CHAPTER X THE EDUCATION OF CHIVALRY OUTLINE Owing to the weakness of the regular sovereignty after Charlemagne's day, the feudal system sprang up, and by the middle of the twelfth century it had developed a code of manners known as chivalry. Out of this there arose a training for knighthood in religion, honor, and gallantry. Before becoming a knight, the boy was early trained at home, then at some castle, first as 'page,' and later as 'squire.' This chivalric education produced many contradictory results, but it tended to refine the times and to counteract otherworldliness.' The Development of Feudalism.-The mediæval education thus far described has had to do mostly with the schooling of the ecclesiastical and other select professional classes. Quite a different type of training was that given the knight. This has generally been known as the education of chivalry. Chivalry is a name for the code of manners in usage during the days of the feudal system. By this system is meant an order of society and government that gradually grew up in the Middle Ages alongside the regular political organization, and when, under the successors of Charlemagne, the monarchy became weak, tended to be substituted for it. Under Dependence feudalism small landowners and freemen lacking land ful neighbor upon a power became a regular form of government. Religion, honor, and gallantry. Training (1) at home, had come to depend upon some powerful neighbor for protection, and even to seek from him a dependent tenure of land. Then, in time, the lords acquired a species of sovereignty over their tenants, and by the tenth century there had come to be a great social gulf between the nobility, who owned the land and lived in castles, and the peasantry, who tilled the soil and supported them. The only serious business of the former was fighting with spear, sword, or battle-axe, in their own quarrels or those of their feudal superiors. To prepare for this warfare, mock combats may occasionally have been engaged in as early as the tenth century (Fig. 12). The Ideals of Chivalry.-But by the middle of the twelfth century, when the old heroic age had lapsed into an age of courtesy, with extravagant devotion to women and romantic adventure as its chief ideals, these encounters were organized into a definite species of pastime called 'tournaments,' and soon degenerated into mere pageantry. Hence the rules of chivalry became fixed and formal, and the art of horsemanship and the management of the lance and spear were developed and settled. The ideals of knightly conduct and education could then be stated as 'service and obedience' to God, as represented by the organized church, to one's lord, or feudal superior, and to one's lady, whose favor the knight wore in battle or tournament. The three ruling motives of chivalric education were, therefore, held to be 'religion, honor, and gallantry.' The Three Preparatory Stages of Education.-There were three periods in the preparatory training of a knight. First, until the child was seven or eight, he was trained in religion, politeness, and physique at home by his mother. and After this he became a 'valet' or 'page' at the home of a (2) as a page, nobleman, who was generally his father's feudal superior. Here he performed personal duties for his lord and lady, and his education was conducted mostly by the latter. He learned the game of chess, acquired the etiquette of love and honor, and was taught to play the harp and pipe and to sing, to read and write, and to compose in verse. Outside the castle, the pages were trained in running, wrestling, boxing, riding, and rudimentary tilting (Fig. 14). In the third stage, at fourteen or fifteen the youth passed to the grade of 'squire,' and, while he still attended (3) as a squire. the lady and carved the meat or handed around the viands for the guests, his chief service was to the knight and his training came through him. He slept near him at night, groomed his horses, kept his armor and weapons in condition, and attended him at the tournament or upon the battlefield. Through this service the squire himself was practiced in all the warlike arts. Toward the close of the period the embryo knight also chose his lady-love, and learned to write verses and dance. When the squire became twenty-one, he was knighted with many religious The knighting. ceremonies. After a season of fasting, the candidate entered the church in full armor and spent a night in vigil and holy meditation. In the morning he confessed, had his sword blessed upon the altar by the priest, and took an oath to defend the church, protect women, and succor the poor. He then knelt before his lord, who laid his own sword upon the candidate and dubbed him knight. The Effects of Chivalric Education.-Such was the training of the knight in the 'rudiments of love, war, and religion.' It contained many apparent anomalies Courage, but cruelty; self-respect, but pride; extravagance; and other anomalies. and contradictions, and every virtue seems to have been balanced by a correlative vice. The knights were recklessly courageous in battle, but their anger was ungovernable and their cruelty extreme. A great self-respect was supposed to characterize the true knight, but this often reacted into an overweening pride. Likewise, while the knights were rated largely according to their liberality liberality, but and hospitality, these virtues degenerated into a great love of display and extravagance beyond measure. Again, although great respect for womanhood was inculcated, not much consideration could be expected by the woman beneath a certain rank. Similarly, the knightly word of honor, if accompanied by certain forms, would be held sacred, but should these forms be omitted, a decided breach of faith was not uncommon. As a whole, however, the chivalric training had a beneficial effect upon the society of the times. It helped to organize the turmoil and to refine the barbarism of mediæval Europe, and was an effective instrument in raising the position of women. Moreover, while this peculiar of otherworld- training was artificial and worldly, by that very tendency it did much to counteract the 'otherworldly' ideal of monasticism and the general asceticism of the period. It encouraged an activity in earthly affairs and a frank enjoyment of this life, and thus helped to develop a striking characteristic of the Renaissance. Counteraction liness. SUPPLEMENTARY READING Graves, During the Transition (Macmillan, 1910), chap. VII; Monroe, Text-book (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 284-291. Detailed descriptions of the stages of chivalric training can be found in |