home > Adviсe

Qualities of a knight in our time. Knightly ethos, or the moral character of a knight

What exactly was this so-called “knightly path to Salvation”? What should a knight do in order not only to receive worldly glory, but also to save his immortal soul? This is what Maurice Kean writes on this subject, conveying in his own words the thoughts of Raymond Lull, expressed in his treatise on chivalry:

His [i.e. knight – chevalry] the first duty is to defend the faith of Christ from the infidels, for which he will be honored not only in our world, but also after death: this is, of course, the speech of the true son of the crusader! The knight is also obliged to protect his secular lord, take care of the weak, women, widows and orphans, and constantly train his body by hunting wild animals - deer, wild boars and wolves - and participating in duels and tournaments. Under the leadership of his king, he must administer justice among the people under him and guide them in righteous labors. It is from among the knights that kings should choose their provosts, bailiffs and other senior officials. The knight, in turn, must always be ready to immediately leave his castle and go to protect roads or pursue robbers and intruders.

He also needs: to acquire certain knowledge of the virtues necessary to fulfill all the above duties; try to gain wisdom; cultivate mercy and loyalty. However, the most important thing in a knight is military valor, “for most of all knighthood is famous precisely for the nobility of courage (noblesse de courage)” (i.e. valor). And above all, honor is for him. Well, a knight must flee pride, as well as perjury, laziness, debauchery and - betrayal (it should be noted that Lull’s concept has a very archaic flavor - especially with regard to particularly serious types of betrayal: the murder of his lord, cohabitation with his wife, surrender of his castle to the enemy).

At the end of his book, Lull draws a conclusion about what kind of person the knight should become as a result. Firstly, he should have courteous and noble manners, dress well and show hospitality - of course, within the limits of his financial capabilities. Loyalty and truthfulness, courage and generosity (largesse), as well as modesty - these are the main character traits that we should expect in a knight.

This text seems a little pompous, but we should consider that for the Middle Ages this kind of sublime rhetoric, as well as symbolism and convention in the presentation of ideas, were the most common, widespread phenomenon. Moreover, in this case the knightly idea is presented briefly and dryly, one might say, theoretically. And we already see its literary refraction in the knightly and courtly novels of the Middle Ages.

According to Raymond Lull, it turns out that knightly piety is a complete and integral system of values ​​that should be characteristic of every true knight. This system includes:
- knightly virtues - valor, loyalty, courage, generosity, generosity;
- military exploits - participation in knightly duels, knightly tournaments, wars for the king (or his overlord) and, finally, the Crusades;
- protection and patronage of churches and monasteries, widows and orphans, the disadvantaged, and unjustly convicted;
- performance of Christian rites and rituals - fasting, prayer, participation in temple services;
- courtliness, or secularism - the ability to behave at the royal court and in general in an aristocratic environment, education, gallantry, courtesy.

Here is an approximate list of elements that together made any knight an exemplary knight.

The nobility of a knight. The disinherited man speaks with the squires of those who organized the tournament at which he received so many laurels. According to the law of the battlefield, the knight who wins takes the horse, weapons or receives a ransom for them. The Disinherited Knight told the four squires to convey greetings to the noble knights and his intention to take the ransom, but he would only take half of the entire amount. Briand de Boisguillebert's squire replied that he would not take either equipment or ransom, since their battle was not over yet, and they would meet again: that de Boisguillebert himself challenged the Knight of the Disinherited to a mortal battle, and it is hard to forget this. And he added that he considered de Boisguillebert his mortal enemy. Left alone with his servant, the Disinherited Knight said: “Until now... the honor of English chivalry has not suffered at my hands.”

After being wounded, Rebecca looked after Ivanhoe. Eight days passed, and the knight was put on horse-drawn burdens, transported from the house where Isaac, Rebecca's father, temporarily lived. We met along the way with de Bry and his comrades. Ivanhoe identified himself when de Brasset saw the knight’s wounds, because he thought that he had been captured by the Saxon robbers. Brasset observed strict concepts of knightly dignity, which prohibited any violence against the knight, who was in a helpless state. And given that his rival was in front of him, de Brasset ordered his servant to take him to one of the remote rooms of the castle.

