What+was+the+Code+of+Chivalry+and+did+Knights+really+follow+it?

The Code of Chivalry was a set of rules or notes that told the knights what they had to do. The Code of Chivalry told knights that they had to defend the weak, be courteous to their woman, be loyal to their king and serve God at all times. Love, Loyalty and Religion. Even though the knights were expected to have strength and skill when fighting the many enemies from the violent Middle Ages they were also expected to be able to stop their brutal nature and be chivalrous to others.

Knights were also expected to be modest and to not boast about their talents. The code of chivalry told the knights that they had to give mercy to an enemy that had just been defeated. Even though most knights came from rich families they were often not the first-borns of the family. Therefore they did not receive an inheritance so they were classified as a little more than a band of soldiers. But the knights didn’t always follow the code. They would plunder and steal thing from the captured villages and cities. Their code of chivalry would also not extend to include the peasants and when it said they had to defend the weak this only included noble women and children. The knights believed they were part of the upper class so they were often cruel towards the common people and would rape peasant women without fear of punishment. There were many variations to the code of chivalry and not one of them was set in stone. Some of the variations had many rules and codes of conduct that knights had to follow while some only had a few which summed the rules up.



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