Chivalry: Art and Code of Conduct in Late Medieval Period - Essay Sample

Introduction

During the Late Medieval Period, people used art to present the world with the noble knights. Other than their power and military skills, the people had the chivalrous spirit of real gentlemen. "Chivalry" was initially used to refer to various warriors on horseback but was later on transformed to have a new meaning of a certain code of conduct. Chivalry was mostly used during the late medieval period as part of the military affairs against the non-Christian states. In most instances, Chivalry was followed by developing different vows and oaths, which was mostly associated with a respectful attitude to the women. Chivalry was therefore used in different activities representing a variety of virtues and skills.

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Chivalry as an art in the late medieval period was a knight responsible for putting God's will above all. Chivalry spread the idea of good being against evil. The code of conduct presented by Chivalry required people to be more faithful to their churches and worship God. The most exciting type of Chivalry took place during the late medieval period (Rodríguez-Velasco 16). Its main aim was presupposing the admiration of a single woman compared to the rest of the women while honouring her gentleness. Such treatment received some forms of opposition because of the standard Medieval attitude towards women.

Indeed, the rules and norms of Chivalry were later on distorted, and they even began being less honourable. During the late medieval period, the duties even turned to be more wicked with the tournaments becoming even more expensive, accompanied by more rituals. The love affairs started being accompanied by adultery and promiscuity. During the late medieval period, Chivalry saw its end with an increase in mercantilism and appearance in the middle class (Sposato 109). The ordinary people would not have been altered from ruling the ordinary people if the author was in the hands of noble social representatives. The spirit of good manners stopped during the late medieval period with the forbidden thinking that was a crime.

New chivalry codes of conduct created during the late medieval period were not necessarily created for ordinary people. Instead, the creation of such codes of conduct was because of the warrior who was to bring morality through his actions. Different activities came up to deracinate the idea of warriors being cruel and uneducated vandals. During the late medieval period, almost everything was to transform the warriors from the bandits to start leading social classes. Such ideas ensured that ruling focuses on fairness and respect to all members.

It is almost impossible to claim the purely tremendous influence of Chivalry during the late medieval period. One key idea of the art during the late medieval period is that its main intention was reducing the level of violence in the community (Sposato 112). The knight's key intention was changing society through being an example of goodwill and readiness to protect everyone. More specifically, they had the intention of reconstructing the role of women through minimizing their oppression.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Chivalry did not change the movement of history during the late medieval period. Instead, it put new views on the social norms with completely new ideas concerning the social norms that had new principles of courtly behaviour and deeds. The main thing is that Chivalry wore the spirit of improvement and development of morality.

Works Cited

Rodríguez-Velasco, Jesús D. Order and Chivalry: Knighthood and Citizenship in Late Medieval Castile. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Sposato, Peter W. "Chivalry and honour-violence in Late Medieval Florence." Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society. Brill, 2017. 102-119.