The Code Of Chivalry: The Code Of Chivalry

During the Medieval times chivalry was one of the most important characteristics a knight could display. Chivalry was viewed as a moral obligation that involved bravery, honor, respect, and gallantry. Knights were expected to uphold this code or face social consequences for any infractions, with punishments ranging from humiliation to termination of their knighthood. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” presents the struggles knights faced with honoring the chivalrous code at all times. Sir Gawain, while imperfect, exhibits qualities expected of knights and embodies the internal struggle between honoring the chivalrous code and giving into selfish desires.

(Document E). Parallel to this, knights follow a code called, ‘The Code of Chivalry’. In this code, the knight has to be loyal to the king, give mercy to all and live a well-rounded life all together. Meaning, he must be kind and respectful to ladies and must serve his king with a great deal of loyalty. Breaking this code was a huge disgrace to any knight.

Chivalry Back in the medieval period, Chivalry was a set of rules that were to be followed by the Knights. The Chivalric Code was made up of many different ideas such as: honesty, forbearance, courtliness, humility, loyalty, sovereignty, and respect for women. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d’Arthur, and King Arthur they follow these rules, which has some advantages and disadvantages. In which version do the characters best display chivalry? Which version’s characters are the most admirable and why?

The Morality of a Knight Have you or someone you know showed courage in your lives? There was and always will be many stories that probably have the same of amount of courage as the people you know or see in the news. One of those stories is “The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake”, which tells the tale of one of King Arthur’s most beloved and talented knight, Sir Launcelot. He loves to adventure and help others with moral courage. However, Sir Launcelot is not the only sense of moral courage in this story.

When his challenge is met with silence, the Green Knight demands, “Whose fame is so fair in far realms and wide? Where is now your arrogance and your awesome deeds, Your valor and your victors and your vaunting words! [. . .] Overwhelmed with a word of one man’s speech” (1.305 - 1.315). Shocked by the physical differences and brash challenges of the Green Knight, Arthur’s court forgets to abide by the chivalric code, which dictated the conventional understanding of human nature in that time period.

Sir Lancelot was loyal to King Arthur, which shows part of the Chivalry code. Chivalry is show agains when Sir Lancelot and King Arthur battle themselves. This shows Chivalry on both sides of King Arthur and Sir Lancelot. They battle to the death. “Yet Some men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but carried by the will of the Lord Jesus to another place”(195).

In order to be honorable during medieval times, a knight is expected to follow the code of chivalry. A knight is expected to display traits such as courtesy, courage, honor, and loyalty to their king. As a member of the round table in Camelot, Gawain is expected to adhere to all of these traits and accept the challenge of the Green Knight. Even though Gawain does accept the challenge, his seemingly chivalrous actions do not turn out to be very honorable, yet he does eventually survive his quest. Gawain does survive the challenge of the Green Knight, but the way that he completes it is not very fulfilling.

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight In Class Writing Chivalry is the code of conduct of the medieval Knight. According to that code, a Knight was to be a loyal servant to his lord or lady and a perfect example of virtues such as bravery, courage, courtesy, honesty, faith and gentleness. Sir Gawain does not uphold the ideals of Chivalry in his adventure with the Green Knight.

In this world now, people think of chivalry as men behaving courteously towards women; for example, holding the door for them or offering them their jackets when they are cold. However, the story of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight portrays a different aspect of chivalry: that of the medieval times. The chivalry of the medieval times suggests that it is more than just being courteous to women. In the story,Sir Gawain gets challenged by the Green Knight. Sir Gawain then goes to find the Green Knight.

In medieval times, chivalry was something that many men lived up to. If a man lived up to the expectations of chivalry he was said to be loyal, brave and courageous. For some it was difficult to follow certain codes especially when it came to romance, an example: Sir Lancelot in the movie “First Knight.” Medieval romance was taken seriously during its time. Not only did men/knights have to follow rules and codes about war, but also about romance.

Gawain calls himself the weakest and most unmemorable out of all of the Round Table Knights, this helps the other Knights to save face and ‘allow’

Chivalry was a code where knights would vow to do no wrong, be loyal to the King, to give mercy to those who ask for it, and to be courteous and helpful to women (Doc E). Knights beliefs were also very religion centered, as shown in The Son of Roland “God, I acknowledge my guilt and I beg for Thy mercy for all the sins, greater and lesser, which I have committed from the hour my birth until this day … Angels descend out of heaven and come to him” (Doc

Chivalry isn’t just for the knights anymore. It applies to life now, how we all should be, we should all act with chivalry. We should all want to be chivalrous and perform acts of kindness being selfless. We need to take from our history, we need to see how the knights acted with such honor and loyalty and apply it to today's world. We need to improve our society, we can not allow chivalry to

The concept of Chivalry has baffled countless medieval historians throughout the years. Chivalry was supposedly a code that knights and nobles lived their lives by. Similarly to other social structures that were in place in the past historians have struggled to draw conclusions as to the extent to which people lived according to chivalric principles. Sir Walter Scott believed that knights aspired to the code of chivalry, but that in the real world the code was impossible to live according to such a code. This conclusion gives a clear picture of chivalry.

All of you, and those who shall sit afterwards at this Table, are the Knights of Logres, and for the glory of Logres, the Realm of Righteousness, do not ever depart from the high virtues of this realm. Do no outrage nor murder nor any cruel or wicked thing; fly from treason and all untruthfulness and dishonest dealing; give mercy unto those that seek it - or sit no more at this Table. And always give all the help in your power to ladies and damsels, go out to succour gentlewomen and widows, turn from all else to right any wrong done to any women in the world - and never, on pain of death and eternal disgrace, do you any ill thing to a women, or suffer it to be done. Nor, for love or gain, fight in any quarrel that is not just and righteous. To these things you must swear upon to be Blessed Sacrament(...)”