The Birth of Chivalry!

"A knight should be bold, fair, courteous and well-mannered, generous and loyal, not foolish or rash, and should speak fairly without discourtesy. A knight should be all this, and also proud and fierce to his enemies, and kind to his friends."

Durmat, lines 12129-36, c. 1210-1240

Chivalry - The Doctrine of Love!

"...And, indeed, he seems to me

Scarce other than my king's ideal knight,

Who reverenced his conscience as his king;

Whose glory was, redressing humand wrong;

Who spake no slander - no, nor listened to it;

Who loved one only, and who clave to her."

Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Dedication - Idylls of the King (1859)

Chivalry

A knyght there was and that a worthy man

That from the tyme that he first bigan

To riden out, he loved chivalrie,

Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.

Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,

And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,

As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,

And evere honoured for his worthynesse.

Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (c. 1390)