The Incarnation of Chivalry

Every now and then, throughout the age of chivalry, men emerged, who adhered so exceptionally to the code of chivalry that they were viewed by their contemporaries viewed as veritable "incarnations of chivalry." Such a man was William Marshal.

 

In the late 12th and early 13th century, he rose from being the younger son of a rebellious English baron to Regent of England for Henry III. At the age of seven, he was condemned to hang by his own father, who had turned him over to his liege lord, King Stephen, as a hostage for his own good behavior -- and then brazenly broke his word.  He had other sons, William's father told the man he betrayed, and the means to make new ones, he added.  Fortunately for William -- and historians --  King Stephen was more civilized than his father and refused to kill the innocent child. But William learned a lesson: the rest of his life he would be unwaveringly loyal to not only his liege but to honor itself.

 

William served Eleanor of Acquitaine and four Plantagenet kings. He knighted the heir to the English throne, and dared defy Richard the Lionheart to his face. He crusaded with the Templars, courted a princess, and eventually married one of the greatest heiress of England. His life was the stuff of legends, yet it is history, and for that reason it is good material for historians and novelists alike. 

 

Below are reviews of two very different books, one non-fiction and one fiction, which take the life of William Marshal as their theme.

 

William Marshal: Flower of Chivalry  by George Duby

Georges Duby uses the 13th century biography of William Marshal, commissioned by his eldest son immediately after his death and written within the lifetime of many of his companions, as a device to present an analysis of chivalry and knighthood in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. 

In this book that opens with the last months of Marshal's life and describes how he prepares for death, Duby, a leading French historian and professor of medieval history, provides the reader with a wealth of information in very compact form. The book is particularly valuable for descriptions of melees, the rough-and-tumble pseudo-battles fought over rough terrain by hundreds of knights, which preceded the tame tournaments of later centuries. Likewise, Duby provides useful insight into life of “bachelor” knights of the period – the large, unruly pack of younger sons, who had no land, no income, and no wives. He shows how they had to live by their wits, their skills and by forming associations with other knights, relatives and sponsors.

However, the figure of Marshal himself is all too often lost in Duby’s commentary. Although his source is a rare authentic record written in the vernacular, which when quoted is vibrant and evocative, Duby quotes it far too seldom.  It is thus Duby’s voice, not Marshal's or his biographer's, that dominates this work.

Duby is teaching his reader about the 12th/13th century, using Marshal’s life as “Exhibit A.” This is Duby’s version of events, his interpretation of 12th century society, and to scholars familiar with the material, his arguments may not always sound convincing. More important to me, however, was simply that William Marshal, the supposed subject, comes too short in this book.

To be sure, enough of William Marshal’s personality is revealed to be tantalizing, but the book left me unsatisfied. I felt particularly cheated by the way Duby rushes over Marshal’s most exceptional achievements (that of retaining the favor of three successive, bitterly hostile and very different kings: Henry II, Richard I and John). Duby may be right that these events are “so well recorded in history” they need no explanation, but the book is sold as a biography of Marshal, and readers have a right expect that his entire life will be described. Duby's book left me feeling I would have enjoyed the original medieval “song” (at least in translation) more – and interested in finding a full-length biography of Marshal.

 

Champion by Christian Balling

This in contrast was a fun read. I enjoyed it, and I liked the characters. As a historian, I appreciated the fact that not only were no known historical facts altered, but the characters acted appropriately for their age and society. This was not a fantasy or costume-romance.

The weakness of the book is that it focuses on only a short, albeit critical, phase in William Marshal's long life. This book describes a mature William Marshal at a pivotal moment in his life, the moment when he earns a barony from not one, but two, kings. Readers picking up a book on William Marshal, however, likely expect more. Many will, like me, be interested in the whole man, his development over time, what made him tick, how he managed to survive and come out ahead in such turbulent times, his relationships with the different kings he served. Because the book does not even attempt to address these issues, it will -- despite its virtues -- disappoint some readers.

The Ideal of Chivalry

Chivalry evolved out of the military and literary traditions of antiquity, and emerged at the beginning of the High Middle Ages as a concept that rapidly came to dominate the ethos and identity of the nobility. Chivalry is inextricably tied to knighthood, a phenomenon distinct to Europe in the Middle Ages. There have been cavalrymen in many different ages and societies, but the cult of knighthood, including a special dubbing ceremony and a code of ethics, exists only in the Age of Chivalry.

Chivalry was always an ideal. It defined the way a knight was supposed to behave. No one in the Middle Ages seriously expected every knight to live up that ideal. Even the heroes of chivalric romances usually fell short of the ideal at least some of the time – and many only achieved their goal and glory when they overcame their baser instincts or their natural shortcomings to live, however briefly, like “perfect, gentle knights.”

