEOrigin: Excerpt from A Treatise on Courtly Love by Andreas

Capellanus in the late 12th Century. Translation by P.G. Walsh, Edited by L.D. Benson

Purpose: To differentiate between classes. Demonstrates that as people are unequal, as is love – like with everything else, nobles get the better/peasants the worst. Classes are strictly differentiated between – not much for class-mixing for love, although lower classes still used by higher ones.

Value: Points out that, like throughout all of history, classes play a huge role in peoples lives. In the first dialogue, the man and woman are of the same class. In this, he is trying to tell her that its not her physical attributes that make her beautiful but that he appreciates her ‘inner’ beauty. The third dialogue is between a common man and a noble women. In this, he is trying to get her to understand that physical attributes and class are not important factors of love, but ones moral and virtues are what should matter.

Limitations: It’s a man writing about how a women would respond to these conversations – and being as they are sample dialogues – they are not real conversations that have occurred, they are made up and assumed. The most important limitation in this source is that it contains three books and the third book is a formal retraction of the first two books, thus eliminating anything of importance that is taken from them.

SECONDARY SOURCEAnderson and Zimmer, pages 304-350

Courtly Love and Code of Chivalry:

o Eleanor of Aquitaine was known for her reading and enjoyment of a leisurely life.

o “kings praised the traditional learning and intellectual accomplishments of royal daughters and wives. In the ninth century Charlemagne’s daughters had been educated with

his sons.” (304)

o During the 12th Century, noblewomen became more interested in a varied of subjects as more was becoming available to them in their own languages.

o Women writers were expressing more opinions, such as Mahaut “reflecting her interests in politics and trades … [and] for her own amusement and entertainment, she had romances” (304)

… Continued …

Io received by Isis at Conpus

o These new interests were being influenced by the East and the West throughout the tenth through fourteenth centuries.

o Both men and women were enjoying more luxuries and more education.

o Courts became the “place for the judgment of lovers’ claims” (305), relationships were now being recognized in terms of love, not just something that was expected to procreate.

o Music, poetry, and romances were becoming widely popular.

o Marie, the daughter of Eleanor played a tremendous role in the transformation.

o Chrétien de Troyes “dedicat[ed] Lancelot to … Marie” (305)

o Along with the growth of entertainment and leisurely activity came to change of clothing. Wardrobes became brighter, smoother, and more revealing – in the right places.

o Everyone began spending their time differently, more leisure time to do as they pleased.

Women Poets and “Courtoisie”:

o “The women and men of the courts imagined new roles and functions for themselves, not just wives and husbands fulfilling their obligations, but also lovers with each succumbing to the strength of their passion.” (306)

o Women poets were becoming more predominant, their poems were beginning to focus not on feelings, but more on the “direct, practical, sensual, and spontaneous. They avoided studied reactions …”(307)

o Some the most momentous poets – men and women include: Tibors (b.c. 1130), Clara d’Anduza of Languedoc (13th century), Alamanda (12th C.), Beatriz, Countess of Dia (b.c. 1140), Isabella (b.c. 1180), and Marie de France (12thC.)

o The most important of these poets was Marie de France, who depicted “illicit loving with imaginative and original turns of plot and characterization … the passion of young lovers is the means for them to escape the injustice and unpleasantness of their world” (310)

Chivalry:

o Marie de France poked fun and the lifestyles and attitudes of men and women, but during her time, what she “referred to reflected this new ideals of conduct …” (313), thus creating the idea of chivalry. “The romances both influenced and reflected this new definition of knightly behavior and the ways in which it affected women.” (313)

o There were still idealized men, but all men were learning how to behave in a lady’s presence, and they learned how women would respond to their characters. Women gladly sat back and played to role of “innocent bystanders in need of protection”. (314)

o “Honor and love all women” (314).