When the wounded Ivanhoe found himself in the castle at Front de Beuf and Rebecca was looking after him, the siege of the castle began. Ivanhoe so wanted to be with those who are now there, in battle. He tells the girl that being inactive while knights fight enemies is real torture for him. “After all, the battle is for our daily bread, the smoke of battle is the air we breathe. We do not live and do not want to live otherwise than surrounded by a halo of victory and glory! These are the laws of chivalry, we have sworn to fulfill them, and for their sake we sacrifice everything that is dear to us in life.” And then he added that the spirit of chivalry teaches kings to value their lives incomparably below their dignity, to neglect any troubles, worries and suffering, and not to be afraid of anything. “Chivalry is the source of the purest and most noble relations, the support of the oppressed, the protection of the insulted, the bulwark against the tyranny of rulers! Without him, noble dignity would be an empty phrase. And power finds its best patrons in knightly spears and swords!”

What do I think about while reading the novel Ivanhoe? Being a man is hard, being a knight is even harder. This title, high and honorable, obliges a person to certain requirements that are put forward to a representative of knighthood. And this means that he is distinguished from others by humanity, dignity, courage, and fortitude.

The first knights were cavalry warriors from Ancient Rome, because it was precisely this type of service that this title indicated. Much later, already during the Middle Ages, it began to indicate belonging to a noble family, and it could be received either by inheritance, upon reaching adulthood, or by meritorious feats of arms on the battlefield. But it was not only for military deeds that glorious warriors were awarded this honorary title.

In addition to courage and military honor, the knight had to have other positive qualities, for example, to be well-mannered, to respect his elders, to observe the laws of his order, which gave him the honor of knighting, and to be able to treat ladies gallantly. These features became characteristic of knights during the Crusades and made them not only warriors, but also an integral attribute of high society and religion.

What does it mean to be in the modern world?

Concepts of chivalry in modern world slightly different from the concepts of antiquity. Today's knights do not need to go on campaigns, wear a certain type of clothing, be a horseman, or own lands. For girls of the 21st century, a knight, first of all, is a gallant man who can stand up for himself and his lady.

According to sociological surveys, women see the modern knight as well-educated, elegantly dressed, with an athletic figure, impeccable manners and infinitely romantic. Moreover, military abilities and courage often take a back seat, inferior to knowledge of romantic poems, the desire to give flowers and gifts to a woman, and the presence of financial stability.

Modern orders of chivalry

But modern men put a completely different meaning into the concept of a knight. Moreover, there are even knightly orders, similar to the medieval ones, with their own charter, obligations, in which traditions are honored and initiation rituals are performed, exactly repeating the ancient ones.

One of these orders is the Order of the Templars, which has existed in Russia since 1993. The knights of the order sacredly honor religious rules, but do not observe strict monastic prohibitions, like the medieval founders of this movement. However, the charter of modern Templars still contains such requirements as protecting the disadvantaged, helping the poor, honoring elders, respect and tenderness for the mother of one’s children and one’s parents. Members of the organization are engaged in the restoration of monuments, charity, the development of the knightly movement among young people, and hold demonstration tournaments and games.

Medieval knighthood is a completely unique phenomenon in the history of Europe. Chivalry had already been formed by the 11th century, and at the time of the start of the Crusades, the rules of conduct for knights and their code of honor had already been established. Knighthood reached its heyday in the 14th century, when tournaments began to be held regularly and complex heraldry was formed.

What qualities of knights have already been lost

Chivalry was not created as a simple community of noble warriors. This is a specific group of people who were united moral values. Such positive traits medieval knights should be considered in more detail:

  • unconditional honesty. A knight could not lie, and a knight who lied could not bear this title. This was dishonorable, because lying was regarded as cowardice, a desire to avoid a fair confrontation4
  • loyalty to one's word was highly valued. It was unacceptable to betray one’s own beliefs and renege on promises. Moreover, the promises and oaths had a religious basis. And their violation was unworthy of a knight. Such a person could be deprived of his knighthood and expelled from noble society;
  • courage. The knight should not have yielded to danger. He had to be fearless. Moreover, knights specifically went on campaigns to fight in the name of God and goodness. That is, they themselves looked for dangers for themselves;
  • patronage of the poor and downtrodden. The knight was obliged to help the poor and protect the offended. The purpose of many knightly enterprises was to protect those in need.

All of the above qualities are still welcome today. But they are all relative.

Loss of knightly qualities - good or bad

Modern "flexibility" is a means of survival in the world. The age of knights is irrevocably gone. And people's living conditions have changed. Therefore, one cannot regret that the chivalric rules of behavior have disappeared forever. After all, the world is already different.

