Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/509

 CHIVALRY 497 knight banneret, a degree which has sometimes, though improperly, been considered a sepa- rate order of chivalry ; but it was really only a grade in the same rank, merely giving mili- tary precedence over the other knights, who in time came to be designated as bos-chevaliers, or bachelors. The strict definition of a knight or chevalier is one who fights on horseback ; the Germans called him a Ritter, or rider. His proper arms were the lance, the two-hand- ed sword, sometimes a battle axe or mace, and a short sharp dagger. He was clad in complete armor, and his horse was also protected. When mounted and armed, he was almost invulnera- ble against any opponent of the time, except one equally armed and armored. His coat of mail was proof against any missile but the shaft from the formidable longbow, used only by English archers. The ineffective weapons of the common European soldiers could not touch him ; the keen scirnetars of the Saracens, which would sheer off a limb or a head, were useless against him. A score of knights could ride unharmed through a host of common sol- diers. So the crusaders found it against the Saracens, and the Spanish conquistadors against the Aztecs. But the knight, once unhorsed and thrown upon his back, was as helpless as a turtle in the same position. He could not even gain his feet without assistance, and no matter of what proof his armor was, there must be some joint or opening through which a dagger could penetrate, or it might be bat- tered in with a club or stone. The ideal knight of the middle ages was a man trained to the use of arms, imbued with generous sen- timents, and possessed of all the humane vir- tues. He was ideally brave and courteous, chaste and temperate, generous and pious. Guizot has digested into 25 articles the vari- ous knightly oaths as administered at different periods. The man who even measurably ob- served them might fairly be considered a secu- lar saint. But the actual knight of chivalry, even taking into account only its most illus- trious examples, fell far short of this standard. The exaggerated devotion with which he was supposed to regard his lady love, which should, as an old writer phrases it, "defend him 'from pride and the other deadly sins of anger, envy, sloth, and gluttony, and render it impossible that his conduct should ever be stained with the vice of incontinence," became in effect only a veil to cover the grossest amatory li- cense. The morals of the age of chivalry, tried by any modern standard, were gross and licen- tious. The romances of chivalry, which must be accepted as a fair picture of the social mor- als of the time, are mostly unfit for reading. Chivalry indeed bound the aristocracy togeth- er, and caused the knights and squires of even hostile and warring nations to sympathize with each other, and observe many amenities of warfare. But the chivalry who had to- day fought with each other were ready to- morrow to unite to exterminate a squalid peasantry who had been driven to insurrec- tion by intolerable outrage. Here and there, indeed, a knight or noble would protect his vassals, just as he would protect his horse or hound ; but that the common people had any intrinsic rights as against the will of a noble was an idea which never entered into the code of chivalry. War was the main busi- ness of a knight; but in the most turbulent times men cannot be always fighting. The chase, tournaments, jousts, and other games of mimic warfare were the occupations and amuse- ments of chivalry. The tournament was the most elaborate form of these martial games. Tournaments were held under the auspices of some sovereign or great noble, and were attended by ladies, who bestowed the prizes won by the successful combatants. The com- bats, whether between individuals or com- panies of knights, were conducted in accor- dance with fixed rules, which no one might violate. The jousts and passages of arms were merely less formal combats. They might be simply a duel to decide a private quarrel, or a knight, merely to display his prowess, would challenge all comers to encounter him. A class known as knights errant arose, whose special avocation was to encounter any oppo- nent who might present himself. They were the chivalric representatives of the champions in the modern prize ring. The aspects of chivalry were considerably modified by the circumstances of the different countries in which the institution existed. In Spam the chief business of the knights was to fight against the Moors, and hence hatred and con- tempt of infidels came to be the marked char- acteristic of Spanish chivalry. In England the predominance of the order was kept in check by the yeomen and archers, who formed a military body unknown in France. During the crusades arose the great military orders, semi-monastic in their character, such as the knights templars and the hospitallers or knights of St. John, formed for the defence of the Holy Land ; and later the Teutonic knights, who after- ward undertook to exterminate heathenism in the north of Europe. The institution of chiv- alry sank gradually under a combination of physical and moral causes, the changes intro- duced into the art of war, and the equally great changes in the social and political con- dition of Europe. Society advanced as the power of the great nobles and feudatories de- clined. Many of the nobles had sold their es- tates to fit themselves out for the crusades, and lost their lives in the Holy Land. Those who returned found that towns had sprung up near their castles, filled with burghers ready and able to defend by force of arms the privi- leges which they had bought or wrested from their feudal lords. Slowly it began to be dis- covered that infantry could be so armed and manoeuvred as to withstand the shock of cav- alry. At the battle of Morat (1476), the Bur- gundian chivalry, the finest in Europe, led by