Code of Chivalery

This document's purpose is to act as a code of conduct for knights and aspirants, so that we may rest with pride and dignity once our earthly duties are completed knowing our legacy strides down the golden road with honour.

— Anonymous contributor

Knights were expected to be skilled at numerous tasks, going from tending to a horse to dancing. But above all, they were expected to fight bravely and display military professionalism and courtesy.

unwavering loyalty, military prowess and social fellowship
riding warhorses, jousting, attending tournaments, holding Round Tables (festive events: jousting, feasting, dancing) and hunting, as well as aspiring to the more æthereal virtues of "faith, hope, charity, justice, strength, moderation and loyalty
clergy instituted religious vows which required knights to use their weapons chiefly for the protection of the weak and defenseless, especially women and orphans, and of churches.

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Code of Chivalery

1. Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and thou shalt observe all its directions. Thou shalt defend the Church.
2. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.
3. Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born.
4. Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.
5. Thou shalt make war against the infidel without cessation and without mercy.
6. Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.
7. Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word.
8. Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone.
9. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

1. Forbearance: knights' self-control towards other warriors and at the courts of their lords was a part of the early noble habitus
2. Loyalty
3. Hardiness: physical resilience and prowess in warfare were almost prerequisites for chivalry-associated knighthood. For warriors, regardless of origin, displaying exceptional physical prowess on the battlefield often led to attaining noble-knightly status or immediate nobilitation. This view was supported by formal chivalric authorities and commentators: the anonymous author of La vraye noblesse states that a person of 'low degree' with martial bearing should be elevated to nobility by the prince or civic authority, "even though he be not rich or of noble lineage". Scholastic analyst Richard Kaeuper summarizes the matter: "A knight's nobility or worth is proved by his hearty strokes in battle"
4. Largesse or Liberality: generosity was part of a noble quantity. According to Alan of Lille, largesse was not just a simple matter of giving away what he had, but "Largitas in a man caused him to set no store on greed or gifts, and to have nothing but contempt for bribes."
5. strong demonstrating benevolence towards the weak "The [warrior-]prince accordingly is the minister of the common interest and the bond-servant of equity, and he bears the public person in the sense that he punishes the wrongs and injuries of all, and all crimes, with even-handed equity."
6. Honour: honour was achieved by living up to the ideal of the preudomme and pursuing the qualities and behaviour listed above. the most damning, irreversible mode of "demoting" one's honorific status consisted in displaying pusillanimous conduct on the battlefield. The loss of honour is a humiliation to a man's standing and is worse than death. Bertran de Born said: "For myself I prefer to hold a little piece of land in onor, than to hold a great empire with dishonor"

https://books.google.fr/books?id=XttCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA26&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

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Type

Code

Signatories (Organizations)

• Circle Order
• Knights Academy