However, these qualities are inherent in all people in one way or another and they command respect from everyone. Therefore, there is no need to try to be a knight. It is enough to follow the listed rules of conduct in everyday life.

What were the ideals of chivalry?

A knight must first of all be a Christian. It was impossible to become a knight without receiving holy baptism.

“These are times of ardent faith,” wrote one of his enlightened contemporaries, “when people have no doubts. They imagine the universe as a vast theater where an endless drama is played out, full of tears and joys, characters which are scattered between heaven, earth and hell; a drama whose outcome is predetermined, whose actions are controlled by God himself, but which in every scene presents large and varied interweavings. Divine persons, angels and saints join every moment to guide humanity, while Satan and his dark legions tempt and confuse him without end. A person, drawn by heavenly mercy and hellish temptations in two opposite directions, is free of will and master of his fate. He has an earthly life to choose between two attractions and, depending on whether he yields to the first or the second, his soul flies off after the death of his body to happy places where eternal joy reigns, or is cast into the abyss - a refuge of despair.”

According to these ideas, man's greatest misfortune was sin; it was necessary either to avoid it or to be cleansed of it. But at the same time, it was believed that there were no unforgivable sins, no atrocities that could not be redeemed by sincere repentance and godly actions.

A knight must be not only a Christian, but also a fighter for the Christian Church. He was ordered to guard and protect her. One of the French ballads says this directly: “We are clergy,” says the minister of the Church, the archbishop, “and it is our duty to serve God, to whom we pray for our friends. And you, knights, do not forget that God created you to protect the Church.”

While defending the Church, the knight was obliged to provide assistance to all those who were under its protection - widows, orphans, and the weak. And I must say, there are, especially in literary monuments, wonderful examples of how knights followed this law. Here's just one of them...

Feeling the approach of death, Charlemagne bequeathed to his son not to rob orphans of their fiefs, and from widows of their last money. However, his son, King Louis, quickly forgot his father’s behests and offered Count Guillaume the possession of the fief of one of his vassals, the deceased Marquis Beranger.

But Guillaume, knowing that the Marquis still had a son, became furious with anger. In the presence of all the vassals, he reprimanded his king: “Noble knights, listen to me! See how Louis, our rightful lord, rewards his best servants. During the battle with the Saracens, Turks and Slavs, the king was knocked off his horse. The Marquis Beranger rushed to him, lowering the reins, with a shining sword in his hand. With it he cut a clearing around the king, like a boar between dogs. Then he jumped off his horse to help his lord. He held him the stirrup. And the king sat in the saddle and rushed off like a cowardly dog. The Marquis Beranger remained, and we saw how he was killed and cut into pieces, but we, alas, could not come to his aid.

He left behind an heir, whose name is little Beranger. To betray this child, you have to be, I swear to God, worse than a coward and a traitor. If anyone dares to take the land of little Beranger, this very sword will cut off his head.”

It was on such ballads that the morality of the future knight was formed. By the way, one can judge from this ballad how little the feudal lords considered their kings at the dawn of chivalry.

Knights were supposed to serve as defenders of right and good against evil. In the fight against enemies, the knight was inspired by his love for his homeland, to which he was firmly attached. The knight considered his country the best country in the world.

This is how touchingly the same literary hero, Count Guillaume, says goodbye to his country France, leaving it for a long time: “He turned towards dear France, and the wind from there blew in his face; he opened his chest to give more air access. Standing against the wind, he knelt down: “Oh, the gentle breath blowing from France. It contains all the people I love. I entrust you to the right hand of the Lord, because I myself do not hope to see you again.” Tears flowed from his beautiful eyes. They flow in streams over his face and abundantly wet his clothes.”

Knights, defenders of the Church and the weak, were supposed to serve as examples of courage and show this courage especially in the fight against infidels. The physical ideal of a knight was a strong and brave warrior who “with one blow of his sword cuts a warrior on horseback and in armor from top to bottom along with the horse,” who “without difficulty unbends four horseshoes at a time,” “raises a knight in armor to the head, which stands on his hand,” and finally... eats a quarter of a ram or a whole goose at dinner.

The knight values ​​his name: “It is better to die than to be called a coward.” For a knight, honor is more valuable than life.

It was necessary to deal “knightly” with a defeated enemy of equal rank. The knight had to treat his captive as the most honored guest, even if he was his mortal enemy. Captives, as a rule, offered a ransom for their release, as well as expensive armor and a war horse. A knight could not attack another knight without declaring war.