Wives and Daughters in the World of Centralized Monarchies: The Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Centuries:

o During this period, “the political and economic circumstances of the noblewoman of Europe’s castles and manors changed again … these changes determined the powers allowed privileged women and the ways in which they remained vulnerable in what was still a culture intermittently at war.

o War was a job – knights were paid for their services.

o A new mercantile economy was developing and women were adjusting and learning how to evolve with this new economy. They were learning how manage their properties and how to bring in more money – they “supervised the land more closely to generate more revenue” (318)

o 15th Century: women were becoming more interested in interior design, the interiors of their homes showed leather, colors, stripes, and carved wood paneling. Mahaut (countess of Burgundy), for example, had a different motif for the rooms in her castle.

o Women were gaining more and more for themselves, they now had more possessions for themselves when they married – Agrafena Mixailov (daughter of Russian prince) had a dowry over two-pages long.

o When a family had no sons, the daughters were eligible to inherit, but rather than gaining that inheritance when her parents passed on, it was combined with her dowry when she was married.

o Queen Isabella of Spain became ruler of the throne when her brother passed away. She “intended to be both a queen in her own right and the founder of a new dynasty. Even in the marriage settlement … she retained full royal authority over her own kingdom of Castile, and never shared her power with her husband.” (323)

o “Changes … reduced [women’s] vulnerability … and eased their lives.” (323)

Widows and Mothers: The Ninth to the Seventeenth Centuries:

Rights of Widows Abused

o For a woman to be widowed was to become “sole and unmarried” and the woman became “vulnerable” (324)

o Widowed meant losing most of what these women had gained – they lost their property, their dowry, they lost their children, and they were forced to remarry.

o During the 10th and 11th centuries, Anglo-Saxon and Vikings had laws “guaranee[ing] that a woman “may decide as she herself pleases” about remarriage. When it suited their needs, however, kings ignored their own laws.” (324)

o Lots of women lived their married lives as widows when their husbands were in exile or off at war, such as Dhouda (wife of Bernard of Septimania).

Rights of Widows Asserted

o “An elite widow’s traditional right to sustenance until her remarriage or until her death had in theory been guaranteed.” (327)

o The law now stated that she was gain a portion of her husbands land to maintain herself, though it “was not hers to own or bequeath, only hers for use during her lifetime or until her remarriage.” (328)

o “Women like Eleanor of Aquitaine, like Isabella of Catile, like Margrethe of Denmark used the laws and the opportunities given to them to wield power, but this remained a man’s power, used for the ends valued by men.” (331)

In Literature:

o epics, lyrics, chansons de geste, and romances all divulged in the same images and such as past times had

o “… positive portrayals of the beautiful lady and the glorification of love. On the other [hand], there were the negative portrayals of women as mere objects, as agents of forces bringing pain and even death to men.” (332)

The Positive Legacy:

o “ideal of female beauty” (333)

Negative Traditions:

o Women were objects.

o “The love and desire that they cause bring not only pleasure and happiness but also pain, misadventure, and sometimes death” (334)

o Women are seen as beautiful beings but the root of all evil.

o Many men claim that women gain power and then use “tricks” to bring evil and harm to the men in their lives.

o Even during this time period, with women gaining more power, the literature “presents examples of misogyny. Even the most complimentary of male poets can echo the traditional fears and condemnations of women.

In Law and Practice:

o “As laws were collected and codified, as royal statutes and edicts were issued, the same kind of devolution of opportunity and authority happened to all noblewomen, not just to royal wives” (337)

o The “unusual circumstances” that had given women rights to land and independent authority were quickly being removed. Life was going back to the old ways – “the vast majority of well-born and noble women could see no other alternatives for themselves or their daughters.” (350)

o As Coke noted in “Institutes”, husband and wife as one person, one male person.

o The women “have no rights in Parliament, they make no laws, they consent to none, they abrogate none.” (338)

The Ideal Woman:

o When it came to love, some women were equal with the men they loved.

o “The literature of the great halls idealized women for their beauty and for love’s power to inspire men to great deeds.” (343)

o Men had great expectations for women whom they were to marry, not only for physical beauty, but also sacrifices they make.

o All the songs and stories sung or written by artists during this time where heard by all the noble people and they came to believe that this was appropriate behavior.

o “Even the strongest heroine could be forced to accept a subordinate place in relation to a man,” (345) such as Brunhild

o Philip of Novara portrays women as weak and easily led astray.

o Eve has always been, and surely always will be, “the classic example of the unsubordinated, willful female” (347)

o It is “because of her” that women have been portrayed as evil and sinful and therefore must be controlled and watched all the time. That is also why men have standards for women – someone who is not sinful.

o “The young “virgins” were to be “clean”, “humble” in manner, “prudent”, quiet, demure, obedient to their parents and in all ways “moderate and chaste” (348)

o As an adult, a noblewoman was to cultivate the equally traditional qualities of humility, patience, steadfastness, piety, modesty, and most of all “discretion””(348)

FUN FACTS! The 10 Commandments of the

Code of Chivalry1. Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions.