Chivalry was a code of behavior that young men were supposed to aspire to – not to already have. The code was articulated and passed on to youths in the form of romances and poems lionizing the chivalric deeds of fictional heroes. It was also recorded in the biographies of historical personages viewed as examples of chivalry, from William Marshal to Geoffrey de Charney and Edward, the Black Prince. Finally, there were a number of textbooks or handbooks that attempted to codify the essence of chivalry.

So what defined chivalry? First and foremost, a knight was supposed to uphold justice by protecting the weak, particularly widows, orphans, and the Church. He was also supposed to be upon a permanent quest for honor and glory, sometimes translated as “nobility.” The troubadours, meanwhile, had introduced for the first time the notion that “a man could become more noble through love." Thus love for a lady became a central – if not the central – concept of chivalry, particularly in literature.

The chivalric notion of love was that it must be mutual, voluntary, and exclusive – on both sides. It could occur between husband and wife – and many of the romances such as Erec et Enide by Chrétien de Troyes or Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival revolve in part or in whole around the love of a married couple. But the tradition of the troubadours put love for another man’s wife on an equal footing with love for one’s own – provided the lady returned the sentiment!  The most famous of all adulterous lovers in the age of chivalry were, of course, Lancelot and Guinevere, closely followed by Tristan and Iseult.

Likewise noteworthy in a feudal world was the fact that the lover and the beloved were supposed to be valued not for their social status or their wealth, but for their personal virtues, albeit only within the band of society that was “noble.” By definition, the heroes of chivalry are knights, and their ladies are just that: ladies. Stories about peasants, priests, and merchants are simply not part of the genre, any more than lusting after a serving “wench” qualifies as “love” in the chivalric tradition. But within the chivalric class, a lady was  supposed to be loved and respected for her beauty and her graces regardless of her status, and a knight was supposed to be loved for his chivalric virtues, not his lands or titles.

In more practical terms, one of the handbooks on chivalry written by the Spanish nobleman Ramon Lull lists the virtues of a knight as nobility, loyalty, honor, righteousness, prowess (courage), love, courtesy, diligence, cleanliness, generosity, sobriety, and perseverance. Wolfram von Eschenbach in Parzifal, on the other hand, stresses a strong sense of right and wrong, compassion for the unfortunate, generosity, kindness, humility, mercy, courtesy (particularly to ladies), and cleanliness.

Geoffrey de Charney, the French hero from the Hundred Years’ War, also wrote a handbook on chivalry that is particularly valuable because he was a man with a powerful reputation as a chivalrous knight. (He was killed at the Battle of Poitiers defending the French battle standard, the oriflamme.) Charney puts the emphasis on love as a spur to great deeds and stresses that a knight must love “loyally” (with exclusive devotion to his own true love), but includes good manners, generosity, humility, fortitude, and courage among the qualities of chivalry as well. As a reflection of his career, Charney places greater value on fighting – stressing its hardships, deprivations, and risks – over frivolous tournaments.

On the other hand, the biographer of William Marshal, writing in the early 13th century, sees in tournaments a means of giving men a chance to demonstrate their “worth” – i.e., their courage, audacity, and skill at arms. For Marshal these are the skills, combined with unwavering loyalty to his liege, that enable him to rise from landless knight to regent of England. While Marshal (or at least his biographer) put the emphasis on courage, the themes of courtesy and discretion with respect to ladies, and generosity, are also present.

It is lamentable that nowadays the discussion of "chivalry" is so often confined to whether a man should open a door for a woman and similar nonsense! Chivalry wasn't about a set of anachronistic manners, it was a fundamental code of conduct that put the strong in the service of the weak -- a concept that ennobled both.

For more about chivalry, I recommend especially the following sources:

Barber, Richard W. 1970, 1974, 1995. The Knight and Chivalry. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 1970, 1974, 1995.

Duby, George. 1985. William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry. New York: Random House, 1985.

Hopkins, Andrea. 1990. Knights: The Complete Story of the Age of Chivalry, from Historical Fact to Tales of Romance and Poetry. London: Quarto Publishing, 1990.

The Age of Chivalry

Chivalry was a phenomenon of the High Middle Ages. The influence of chivalry was greatest in the period from 1100 to 1450 AD, and this is the period in which my novels are set. During this period, Europe was Catholic; there was no alternative to the Church of Rome, and the Pope was an extremely powerful political figure. Furthermore, monasticism flourished and several important new monastic orders were founded, notably the Cistercians, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and – most important for students of chivalry – the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights.