The knights had to be selflessly devoted to their lord and maintain an unbreakable oath of vassal allegiance. The knight had to be true to his word. When making any promise, he swore by God, “who never lies.” And finally, the knights were supposed to be generous, according to their code...

From the book Knights author Malov Vladimir Igorevich

What were the real knights like in our mind? Much has already been discussed in the book about chivalry and knightly times- about traditions and weapons, about coats of arms, heraldry, tournaments, about impregnable castles, famous battles and knightly orders... We went through dozens of pages

From book Newest book facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archaeology. Miscellaneous] author

When and why were knightly tournaments banned? Knightly tournaments were banned after the French king Henry II was mortally wounded during a tournament on July 10, 1559. The death of the king was accidental: the broken spear of his opponent, sliding on the shield,

From the book Encyclopedic Dictionary of Catchwords and Expressions author Serov Vadim Vasilievich

God, how naive we were! Words from a romance written by composer Veniamin Basner to poems by poet Mikhail Lvovich Matusovsky (1915-1990). This line became popular after the romance was featured in the television film “Days of the Turbins,” based on the novel by M. A. Bulgakov

From the book Everything about everything. Volume 2 author Likum Arkady

What were the first skyscrapers? Everywhere in the world these days, where there are large cities, there are high-rise buildings that could be called skyscrapers. There is no reason to use this word to refer to all large buildings. It's just a name given to the very high

From the book 3333 tricky questions and answers author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

What were the first means of transportation? If you find yourself on a desert island and need to drag something from one place to another, what are you going to do? Drag! In ancient times, human muscles were the only means of movement. The man was himself

From the book Everything about everything. Volume 5 author Likum Arkady

What were the last words of Jesus Christ in his earthly life? Even on such an important issue, evangelicals contradict each other. Mark (author of the earliest Gospel, 15:34) and Matthew (27:46) say that Jesus' last words on the cross were: “My God, my God! what are you for

From the book The Second Book of General Delusions by Lloyd John

What were the first fish? 500,000,000 years ago there were no fish at all. Coal deposits prove that the first fish appeared during the Ordovician period, which began approximately 460,000,000 years ago. But it is still unclear whether the first fish appeared in fresh or salt water. In the next

From the book Knights author Malov Vladimir Igorevich

What were Richard III's last words? “A horse, a horse, half a kingdom for a horse!” is one of the most quoted phrases in English literature. But Richard III never uttered these words. His last words are part of what little we know from official sources

From the book Who's Who in the Art World author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

What were the ideals of knighthood? A knight must first of all be a Christian. It was impossible to become a knight without receiving holy baptism. “These are times of ardent faith,” wrote one of his enlightened contemporaries, “when people have no doubts. They imagine the universe

From the book Animal World author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

What were the real knights like in our mind? Much has already been discussed in the book about chivalry and knightly times - about traditions and weapons, about coats of arms, heraldry, tournaments, about impregnable castles, famous battles and knightly orders... We went through dozens of pages

From the book The World Around Us author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

What were the first opera houses like? For a long time, opera was available only to people of royal blood. She was their favorite entertainment and the main decoration of royal holidays. In 1637, an event took place in Italy that would forever go down in the history of musical culture: in this

From the book Who's Who world history author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

What were ancient horses like? Like other animals, modern horses are very different from their distant ancestors. In many places globe find the fossilized remains of those ancient animals that scientists believe are the ancestors of horses. Now

From the book Who's Who in the World of Discoveries and Inventions author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

What were the ancient books like? Books appeared a long time ago, but they did not immediately acquire the appearance we are accustomed to. What did ancient books look like? Paper was invented in China more than 2 thousand years ago. The Chinese kept the recipe for its processing secret for not a century or two. But that's the point

From the author's book

What were Neanderthals like? To understand how human development occurred, scientists carefully study everything that remains of primitive people: skeletons, tools of labor and hunting, dishes, etc. In 1856, in a limestone cave located in the valley of the Neander River in Germany, there were

From the author's book

What were the Cro-Magnons like? Cro-Magnons were so named because the remains of these cave dwellers were found in the town of Cro-Magnon in the south of France. Also interesting is the fact that experts who studied the skeletons of these cave dwellers found that they were quite

From the author's book

What were the first skyscrapers? Everywhere these days, where there are large cities, there are high-rise buildings that could be called skyscrapers. There is no reason to use this word to designate all large buildings; this name is given only to very tall buildings and

We also recommend

Loading...Loading...