Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-j5c6p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-04T01:30:33.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Chivalry and the Aristocracy

from Part I - General Themes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Maurice Keen
Edited by
Michael Jones
Michael Jones
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Get access

Summary

at a date which cannot be pinpointed in the year 1325, King Charles-Robert of Hungary founded the Society of St George, an elite band of fifty knights who were to be entitled to wear a special habit, were to meet three times a year for the ‘chapter’ of their society (on St George’s day, on the feast of the nativity of the Virgin and at Epiphany) and who were sworn to observe a series of religious knightly obligations laid down in the founder’s statutes. This, as far as we know, was the first instituted of the princely secular orders of chivalry, whose appearance was one of the most striking novel features of the history of knighthood in the fourteenth century. The foundation of the Society of St George was followed by that of the Order of the Band in Castile (1330), of the Garter in England (1349), the Star in France (1351), the Golden Buckle in the empire (1355), the Collar in Savoy (1364) and the Ermine in Brittany (1381); there were others too. The statutes of all these societies bear a family resemblance to one another. They detail the obligations of the companions to the sovereign or ‘master’ of the order and to one another, provide for regular chapter meetings (usually on the feast of the patron saint of the order, to be followed by High Mass in its chapel and a lavish banquet) and set out rules about the cut and wearing of the robes and insignia of the company.

Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge Medieval History
, pp. 209 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allmand, C.T. (ed.) (1976), War, Literature and Politics in the Late Middle Ages, Liverpool Google Scholar
Allmand, C.T. (1988), The Hundred Years War. England and France at War c. 1300 to c. 1450, Cambridge CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Artonne, A. (1912), Le mouvement de 1314 et les chartes provinciales de 1315, Paris Google Scholar
Ashmole, E. (1672), The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, London Google Scholar
Barber, R. (1970), The Knight and Chivalry, London Google Scholar
Barker, J.R.V. (1986), The Tournament in England, 1100–1400, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Barnie, J. (1974), War in Medieval Society. Social Values and the Hundred Years War, London Google Scholar
Boulton, D’A.J.D. (1987), The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Boutrouche, R. (1963), La crise d’une société. Seigneurs et paysans en Bordelais pendant la guerre de cent ans, Paris Google Scholar
Bullough, D.A. (1974), ‘Games People Played: Drama and Ritual as Propaganda in Medieval Europe’, TRHS 5th series 24 Google Scholar
Chronica Adae Murimuth et Robert de Avesbury, ed. Thompson, E. Maunde, London (1889)Google Scholar
Chronicas de los reyes de Castilla desde Don Alfonso el Sabio, ed. Cerda, F., I, Madrid (1781)Google Scholar
Chronique des règnes de Jean II et Charles V, ed. Delachenal, R., 4 vols., Paris (1917–20)Google Scholar
Cline, R. (1945), ‘The Influence of Romances on Tournaments of the Middle Ages’, Speculum 20 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Contamine, Ph. (1972), Guerre, état et société. Etudes sur les armées des rois de France 1337–1494, Paris and The Hague CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Contamine, Ph. (ed.) (1976), La noblesse au moyen âge, Paris Google Scholar
De La Marche, O., Mémoires, ed. Beaune, H. and d’Arbaumont, J., IV, Paris (1888)Google Scholar
Denholm-Young, N. (1961), ‘The Song of Caerlaverock and the Parliamentary Roll of Arms’, PBA 47 Google Scholar
Denholm-Young, N. (1965), History and Heraldry, Oxford Google Scholar
Denholm-Young, N. (1969), The Country Gentry in the Fourteenth Century, Oxford Google Scholar
Dravasa, E. (1965–6), ‘Vivre noblement: recherches sur la dérogeance de la noblesse du quatorzième et quinzième siècles’, Revue juridique et économique du Sud-Ouest, serie juridique, 16 and 17 Google Scholar
Dupont-Ferrier, G. (1930–2), Etudes sur les institutions financières de la France à la fin du moyen âge, 2 vols., Paris Google Scholar
Fleckenstein, J. (1977), Herrschaft und Stand, Göttingen Google Scholar
Fleckenstein, J. (1985), Das Ritterliche Turnier im Mittelalter, Göttingen Google Scholar
Froissart, Jean, Oeuvres, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, J.M.B.C., 28 vols., Brussels (1867–77)Google Scholar
Gautier, L. (1884), La chevalerie, Paris Google Scholar
Given-Wilson, C. (1986), The Royal Household and the King’s Affinity. Service, Politics and Finance in England, 1360–1413, New Haven Google Scholar
Green, R.F. (1983), ‘The Familia Regis and the Familia Cupidinis’, in Scattergood, and Sherborne, (1983)Google Scholar
Hauptmann, F. (1896), Das Wappenrecht, Bonn Google Scholar
Huizinga, J. (1927), The Waning of the Middle Ages, London Google Scholar
‘Private Indentures for Life Service in Peace and War 1278–1476’, ed. Jones, Michael and Walker, Simon, Camden Miscellany 33 (1994)Google Scholar
Jones, Michael (1991), ‘Les signes du pouvoir: l’ordre de l’Hermine, les devises et les hérauts des ducs de Bretagne au quinzième siècle’, MSHAB 68 Google Scholar
Keen, M.H. (1965), The Laws of War in the Late Middle Ages, London Google Scholar
Keen, M.H. (1984), Chivalry, New Haven Google Scholar
Kilgour, R.L. (1937), The Decline of Chivalry, Cambridge, Mass. Google Scholar
Kruse, H., Paravicini, W. and Ranft, A. (eds.) (1991), Ritterorden und Adelsgesellschaften im Spätmittelalterlichen Deutschland, Frankfurt Google Scholar
La Curne de Ste. Palaye, J.B. (1759), Mémoires de l’ancienne chevalerie, Paris Google Scholar
Le songe du vergier, ed. Schnerb-Lièvre, M., 2 vols., Paris (1982)Google Scholar
Lewis, P.S. (1964), ‘Decayed and Non-Feudalism in Later Medieval France’, BIHR 37 Google Scholar
Lewis, P.S. (1968), Later Medieval France. The Polity, London CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linehan, P. (1987), ‘Ideologie y liturgia en el reinado de Alfonso XI de Castilla’, in Rucquoi, A. (ed.), Genesis medieval del estado moderno: Castilla y Navarra, Valladolid Google Scholar
Lucas, R.H. (1977), ‘Ennoblement in Late Medieval France’, MS 39 Google Scholar
McFarlane, K.B. (1945), ‘Bastard Feudalism’, BIHR 20 Google Scholar
McFarlane, K.B. (1973), The Nobility of Later Medieval England, Oxford Google Scholar
Mertes, K. (1988), The English Noble Household, 1250–1600, Oxford Google Scholar
Palmer, J.J.N. (1972), England, France and Christendom, 1377–99, London Google Scholar
Palmer, J.J.N. (ed.) (1981), Froissart: Historian, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Paravicini, W. (1990), ‘Verlorene Denkmäler europäischen Malereien des 14. Jahrhunderts im Dom zu Königsberg’, in Böckler, E. (ed.), Kunst und Geschichte im Ostseeraum, Keil, and plates Google Scholar
Pastoureau, M. (1979), Traité d’héraldique, Paris Google Scholar
Prestage, E. (1928), Chivalry, London Google Scholar
Renouard, Y. (1949), ‘L’ordre de la Jarretière et l’ordre de l’Étoile: étude sur la gènese des ordres laics de chevalerie et sur le développement de leur caractère national’, MA 4th series 4 Google Scholar
Scattergood, V.J. and Sherborne, J.W. (eds.) (1983), English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, London Google Scholar
Schäfer, K.F. (1911–40), Deutsche Ritter und Edelknechte in Italien, 3 vols., Paderborn Google Scholar
Schultz, A. (1892), Deutsches Leben im Vierzehn und Fünfzehn Jahrhundert, Leipzig Google Scholar
Seyler, G. (1885–9), Geschichte der Heraldik, 10 fasc. in I vol., Nuremberg Google Scholar
The Black Book of the Admiralty, ed. Twiss, T., RS, I, London (1872)Google Scholar
Vale, J. (1982), Edward III and Chivalry, Woodbridge Google Scholar
Vale, M. (1981), War and Chivalry, London Google Scholar
Wagner, A.R. (1956), Heralds and Heraldry in the Middle Ages, Oxford Google Scholar
Wapenboek ou Armorial de 1334 à 1372 par Gelre Héraut, ed. Bouton, V., 2 vols., Paris (1881)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×