The dominant political system in the period was feudalism. Government was organized hierarchically, based on a complex system of obligations in exchange for rights and privileges. Because land ownership varied from region to region and across time, it is impossible to describe it here in detail, but the notion behind feudalism was that the king controlled all the territory in his kingdom and simply “lent” or “leased” it to tenants-in-chief (i.e., his barons), in exchange for their services in administration, justice, and particularly war. He could also grant land to the Church in exchange for the prayers and spiritual services of the Church.

The barons and bishops did the same, granting rights to the land they held from the king to their vassals, again in exchange for military service and so on, down to the peasant class, or serfs. The peasants, who might or might not be free, were responsible for tilling the soil for their overlord in exchange for retaining a portion of the produce for their own use. It is important to keep in mind that even serfs could accumulate considerable wealth, which they sometimes used to buy their freedom – or just to build larger, more comfortable homes. Archaeological evidence suggests that many “peasant homes” were as large and as luxurious as the homes of knights and squires. (Wood, 1985, 1990) (Emery, 2007) (Platt, 1978)

In fact, contrary to popular opinion, medieval society was highly fluid, and fortunes could be made – and lost – in just a few generations. Judicious marriages, the use of heiresses to reward loyal but landless followers, and the fortunes of war enabled men of “lesser birth” to rise very high in medieval society. The sons of peasants could, in the right circumstances, be knighted, and landless knights could become barons. (Keen, 1990) (Wilkinson, 1969) (Gies, 1974) Examples of the latter are William Marshal, Thomas Holland, and Bertrand du Guesclin.

Nevertheless, at the heart of feudalism was the notion that in an ordered society, each man and woman had a God-ordained role to play based on his or her “estate.” The king and his nobles were responsible for protecting the realm against outside threats, ensuring the security of law-abiding citizens against criminals, and dispensing justice. The Church was responsible for the spiritual welfare of the people, providing services from baptism and marriage to absolution, burial, and prayers for the dead. The “Third Estate,” composed of peasants and merchants, ensured the material well-being of all. From the medieval perspective, each estate made an essential contribution to good governance; the notion that the “Third Estate” was supporting “useless” and “exploitive” noble and clerical classes is a modern idea introduced most dramatically in the French Revolution. (Keen, 1990)

The historical record makes it abundantly clear that the Middle Ages was a period in which violence, cruelty, injustice, and oppression were rampant. Terms such as “feudalism,” “the Crusades,” and “the Inquisition” have become synonymous with oppression, injustice, torture, cruelty, and mindless aggression. Indeed, it is commonplace, nowadays, to refer to anything particularly inhumane or primitive as “medieval.” This is a gross oversimplification of medieval society.

Although medieval society did not fulfill modern ideals of good governance, and instances of brutality and repression existed in abundance, many aspects of medieval society were more “progressive” and “enlightened” than popular wisdom suggests. Women, for example, enjoyed considerably more freedom and financial independence in the medieval/feudal age than after the industrial revolution. (Ward, 1992) (Mertes, 1988) (Gies, 1987) Also, by the High and Later Middle Ages, the level of education among the nobility, clergy, and merchant class was significant. Nobles spoke, read, and wrote at least their own language and Latin, and sometimes they knew a second modern language or Greek as well. Women of the nobility and the merchant class were generally literate; they conducted correspondence and acted as their husbands’ deputies, or as the heads of their own households as widows or heiresses. (Mertes, 1988) (Ward, 1992) Furthermore, the clergy and many noblemen were more familiar with the works of antiquity than was the case after the Reformation. Last but not least, to name another example that might surprise readers new to the topic, bathing was more common in the Middle Ages than in the Renaissance, and – in the residences of the higher nobility – hot and cold running water was not unknown!

The Middle Ages was a period of intellectual and artistic flourishing. Trade was booming and was for the first time extended to China and the Americas. (The Norwegians maintained regular ties to Vinland until the plague decimated the Norwegian population in the mid-14^th century.) Some of the most magnificent works of architecture known to man were built during the Middle Ages. Most readers will be familiar with medieval sacred architecture, from the awe-inspiring cathedrals such as York and St. Chapel to the breathtaking beauty of monasteries such as Senanque, Moissac, and Bellapais. Less familiar, however, may be the secular architecture of the period, which increasingly offered (to those able to afford it) comfortable and gracious accommodations with heating, plumbing, and light. The Palace of the Popes in Aquitaine, the residence of the Counts of Poitiers, and the home of the Earls of Northumberland at Warkworth Castle were magnificent residences. Even the lesser nobility and the upwardly mobile merchant and peasant class increasingly built and lived in houses that were substantial, well-lit, and warm. (Wood, 1985, 1990) (Emery, 2007)

This, then, is the world in which my “Tales of Chivalry” are set. For more information visit www.tales-of-chivalry.com.