2. Thou shalt defend the church.

3. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.

4. Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born

5. Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.

6. Thou shalt make war against the Infidel without cessation, and without mercy.

7. Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.

8. Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word.

9. Thou shalt be generous, and give largess to everyone.

10. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

…CONTINUED…The Code of Chivalry

o Live to serve King and Countryo Live to defend Crown and Country and all it holds

dearo Live one’s life so that it is worthy of respect and

honoro Live for freedom, justice and all that is good.o Never attack an unarmed foeo Never use a weapon on an opponent not equal to

the attack.o Never attack from behind.o Avoid lying to your fellow man.o Avoid cheating.o Avoid torture.o Obey the law of King, country, and chivalry.o Administer justice.o Protect the innocent.o Exhibit self control.o Show respect to authority.o Respect women.o Exhibit Courage in word and deed.o Defend the weak and innocent.

o Destroy evil in all of its monstrous forms.o Crush the monsters that steal our land and rob our

people.o Fight with honor.o Avenge the wronged.o Never abandon a friend, ally, or noble cause.o Fight for the ideals of king, country, and chivalry.o Die with valor.o Always keep one’s word of honor.o Always maintain one’s principles.o Never betray a confidence or comrade.o Avoid deception.o Respect life and freedomo Die with honor.o Exhibit manners.o Be polite and attentive.o Be respectful of host, women, and honor.o Loyalty to country, King, honor, freedom, and the

code of chivalry.o Loyalty to one’s friends and those who lay their

trust in thee.

FUN FACTS!The Twelve Chief Rules in Love

1. Thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly pestilence and shalt embrace its opposite.2. Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the sake of her whom thou lovest.3. Thou shalt not knowing strive to break up a correct love affair that someone else is

engaged in.4. Thou shalt not chose for thy love anyone whom natural sense of shame forbids

thee to marry.5. Be mindful completely to avoid falsehood.6. Thou shalt not have many who know of thy love affair.7. Being obedient in all things to the commands of ladies, thou shalt ever strive to ally

thyself to the service of Love.8. In giving and receiving, love’s solaces let modesty be ever present.9. Thou shalt speak no evil.10. Thou shalt not be a revealer of love affairs.11. Thou shalt be in all things polite and courteous.12. In practicing the solaces of love thou shalt not exceed the desires of thy lover.

…CONTINUED…The Art of Courtly Love

o Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.o He who is not jealous cannot love.o No one can be bound by a double love.o It is well known that love is always increasing or

decreasing.o That which a lover takes against the will of his beloved

has no relish.o Boys do not love until they reach the age of maturity.o When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is

required of the survivor.o No one should be deprived of love without the very best

of reasons.o No one can love unless he is propelled by the

persuasion of love.o Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.o It is not proper to love any woman whom one would be

ashamed to seek to marry.o A true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone

except his beloved.o When made public love rarely endures.o The easy attainment of love makes it of little value:

difficulty of attainment makes it prized.o Every lover regularily turns pale in the presence of his

beloved.o When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved his

heart palpitates.

o A new love puts an old one to fight.o Good character alone makes any man worthy of

love.o If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives.o A man in love is always apprehensive.o Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.o Jealousy increases when one suspects his beloved.o He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps

very little.o Every act of a lover ends in the thought of his

beloved.o A true lover considers nothing good except what he

thinks will please his beloved.o Love can deny nothing to love.o A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his

beloved.o A slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his

beloved.o A man who is vexed by too much passion usually

does not love.o A true lover is constantly and without intermission

possessed by the thought of his beloved.o Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men

or one man by two women.

GLOSSARY

Eleanor of Aquitaine: married at 15, during war – gathered ladies to “tend the wounded”, married Henry at 30

Marie de France: wrote 12 “Lais” – short poems

Isabella of Castile: Queen, her husband became a king, they ruled equally, given title “the Catholic” by the pope because of role in purifying the faith

Vignette: a short, descriptive literary sketch

SOURCES

o mostly excepts/passages/phrases from the work of the writers, poets, and song writers discussed through the chapters.