CHIVALRY AND VIOLENCE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd CHIVALRY AND VIOLENCE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd RICHARD W. KAEUPER 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, OxfordOX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Richard W. Kaeuper 1999 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 1999 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organisation. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data applied for ISBN 0–19–820730–1 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon)Ltd. Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., Guildford and King’s Lynn to Seth, Geoffrey, and John acknowledgements ddd Essential support for launching this project came from awards granted by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in 1989–91. Their generous financial and moral support is gratefully acknowledged. The University of Rochester gave me one-semester academic leaves in 1991, 1993, and 1997, for which I am likewise grateful. Warm thanks go to the anonymous Clarendon Press readers, and to William Calin, John Maddicott, Jeffrey Ravel, and Roberta Krueger, who read large parts of the book manuscript and gave helpful critiques. Tony Morris encour- aged the project and saw the book through the contract stage at the Press with much appreciated skill and enthusiasm. Ruth Parr, Anna Illingworth, and Dorothy McLean directed the crucial process by which a large manuscript became a book. Sarah Dancy did the truly heroic work of copy-editing. The staff in Reference and Interlibrary Loan, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, obtained even the most obscure French sources. The index was skilfully prepared by Nicholas Waddy. Responding to my ideas as I formulated them was one gift from my wife Margaret. Even more important was her splendidly sound advice as I shaped the book and her unfailing capacity to ask the hard questions. This book is dedicated to my sons, Seth, Geoffrey, and John, with love and pride. Richard W. Kaeuper University of Rochester contents ddd Acknowledgements vii Prologue 1 PART 1. ISSUES AND APPROACHES 5 1. The Problem of Public Order and the Knights 11 The High Middle Ages and Order 11 Three Witnesses 12 Context: Socio-Economic and Institutional Change 19 Evidence from Chivalric Literature 22 Conclusion 28 2. Evidence on Chivalry and its Interpretation 30 Did Knights Read Romance? 30 Is Chivalric Literature Hopelessly Romantic? 33 The Framework of Institutions and Ideas 36 PART II. THE LINK WITH CLERGIE 41 3. Knights and Piety 45 Lay Piety, Lay Independence 45 Chivalric Mythology 53 Knights and Hermits 57 4. Clergie,Chevalerie,and Reform 63 Clerical Praise for Knightly Militia 64 Clerical Strictures on Knightly Malitia 73 The Church and Governing Power 81 The Force of Ideas 84 PART III. THE LINK WITH ROYAUTÉ 89 5. Chevalerie and Royauté 93 Royal Stance on War and Violence 93