Bibliography

Emery, Anthony. 2007. Discovering Medieval Houses. Prince's Risborough, Buckinghamshire: Shire Publications Ltd., 2007.

Gies, Frances and Joseph. 1987. Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.

Gies, Joseph & Frances. 1974. Life in a Medieval Castle. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.

Keen, Maurice. 1990. English Society in the Later Middle Ages: 1348-1500. London: Penguin Books, 1990.

Mertes, Kate. 1988. The English Noble Household, 1250–1600: Good Governance and Politic Rule. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988.

Platt, Colin. 1978. Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology from the Conquest to A.D. 1600. London: Routledge, 1978.

Ward, Jennifer C. 1992. English Noblewomen in the Later Middle Ages. London: Longman Group Inc., 1992.

Wilkinson, B. 1969. The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216-1485. Harlow, Essex: Longman Group Ltd., 1969.

Wood, Margaret. 1965, 1983, 1990. The English Mediaeval House. London: Bracken Books, 1965, 1983, 1990.

 

 

The Templar Tales

The Templar Tales

My current project, Tales of Chivalry, is composed for three series: Tales from the Languedoc, Tales from the Kingdom of Cyprus (AKA: The Lion of Karpas) and The Templar Tales. The latter are three independent novels in which Knights Templar play an important role. The novels are interrelated and share some characters, notably Sir Geoffrey de Preuthune, but each novel stands on its own. Two of the books, The Templar of St. John the Baptist, and The English Templar, focus on key events in the history of the Knights Templar, namely the fall of Christian Palestine to the armies of Islam at the end of the 13th century and the destruction of the Knights Templar by King Philip IV of France in the early 14th century respectively. The first novel in the series, St. Louis’ Knight, in contrast, is more a scene setter, introducing Sir Geoffrey; it is set in the Seventh Crusade.

The Templar trilogy was inspired by a trip to Cyprus. Sitting in the window seat of the Hospitaller fortress at Kolossi, wandering through the ruins of a medieval sugar mill, and strolling through the cloisters of Bellapais, images of knights crowded my brain, clamoring for a voice. As I learned more about the Knights Templar and visited southern France, the source of Templar wealth, I could not sleep at night for the stories that demanded telling. There, in the mighty castle of Najac, where Templars were held prisoner, and in the Templar commanderies of Collioure and Cahors, the voices became so insistent that I felt compelled to write the stories down – even though they were still only shadowy and half-formed. I published three novels at my own expense.

It was a foolish thing to do. Novels need to ripen and mature. Even the most insistent voices can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, falsely translated. The Cypriot Knight and Sir Jean of Acre were embryonic stories, not novels. Seventeen years later, I cringed when I reread The Cypriot Knight and winced when I took Sir Jean of Acre in my hands again. I realized what a rough draft these early publications were. Fortunately, both books were also out of print. I saw this as an opportunity to rework good raw material into better books.

The Templar Tales now consist of the following books:

St. Louis’ Knight

King Louis IX and his crusading army are trapped in Egypt. To prevent his sword, with a sacred relic in the hilt, from falling into the hands of the Saracen, the dying Grand Master of the Knights Templar entrusts it to his newly-knighted former squire, Sir Geoffrey de Preuthune. Shaken by the loss of all his Templar brothers, Sir Geoffrey has denied the divinity of Christ, and the Grand Master makes him pledge that he will not rejoin the Knights Templar until he understands God’s will. Geoffrey’s search for understanding leads him to Cyprus and a fateful encounter with the daughter of a Cathar heretic.

The Templar of Saint John

Sir Jean de Preuthune believes his father committed a grave sin by failing to return Grand Master de Sonnac’s sword, containing a finger bone of John the Baptist in the hilt, to the Knights Templar. He is determined to right his father’s wrong by taking vows as a Knight Templar. He sets out to free the Holy Land, but even so powerful a relic in the hand of a devout crusader cannot alone defeat the powerful armies of Islam under the able leadership of the Sultan Kala’un. As one Christian stronghold after another falls to the Saracens, Sir Jean must re-evaluate his mission and faith.

·        The English Templar

Passing through France from England to Cyprus with dispatches, the Templar knight Sir Percy de Lacy is caught up in the surprise arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307. He is tortured until he confesses to sins he did not commit. When he manages to crawl off the prisoner transport taking him to Paris, Sir Percy wants only to die, . But Sir Percy’s rescuer, Felice de Preuthune, and her grandfather Sir Geoffrey have no intention of letting Sir Percy die. While Sir Geoffrey and Sir Percy fight back against the French King and the Pope, Felice fights her own battle for their souls.

