Chivalry and violence in medieval europe

351 Pages·2001·1.433 MB·English

by  Richard W. Kaeuper

CHIVALRY AND VIOLENCE IN
MEDIEVAL EUROPE

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CHIVALRY
AND
VIOLENCE
IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
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RICHARD W. KAEUPER
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, OxfordOX2 6DP
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© Richard W. Kaeuper 1999
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First published 1999
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ISBN 0–19–820730–1
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to Seth, Geoffrey, and John

acknowledgements
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Essential support for launching this project came from awards granted by the
Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in 1989–91. Their generous financial
and moral support is gratefully acknowledged. The University of Rochester
gave me one-semester academic leaves in 1991, 1993, and 1997, for which I am
likewise grateful.
Warm thanks go to the anonymous Clarendon Press readers, and to William
Calin, John Maddicott, Jeffrey Ravel, and Roberta Krueger, who read large
parts of the book manuscript and gave helpful critiques. Tony Morris encour-
aged the project and saw the book through the contract stage at the Press with
much appreciated skill and enthusiasm. Ruth Parr, Anna Illingworth, and
Dorothy McLean directed the crucial process by which a large manuscript
became a book. Sarah Dancy did the truly heroic work of copy-editing. The
staff in Reference and Interlibrary Loan, Rush Rhees Library, University of
Rochester, obtained even the most obscure French sources. The index was
skilfully prepared by Nicholas Waddy.
Responding to my ideas as I formulated them was one gift from my wife
Margaret. Even more important was her splendidly sound advice as I shaped
the book and her unfailing capacity to ask the hard questions.
This book is dedicated to my sons, Seth, Geoffrey, and John, with love and
pride.
Richard W. Kaeuper
University of Rochester

contents
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Acknowledgements vii
Prologue 1
PART 1. ISSUES AND APPROACHES 5
1. The Problem of Public Order and the Knights 11
The High Middle Ages and Order 11
Three Witnesses 12
Context: Socio-Economic and Institutional Change 19
Evidence from Chivalric Literature 22
Conclusion 28
2. Evidence on Chivalry and its Interpretation 30
Did Knights Read Romance? 30
Is Chivalric Literature Hopelessly Romantic? 33
The Framework of Institutions and Ideas 36
PART II. THE LINK WITH CLERGIE 41
3. Knights and Piety 45
Lay Piety, Lay Independence 45
Chivalric Mythology 53
Knights and Hermits 57
4. Clergie,Chevalerie,and Reform 63
Clerical Praise for Knightly Militia 64
Clerical Strictures on Knightly Malitia 73
The Church and Governing Power 81
The Force of Ideas 84
PART III. THE LINK WITH ROYAUTÉ 89
5. Chevalerie and Royauté 93
Royal Stance on War and Violence 93