Table Of ContentHARVARD STUDIES IN ROMANCE
LANGUAGES
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND OTHER
ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
VOLUME XII
LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
THE DECLINE OF CHIVALRY
AS SHOWN IN THE FRENCH LITERATURE
OF THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
BY
RAYMOND LINCOLN KILGOUR
Cambridge, Massachusetts
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
!937
COPYRIGHT, I937
BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S.A.
P R E F A CE
ALTHOUGH many scholarly works have dealt with the
general theme of chivalry, none, to my knowledge, have
given more than a few perfunctory pages to the question
of chivalric decadence. Undoubtedly it is more gratify-
ing to study the age of knightly splendor than to record
the disappearance of a noble ideal. Nevertheless, there
is a definite savor to an age of decadence which appeals
more readily, perhaps, to the modern temperament than
the soulful enthusiasm of the age of idealism. While the
period from 1350 to 1500 can scarcely be described as
gleaming with the "phosphorescence of decay," 1 it does
inaugurate a current of realism and self-consciousness
quite similar to that of today. The present work makes
no attempt, except in the most summary fashion, to deal
with the complex historical problems underlying the
decline of chivalry. It is confined to the more specific
question of tracing the decline of chivalry as manifested
in the French literature of the dying Middle Ages. It is
to be hoped that this study may prove of some slight
assistance to historians of the period.
The reader will note the omission of two prominent
figures, Charles d'Orléans and François Villon. The
former's indifference to the world about him and the
latter's absorption in his private woes are sufficient rea-
sons for their failure to concern themselves with chiv-
alry. It may also appear that the many chroniclers of
the period, with the exception of Froissart and Com-
mines, are somewhat slighted. The reason for this neg-
1 Used by Baudelaire to describe the works of Poe.
vi
PREFACE
lect, inconsistently enough, is that they offer too abun-
dant material concerning the decadence of knighthood
for a work of this scope.
This study was begun as a doctoral dissertation at
Harvard, under the direction of Professor Richmond L.
Hawkins. Professor J D. M. Ford encouraged me to
revise it for publication, and I wish to express to him my
gratitude for his generous assistance, without which this
work could never have been undertaken. I wish to give
particular thanks to Professor Hawkins, whose willing-
ness to give most liberally of his time and advice for the
aid of his friends and students has endeared him to all
who have worked with him. His wise and helpful criti-
cism has been invaluable in the preparation of this
volume. Doctor M. E. Borish also gave me valuable
criticism during the final preparation of the manuscript.
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude for the untir-
ing assistance given me by my wife, Sarah Vance Kil-
gour, in the laborious drafting and completion of the
manuscript.
I am indebted to PMLA for permission to reprint
part of an article on Honoré Bonet.
R. L. K.
LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS
November, 1935
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Origin and Ideals of Chivalry . . .. ix
I. A Historical View of the Decline of Chivalry . .. 3
II. Froissart — Chronicler of Chivalric Revival and
Decadence 58
III. Eustache Deschamps 84
IV. The Status of Courtly Love 108
ι. Chevalier de la Tour-Landry 108
2. Les Cent Ballades 122
3. Christine de Pisan 128
4. Les Quinze joyes de mariage 140
V. Three Religious Critics of Chivalry 148
ι. Philippe de Mézières 148
2. Honoré Bonet 162
3. Jean Gerson 177
VI. Alain Chartier — The Patriot 195
VII. The Burgundian Tradition 226
χ. The Spirit of Burgundian Chivalry 226
2. Philippe le Hardi and Jean sans Peur . . .. 232
3. Philippe le Bon 241
4. Charles le Téméraire 293
VIII. Two Manuals of Knighthood 297
1. Le Petit Jehan de Saintré 297
2. Le Jouvencel 315
vili CONTENTS
IX. Varied Aspects of French Chivalry after 1430 . . 333
ι. The Failure of Chivalry 333
2. The Triumph of Bourgeois Literature . . . 353
3. Dramatic Satire of Chivalry 360
X. Representative Chroniclers of the Fifteenth Century 373
XI. Philippe de Commines 394
XII. Conclusion 418
Index 425
I N T R O D U C T I ON
THE ORIGINS AND IDEALS OF CHIVALRY
CHIVALRY was both an ideal and an institution, a his-
torical movement and a poetic fiction. As an institution
it contained within itself the germs of decadence to such
an extent that historians cannot agree on the period of
its Golden Age, but are ever setting it farther back in
time. As an ideal its fate was somewhat different, and
though it suffered from the contrast between the purity
of the concept and the grossness of reality, it grew in
breadth and nobility to become the code of the gentle-
man. The chivalric ideal was always noble, whatever
the flaws in the order itself. To quote the eloquent
words of John Addington Symonds :1
Chivalry, though rarely realized in its pure beauty, though
scarcely to be seized outside the songs of poets and the fictions
of romancers, was the spiritual force which gave its value to the
institutions and the deeds of feudalism. Whatever was most
noble in the self-devotion of Crusaders; most beneficial to the
world in the foundation of the knightly orders; most brilliant in
the lives of Richard, the Edwards, Tancred, Godfrey of Bou-
illon; most enthusiastic in the lives of Rudel, Dante, Petrarch;
most humane in the courtesy of the Black Prince; most splendid
in the courage of Bayard; in the gallantry of Gaston de Foix; in
the constancy of Sir Walter Manny; in the loyalty of Blondel; in
the piety of St. Louis — may be claimed by the evanescent and
impalpable yet potent spirit which we call chivalry.
Since the chief purpose of this work is to trace the
decline of chivalry, it may be helpful to sketch, as
1 J. A. Symonds, An Introduction to the Study of Dante (London, 1899),
ch. viii.
χ INTRODUCTION
briefly as possible, the period of chivalric growth and
ascendancy, and to enumerate the ideals which actuated
the model knight. Although the origins of the order are
still obscure, most authorities are agreed that French
chivalry arose from the feudal system; hence we may
begin by taking a glance at the growth of feudalism.1
When the Germanic tribes moved across the Rhine
upon Roman soil they were a nation of hunters and
fighters, with little interest in agriculture. In the con-
quered territories they found a race of landowners living
on the products of the land, and in course of time they
themselves changed their ways of life, especially as the
population increased, substituting private ownership of
land for their former nomadic existence. They adopted
the Gallo-Roman system of land tenure known as the
precarium, whereby powerful nobles gave protection to
small landowners in return for the title to the lands so
protected. Another institution, the patrocinium, existed
for the benefit of those who owned no land but were
taken into the personal service of the magnate. The
Franks found this latter institution very similar to their
own comitatus, as described by Tacitus in the Germania.
Since this Germanic institution is usually regarded as
the probable basis of both chivalry and feudalism, it is
worthy of more detailed consideration.
According to Tacitus, the Germans were in the cus-
tom of wearing arms on all occasions, public or private,
but no one could assume the right unless duly qualified
by the tribe. When the young Germans arrived at the
age of men, they solemnly received, in the assembly of
the tribe, the rank and the arms of warriors. Tacitus
1 Cf. the chapter on feudalism in G. B. Adams's Civilization during the
Middle Ages (New York, 1903).
