generosity. If largesse was important to the poorer knights, it also received emphasis
from the troubadours, who sang or recited epic tales to noble audiences. Since their
livelihood depended on the generosity of their listeners, they had a particular economic
stake in promoting largesse and making stinginess a mark of unknightly behavior.
In the dangerous and disorderly 11th century, lords seeking to build up a cavalry force
turned increasingly to feudal institutions. The spread of the fief reinforced the tendency
of noble lineages to consolidate their positions by leaving most of the family patrimony
to a single heir. Hundreds of noble families produced sons trained as knights but lacking
any prospect of an inheritance. These unmarried landless knights, the “youth” described
by Georges Duby, posed a threat to public order and induced the church to accelerate its
efforts to regulate warfare. From the dawn of the 11th century, the church promoted a
peace movement aimed at protecting the defenseless against the depredations of warriors.
Toward the end of the century, it began promoting the Crusades, one objective of which
was to direct aggressive fighting men away from Catholic Europe and into projects that
served the Christian church. The influence of the church on chivalry has been debated:
did ecclesiastical writers describe anything approaching reality, or only an ideal?
Certainly, sources emphasize the idea of knighthood as an order of society with a
Christian calling, and they present the view that proper knightly behavior required the
considerate treatment of noncombatants, with an obligation to defend the weak against
the strong. This principle, an important addition to the values of chivalry, was embodied
in the virtue of courtesy.
Courtesy is generally associated with the proper treatment of women, but it was not
restricted to this sense in 12th-century literature. In many romances, the knighterrant is
recognizable as a landless noble “youth.” The heroes displayed the chivalric virtues,
treating kindly those who were defenseless, defeating opponents who violated chivalric
norms, and being rewarded with the hand of an heiress or a respected position in royal
service.
As knights became recognized as part of the nobility, and as some nonnobles became
wealthier and no longer economically inferior to the knights, chivalry began to acquire
greater class-consciousness. High birth grew in importance, especially as a qualification
for membership in one of the chivalric orders. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, an
increasingly literate aristocracy grew more interested in the culture and literature of
ancient Rome, and Roman influences began to supplant those found in the medieval
romances. The result was a stronger interest in honor and military discipline, while
courtesy became more and more restricted to relations with other members of one’s own
class, particularly women.
An earlier Roman influence, that of law, had made its presence felt by the 13th
century, producing a gradual codification of the rules governing warfare. This ius militare
was a legal manifestation of chivalric principles, but it dealt only with the relations
among members of the military class. The church’s earlier concern for the defenseless
nonwarrior was relegated to the background in the later Middle Ages, and in this sense
Huizinga may have rightly perceived a distortion of former ideals.
Chivalry acquired more elaborate and ceremonial trappings, especially the
tournaments, which still provided the essential military training that had called them into
being ca. 1100. The elaborate display did not mean that chivalry had lost touch with
reality. As long as kings needed warriors with the equipment and training of a knight, the
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