The Chivalry of France

The foregoing chapters have already shown that chivalry was essentially a French institution. Some of its features in fact seem to have been deeply rooted in the character of the inhabitants of Gaul, judging from the description of the Celts given us by the ancient Greek geographer Strabo. They are easily roused, he says, and always ready to fight. If they are angered, they march straight at the enemy and attack him boldly in the open. They can therefore be easily overcome by cunning. They can be made to fight where one likes and when one likes, the motive matters little. They are simple moreover, and spontaneous, and willingly champion the cause of the oppressed. ¹ Such a stock was obviously favourable for the growth of the ideals which were to inspire soldiers and poets during the Middle Ages. Nor is it difficult to understand why these ideals reached perfection in France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, for they thus belong to that same civilization that created the Gothic cathedral and illuminated all western Europe with its literature and learning, and won for France the appellation of God's chosen nation, like the tribe of Juda in ancient times. ² Just as French architects were employed abroad for the construction of cathedrals, just as scholars from all countries assembled at the feet of the masters of Mount Geneviève in Paris, so the young noble proceeded to France, “the flower of courtesy, honour and valour,” to learn the code of chivalry. “The fame of French knights dominates the world,” says the Welshman, Giraldus Cambrensis, in the twelfth century. ³ As for English knights, they were no match for their continental brethren. According to Wace, the Anglo-Norman author of a history of Britain, the tournament, one of the most important features of the age of chivalry, was unknown in England till the time of Richard, and more than a century later, Jehan le Bel, who took part in the early wars of Edward III against Scotland, says that the English knight in those days wore old-fashioned armour and was little esteemed.