To Protect, To Defend.


Chivalry can be classified into three basic but overlapping areas:

Duties to countrymen and fellow Christians:
this contains virtues such as mercy, courage, valor, fairness, protection of the weak and the poor, and in
the servant-hood of the knight to his lord. This also brings with it the idea of being willing to give one’s
life for another’s; whether he would be giving his life for a poor man or his lord.

Duties to God:
this would contain being faithful to God, protecting the innocent, being faithful to the church, being the
champion of good against evil, being generous and obeying God above the feudal lord.

Duties to women:
this is probably the most familiar aspect of chivalry. This would contain what is often called courtly love,
the idea that the knight is to serve a lady, and after her all other ladies. Most especially in this category
is a general gentleness and graciousness to all women.



These three areas obviously overlap quite frequently in chivalry, and are often indistinguishable.
Different weight given to different areas produced different strands of chivalry:

warrior chivalry,
in which a knight's chief duty is to his lord, as exemplified by Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle

religious chivalry,
in which a knight's chief duty is to protect the innocent and serve God, as exemplified by Sir Galahad or
Sir Percival in the Grail legends.

courtly love chivalry,
in which a knight's chief duty is to his own lady, and after her, all ladies, as exemplified by Sir Lancelot in
his love for Queen Guinevere or Sir Tristan in his love for Iseult

One particular similarity between all three of these categories is honor. Honor is the foundational and
guiding principle of chivalry. Thus, for the knight, honor would be one of the guides of action.




“ The emblem of the Order is a white eight-pointed cross embellished in the four principal angles
alternately with a lion passant guardant and a unicorn passant. The four arms of the cross signify the
cardinal virtues: Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude. The eight points signify the beatitudes:
Humility, Compassion, Courtesy, Devotion, Mercy, Purity (very important), Peace and Endurance. ”




There is no definitive list of virtues, and other proposed virtues include:

Courage
Justice
Mercy
Generosity/Charity/Liberality
Faith
Nobility/Valour
Hope
Diligence/Strength
Chastity/Integrity/Truth
Humility/Prudence
Will/Determination/Resolve