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What are the main principles of the code chivalry

User STg
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Okay so, the code of chivalry wasn't really an official thing. It was just kinda what knights called their moral leanings, although most have some of the same basic principles.

Bravery

Courtesy

Honor

and Great gallantry towards woman.

More in depth on this: There are Three main texts where we can get information from about this code. The Legends of King Arthur, The Song of Roland, and as described by the Duke of Burgundy.

King Arthur's was fairly simple and entirely honorable. Which makes sense as these where legends told by traveling bards, these Knights where meant to be heroes.

They stood for: Honor, Honesty, Valor, and Loyalty.

Next we have Roland which is much longer. Now this is an epic poem detailing 8th century knights and battles fought by emperor Charlemagne.

It goes as follows.

To fear god and maintain his church, to serve the liege and lord in valor and faith, to protect the weak and defenseless, to succour [assist] to widows and orphans, to refrain from wanton giving of offense, to live by honor and glory, to despise pecuniary [monetary] reward, to fight for the welfare of all, to obey those placed in authority, to guard the honor of fellow knights, to eschew [avoid] unfairness meanness or deceit, to preserve the to the end in any enterprise [goal] begun, to respect the honor of women, never refuse a challenge from an equal, and never to turn the back on a foe.

Basically they where very much lawful good. Whether or not they actually followed all these where up for debate but that's an argument for another day.

Now the final text. These where described by the Duke of Burgundy in the 14th century. He described them as: Faith, charity, justice, sagacity [wise], prudence, temperance, resolution, truth, liberty, diligence, hope, and valor.

Its important to remember though that this wasn't law, this was just a moral code. Like how a lot of us don't like to lie because we know its wrong but sometimes still do. A lot of knights raped and pillaged, where cruel and disrespectful. So while these are all great things to hold yourself to remember that the originals probably didn't do a great job of upholding it either,

TLDR: basically there are three difference sources on what this code actually was but the main themes are Determination, Honor, Valor, and Loyalty. And also Knights probably didn't hold themselves to this code that often.

User Burton Samograd
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Code of Chivalry. There was not an authentic Code of Chivalry as such. The Code of Chivalry was a moral system which went beyond rules of combat and introduced the concept of Chivalrous conduct - qualities idealized by the Medieval knights such as bravery, courtesy, honor and great gallantry toward women.
User Edney Holder
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