| Chivalry has come to be very watered down in | | | | What happens when stability occurs and food |
| modern day times. For the most part we think of | | | | once again becomes a reliable resource? People |
| chivalry as the way a man behaves toward, and | | | | turn to new ways of doing things. They gain the |
| around, women. And while this does characterize | | | | freedom to examine themselves and their lives. |
| chivalry it is actually a very small component of | | | | They search for meaning in new ways, and it is |
| what chivalry was. | | | | from this stability that the Renaissance was born |
| Chivalry was an all encompassing guide for living. | | | | and the ideals of chivalry were also born. |
| This included combat, horsemanship, law, religion, | | | | Chivalry is a natural development of the need for |
| management of people and lands, and well just | | | | structure and organization in any large culture or |
| about every aspect of a knight's life. | | | | society. As a society grows in size and |
| There has been a long-standing debate about | | | | complexity it needs a set of rules of behavior for |
| chivalry and whether anybody actually followed | | | | its people and chivalry was exactly this. It was a |
| any of it and I believe it was something that | | | | set of rules that laid out how a knight could |
| knights aspired to. Let me explain why I think so. | | | | manage himself, his people, his affairs and also |
| The early middle ages were an extraordinarily | | | | how he could better himself. So among other |
| tumultuous time and there was no such thing as | | | | things the code of chivalry was the first self-help |
| chivalry. Europe was in darkness, plague ravaged | | | | program! See that, chivalry is so much more than |
| the people, and war was found everywhere. The | | | | just holding a door open! |
| prime rule of thumb during this time was that | | | | We tend to think of chivalry as a very limited set |
| might was right; and the only rule that was | | | | of rules but chivalry was a code for living that |
| effective was rule by the sword. Barons, lords, | | | | influences much of the culture we live in today. It |
| knights and kings took by force what they could | | | | is a fascinating topic and there were books |
| take. | | | | written about chivalry going back more than 500 |
| But, Europe slowly came out of this darkness in | | | | years - and some of them are still in print. Among |
| the centuries leading up to the Renaissance. The | | | | the best of these are A Knight's Own Book of |
| plague disappeared, Kings consolidated their lands | | | | Chivalry by Geoffroi De Charny and the Book of |
| (which caused stability) and the Church exercised | | | | Knighthood and Chivalry by Ramon Lull. |
| power over a significant portion of the continent. | | | | |