Material and Social Life in the Middle Ages203Relative peace was an even greater threat to the
knightly ethos. In the absence of Vikings or Magyars,
the Crusades became a useful outlet for martial talents.
As the interval between crusades grew longer, tourna-
ments gradually took the place of war as the central
preoccupation of the feudal class. Tournaments were a
stylized form of combat in which two mounted
knights, generally separated by a barrier, attempted to
unhorse one another with their lances (see illustration
11.4). They might then attempt to fight on foot with
swords or other weapons. The rules were elaborate and
varied widely according to the occasion. It was, in
other words, a sport. The bouts were refereed; murder
was not the primary object but serious injuries and fa-
tal mishaps were unavoidable. Women, who partici-
pated only as spectators, were a powerful symbolic
presence. A knight entered the lists as champion of a
particular lady and wore her scarf or some more inti-
mate garment as a token of her favor. Because the con-
ventions of chivalric love encouraged adulterous
flirtations, the lady was not ordinarily expected to be
his wife.
For all its frivolity, the importance of the tourna-
ment as a social ritual should not be underestimated.
Those who were good at it could expect great rewards.
A penniless younger son and knight errant such as
William the Marshall (d. 1219) could parlay his athletic
talent into an advantageous marriage, an estate, and a
remarkable political career that ended with his appoint-
ment as regent for the King of England.
This was the point of the whole system. Beneath
the veneer of chivalry, the advancement of personal
and family interests through the accumulation of estatesand his lady apart from the rest of society. It could not
be easily imitated because peasants no longer associ-
ated with the nobility on a regular basis and had few
opportunities to observe them. The speech, move-
ments, and gestures of ordinary men and women were
eventually stigmatized as uncouth and boorish.
Chivalric values were disseminated by the trouba-
dours and by the kings of arms who presided over the
conventions of heraldry and acted to some extent as ar-
biters of taste. As literacy spread, the oral tradition of
the troubadours was written down and circulated in
manuscript form as the romance. Five works based
upon the legendary court of King Arthur were com-
posed by Chrétien de Troyes sometime after 1164 and
formed the basis of an entire literary genre. Many oth-
ers of similar importance also existed. A body of lyric
poetry that exalted chivalric love served as further rein-
forcement for the new values. The language of this lit-
erature was French, and French, which had spread from
England to Sicily by the Normans, became the lan-
guage of the chivalric class. Social separation was now
virtually complete. In some regions, knights could no
longer speak the language of their tenants.
Theoretically, war remained the center of noble life
and the justification for its privileges. Males were still
expected to master the profession of arms in youth and
practice it until age, wounds, or ill health permitted a
dignified retirement. In practice, this ideal was gravely
weakened by the development of hereditary knight-
hood. In the first feudal age, men who lacked the requi-
site ability commonly remained squires for life. In the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries they could expect to be
knighted regardless of their achievements.
Illustration 11.4
A Tournament.The tournament
provided knights with training, enter-
tainment, and, in some cases, wealth.
This illumination captures the pageantry
and spectacle that fascinated onlookers
and participants alike.