Kabanata Kabanata 30 · Chivalry

It was quite natural that the professional fighting-men of the Middle

Ages should try to establish some sort of organisation for their mutual

benefit and protection. Out of this need for close organisation,

Knighthood or Chivalry was born.

We know very little about the origins of Knighthood. But as the system

developed, it gave the world something which it needed very badly—a

definite rule of conduct which softened the barbarous customs of that

day and made life more livable than it had been during the five hundred

years of the Dark Ages. It was not an easy task to civilise the rough

frontiers-men who had spent most of their time fighting Mohammedans

and Huns and Norsemen. Often they were guilty of back-sliding, and

having vowed all sorts of oaths about mercy and charity in the morning,

they would murder all their prisoners before evening. But progress is

ever the result of slow and ceaseless labour, and finally the most

unscrupulous of knights was forced to obey the rules of his “class” or

suffer the consequences.

These rules were different in the various parts of Europe, but they all

made much of “service” and “loyalty to duty.” The Middle Ages regarded

service as something very noble and beautiful. It was no disgrace to

be a servant, provided you were a good servant and did not slacken on

the job. As for loyalty, at a time when life depended upon the faithful

performance of many unpleasant duties, it was the chief virtue of the

fighting man.

A young knight therefore was asked to swear that he would be faithful

as a servant to God and as a servant to his King. Furthermore, he

promised to be generous to those whose need was greater than his own.

He pledged his word that he would be humble in his personal behaviour

and would never boast of his own accomplishments and that he would

be a friend of all those who suffered, (with the exception of the

Mohammedans, whom he was expected to kill on sight).

Around these vows, which were merely the Ten Commandments expressed

in terms which the people of the Middle Ages could understand, there

developed a complicated system of manners and outward behaviour. The

knights tried to model their own lives after the example of those

heroes of Arthur’s Round Table and Charlemagne’s court of whom the

Troubadours had told them and of whom you may read in many delightful

books which are enumerated at the end of this volume. They hoped that

they might prove as brave as Lancelot and as faithful as Roland. They

carried themselves with dignity and they spoke careful and gracious

words that they might be known as True Knights, however humble the cut

of their coat or the size of their purse.

In this way the order of Knighthood became a school of those good

manners which are the oil of the social machinery. Chivalry came to

mean courtesy and the feudal castle showed the rest of the world what

clothes to wear, how to eat, how to ask a lady for a dance and the

thousand and one little things of every-day behaviour which help to

make life interesting and agreeable.

Like all human institutions, Knighthood was doomed to perish as soon as

it had outlived its usefulness.

The crusades, about which one of the next chapters tells, were followed

by a great revival of trade. Cities grew over-night. The townspeople

became rich, hired good school teachers and soon were the equals of

the knights. The invention of gun-powder deprived the heavily armed

“Chevalier” of his former advantage and the use of mercenaries made it

impossible to conduct a battle with the delicate niceties of a chess

tournament. The knight became superfluous. Soon he became a ridiculous

figure, with his devotion to ideals that had no longer any practical

value. It was said that the noble Don Quixote de la Mancha had been the

last of the true knights. After his death, his trusted sword and his

armour were sold to pay his debts.

But somehow or other that sword seems to have fallen into the hands

of a number of men. Washington carried it during the hopeless days of

Valley Forge. It was the only defence of Gordon, when he had refused

to desert the people who had been entrusted to his care, and stayed to

meet his death in the besieged fortress of Khartoum.

And I am not quite sure but that it proved of invaluable strength in

winning the Great War.

POPE _vs._ EMPEROR

THE STRANGE DOUBLE LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND

HOW IT LED TO ENDLESS QUARRELS BETWEEN THE POPES AND THE HOLY ROMAN