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

were elite societies: only the nobility were permitted, although they emphasized the
sense ol brotherhood amongst members that levelled the distinctions between greater
and lesser knights. They were also militant; their members were expected to be active
in war and tournament, and many of the orders had badges that were to be augmented
in recognition of deeds performed on the battlefield, or had tables of honour at their
meetings where those who achieved the greatest feats were to take their place.
The ethos of the secular orders was steeped in romance literature. The Order ol the
Garter drew heavily on the Arthurian myths. Edward instituted the Order's great
feast to be held at Windsor which, legend had it, had been originally built by Arthur
himself. The Order of the Golden Fleece, the Touton d'Or, created by Philip the Good,
Duke ot Burgundy in 1430, drew inspiration from the classical tale of Jason and the
Argonauts, mixed with the biblical story of Gideon's fleece.
The idea of courtouie found its way into warfare and campaign. During the siege
of the Norman town of Le Mans by Helias, Count of Maine in 1100 the two sides
daily exchanged jokes and insults and the count had safe passage into the citadel where
he was able to spend time in conversation with the defenders, assured of his safely
because of the garrison's good faith and honour. When the castle was given permission
to surrender, the garrison were able to march out with their arms and were received
not as prisoners but as 'faithful friends'. When the knight William de Grandcourt
captured the rebel count Amauiy de Montfort at Bourgtheroulde in 1124, during the
war between Henry II and his nephew William Clito, de Grandcourt chose to desert
the king, abandon his own lands and go into exile rather than condemn the noble
count to perpetual prison ', Amauiy's inevitable fate if de Grandcourt had handed him
over to Henry as he ought to have done. After the battle of Poitiers the Black Prince
displayed his LirgeJde by providing dinner for his prisoners, and serving King Jean of
France himself.
The final major influence on the development of chivalry was the Church. The two
ideologies did not fit easily with each other. Christianity's origins were pacifist.
The writings of the earliest Christian theologians had all argued that war and violence
were incompatible with following Christ. However the adoption of the Christian
religion by the Roman emperors, first by Constantine around 317, and its eventual
establishment as the official religion of the Roman Empire by Theodosius II in the
fifth century, forced a rethink on the matter. Fortunately, whilst the New Testament
was predominantly pacifist, there were passages in which the soldier was accepted
rather than condemned, and the Old Testament held the image of God as the Lord of
Hosts, a bnnger of military victory to the laithful.
The writings of the fourth-century theologian Saint Augustine of Hippo on
the matter, as on so much else in early Christian doctrine, had a huge impact upon the
CHIVALRY: THE KNIGHTLY CODE -