 

Why Write Tales of Chivalry?

Chivalry, a vague and ill-defined concept, emerged from the mists of the so-called Dark Ages to become the dominant ethos of Western Europe in the High Middle Ages.  It was neither a form of government nor a religion, yet it shaped societies. It dominated the art and literature of its age more powerfully than any king – indeed as powerfully as Christianity itself.

To be sure, Chivalry was amorphous and ephemeral. It defied definition. It was different things to different people, and it changed over time and across space. Yet it was not mere fantasy or pose. It had a very real impact, because it shaped the way men and women in the Middle Ages thought about themselves and others.

Telling tales of chivalry has a tradition that stretches back to the origins of chivalry itself. Indeed, we can trace the roots of Chivalry to Provence in the 11^th Century.  There a new style of literature emerged: the songs and poems of the troubadours.  These works represented a sharp break with past literary traditions and their style and content produced a completely new view of knights -- and their ladies.  Chivalry, unlike earlier warrior cults from Ancient Greece to the Vikings, was unthinkable without the fairer sex that inspired the great deeds of the male heroes. 

Tales of chivalry soon evolved beyond the poems of the troubadours to full-fledged romances, such as Tristan et Iseult, Perceval, and Le Morte d’Arthur, tales characterized by magic, mythical beasts and romance.  This was the “fantasy fiction” of the Middle Ages.

Alongside these fictional works, however, were tales of chivalry that recorded real events and described the lives of real men. Examples are the biography of William Marshal in the early 13^th century, Jean de Joinville’s biography of King Louis IX half a century later, and Chandos’ Herald’s account of the deeds of Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, written at the end of the 14^th century. 

These contemporary tales of chivalry have been the inspiration for my own works set in the Age of Chivalry. Like the originals, my novellas and novels set out to entertain and educate, to honor historical figures -- and create fictional ones. They seek to make the heroes of this age – and the period itself -- more comprehensible to us by writing in the language and style of today.

But I am a historian, and my works are historical fiction -- not fantasy or mystery. Each of my novels is rooted in historical fact and I strive to recreate the period and events with accuracy.  It is because the concept of chivalry exercised such a powerful influence on the historical figures of the 12^th-15^th centuries, that I am pleased to call them Tales of Chivalry.  My characters believe in chivalry – past if not present – and so chivalry embraces them.  

These are tales of brave knights and fair ladies – and of not-so-brave knights and not-so-fair ladies. They are tales of adventure and romance, of faith and betrayal, of treachery and salvation, of cruelty and generosity -- in short, they are tales of humanity.

 I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them – and that Chandos’ herald did not err when he wrote:   The telling of good deeds is like alms and charity; it is never lost labor, but always has its return.

Release of "A Widow's Crusade"

Anno Domini 1212:

Across France, the children are on the march. Seduced by a shepherd boy with a vision of freeing Jerusalem through the power of innocence alone, tens of thousands of children have left their homes and set out upon a new, peaceful crusade. As they stream through the city of Chavigny in Poitou, they are singing the old crusading ballade: Song of Palestine.

The melody awakes memories in the heart of a rich widow, Blanche. Long ago, when she was still young and beautiful, she had been in love with a poor knight, who followed Richard the Lionheart on crusade and never returned. An oblique reference to a man of the same name in a letter addressed to someone else awakes an irresistible longing to go to the Holy Land herself in search of her lost love.

Blanche sets out on a personal crusade, across the war-torn Languedoc, daring the pirates and slavers of the Mediterranean -- only to find a man, who is nothing like she remembered him, and anything but pleased to see Blanche again.

Nine Tales of Chivalry

Chivalry!

A thing so strong,

and hard to learn,

that no wicked man

dare undertake it….

 

Chivalry!

Emerging from the mists of the Dark Ages,

Amorphous and ephemeral,

Changing over space and time,

It defied definition.

 

Chivalry!

Immortalized by the troubadours,

Inspiring the first romances,

The basis for the Tales of the Round Table,

The heart of medieval biographies,

From William Marshal to the Black Prince.

 

In the tradition of the troubadours, I present:

 

Tales of Chivalry

 Nine novels set in the Age of Chivalry

Tales of brave knights and fair ladies

Tales of adventure and romance,

of cruelty and generosity,

of treachery and salvation….

Tales of Humanity

 

 

For more information visit: http://www.tales-of-chivalry.com