In Comes a Dashing Knight on a White Horse
As a medieval historian one becomes very familiar with the idea of ‘chivalry’. It is ever-present in the background of the mid-late medieval world and as such I’ve just spent several months immersed in countless papers on the subject. I was reminded recently however in discussion with a friend that the connection between chivalry and the medieval is by no means an obvious one for anyone outside of medieval academia. For my friend chivalry was a set of Victorian ideas that promoted men holding open doors for women and she was surprised to learn that it in fact originated somewhere in the 12 th century as a way to moderate the behaviour of a potentially dangerous knightly class. The journey of chivalry from the 12 th to the 19 th century is an interesting one, but why was chivalry born in the first place? You may have noticed by now if you’re not an historian but have met a few (or read several of my blog posts so far) that academics never pass up the opportunity to debate a term. T