Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

KNIGHT
The Song of Roland is the
earliest of the chivalric
tales, a heroic epic
recast in the 11th century
as a tale of Christian
knighthood. (Bridgeman
Art Library)
148
do not mean that the former is a direct descendant of the latter. Instead they share
common notions of military virtues which are also to be found in classical Greece and
Rome, and indeed in almost all warrior cultures. What distinguishes chivalry are its
other influences.
The second layer of values derived from the social position of the chivalric class.
As we have seen, in the early part of the 11th century the knight was of relatively low
status and the focus of the nascent chivalric literature was on the concepts of duly
and service. During the latter halt of the 11th and into the 12th century nobility and
knighthood became increasingly synonymous and the knight became as much a land-
holding social elite as a martial one. Virtues connected with lordship, in particular
largesse and justice, already central elements of aristocratic culture, were added to the
chivalric ethos. During the latter half of the 12th century a further group of social values
appeared. The romance literature circulating the noble courts of central and southern
France shifted emphasis from the martial prowess of the knight in battle towards
his behaviour in the noble and royal court, typified by the Arthurian tales of the
12th-century author Chretien de Troyes and the Roman de la Rc\