H I VALRY. 



lie. of the 



rhivalrv. 



nit an4 spice*, the only tKiag* he carried with 

 him. betide hi* arm*. For a year and a day he wan- 

 dered in thi* manner, in queit of adventure* ; some- 

 times reaching and punishing those crimes which were 

 beyond the knowledge, or the rr*ch of the law ; and not 

 (infrequently committing injustice and violence in the 

 very act of relieving ihc oppreted, or punishing the cri- 

 minal. 



Perhapt the moit striking instance of knight-errantry 

 that is well authenticated, ii given by Brantome. Thil 

 relate*, that G-ilcas of Mantua, in gratitude to 

 Joan of Naplei, for having danced with him, 

 a vow that he would become a knight-errant till 

 he had conquered and brought into her presence two 

 knight*. At the end of a year, which he spent in com- 

 bats, in England, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and other 

 part*, he accomplished his vow. 



The fraternities or brotherhoods, which sprung out of 

 chivalry, or at least were rendered more frequent and 

 better organised by it, rest on surer authority. It has 

 been already observed, that a similar institution existed 

 among the Scandinavians ; and it is remarkable, that one 

 of the most common modes of entering into the frater- 

 nities of chivalry, was by mingling the blood of the par- 

 ties, a practice usual among the Scythians. Some- 

 times religious ceremonies were employed, and not un- 

 frequently an exchange of arms was the proof and bond 

 f fraternity. So predominant and indispensable was 

 the mutual obligation thus formed, that a knight was 

 justified in not attending to the call of a suffering and 

 oppressed female, if, at the same time, his brother in 

 arras required his presence. His sovereign, however, 

 had a superior claim upon him ; and the obligation was 

 dissolved, when war was declared between the countries 

 to which they respectively belonged. 



The union was deemed so intimate, that all the mem- 

 ber* of the fraternity wore the same dress, and carried 

 the same arms ; and no member could admit, or acknow- 

 ledge as his friend, any who was not also the friend of 

 the fraternity ; as they were mutually bound to assist 

 one another, they could not undertake any enterprise ex- 

 cept in concert. The principal object of the fraterni- 

 ties was to free their country from robbers ; to go on ex- 

 peditions against the Infidels j and to accomplish with 

 more effect and glory all the purposes and duties of chi- 

 valry. 



These fraternities were entered into, sometime* for 

 life ; but more frequently only during a campaign, a 

 battle, a siege, or a war ; at the termination of the en- 

 gagement, each party rendered up an exact and faith- 

 ful account of what he had gained in booty or in pre- 

 sents, or of what he had expended or lost. 



The education, the manners, and the employments of 

 the ladies, in the days of chivalry, have, in the course 

 of this article, been noticed with nearly as much full- 

 nett *"^ mlnutcneM M tne subject requires or admits of. 

 The 'entered observations on thrse points may be here 

 briefly brought together, and a few additional circum- 

 stances introduced. The manners of the ladies were ne- 

 cessarily polite and courteous ; for such they taught, 

 and expected those of the chevaliers to be. Their prin- 

 cipal ambition was to deserve arid obtain the love of a 

 valiant knight ; but their idea of love led them to pre- 

 fer his death to his dishonour. " According to the laws 

 f gallantry, 1 should have loved him better dead than 

 " wa the exclamation of a damsel, on hearing 

 i hat h. r knight had escaped alive, but with the loss of 

 bis h ii ur, while the knights of her companion* had 

 lied the death of chivalry. To rouse hain to enterprise, 



to reward him with her approbation, with her smiles, Chivalry. 

 perhaps with a kiss, if victorious ; to shame him by her '-" -J 

 reproaches, if vanquished, were the great objects of her 

 life. It was the basinet* of thi- ladies to adorn the ar- 

 mour of the ki.ights with^rowri; to take it off when 

 the tournaments were finished ; to bestow on them the 

 prize ; and to attend to them when woundfd. They 

 likewise joined them in playing at chr?s, backgam- 

 mon, and dice. It is probable, that they sometimes 

 took the diversion of hawking j at least, they scarcely 

 ever appeared in public without a falcon on their finger, 

 as a mark of their dignity. The bath was much used 

 by them, not only for the purpose of preserving or in- 

 creasing their beauty, but also for the sake of enjoying 

 free and uninterrupted conversation. Their magnificence 

 and luxury, like those of the knights, were great, and 

 was discovered in their dress, and in all their domestic 

 arrangements. One instance may be given : they had 

 always burning 1 in their chambers, while they were in 

 bed, the most delicate and costly perfumes. 



The effects which chivalry produced on the age in HflVcti of- 

 which it existed, the circumstances which led to its de- chivalry, 

 cline and extinction, and the traces of its character and 

 influence that still appear, may be briefly and rapidly 

 told. 



The qualifications and duties that chivalry imposed 

 and required, which have been so fully detailed and ex- 

 plained, though they were sometimes evaded or trans- 

 gressed, sometimes altogether wanting in its knights, and 

 too often overpo wcred by the ignorance and violence of the 

 age, or mixed up with its vices, yet undoubtedly tend- 

 ed, in a very considerable degree, to give efficacy t'> 

 laws in the time of their weakness, and to supply their 

 place in many important case*, which they could not 

 touch. This institution also infused humanity into war, 

 at a time when the disposition of the age made it the al- 

 most constant business of life, and the ruling passion of 

 all conditions of men ; it introduced courtesy of man- 

 ners, when men, from ignorance, and want of mutual 

 assistance and intercourse, were naturally rude and un- 

 cultivated ; it exacted and produced a scrupulous adhe- 

 rence to truth, at a time when the temptations to false- 

 hood and breach of engagements were numerous, and 

 the personal and social evils resulting from thes.e vices, 

 were imperfectly understood and feebly felt. It added 

 an additional impulse and motive to that respectful and 

 delicate attention to the female sex, (which distinguished 

 the Gothic ancestors of Europe,) at a period when this 

 attention, and the protection and support which accom- 

 panied it, were particularly necessary to them. 



In sketching out the causes of the decline and extinc- D clincanJ 

 tion of chivalry, the period when they look place will extm-iion 

 be sufficiently marked. As it rose to splendour, and was of chivalry, 

 embodied into form and regularity by the feudal system, 

 so it fell along with it. Tne causes which broke up this 

 system ; ihe change of manners, habits, and pursuits 

 among mankind in general, and of the principles and con- 

 duct of governments, and especially of their military 

 and financial institutions, and of their mode of carrying 

 ou war, were fatal alike to the feudal system and to chi- 

 valry. The same era which witnessed the discovery of 

 gunpowder and artillery, and the invention of printing, 

 and in which there sprung up the seeds of commerce, 

 witnessed and produced the decline of chivalry. All 

 these circumstances operated ou the habits and the man- 

 ners of the age, and, in conjunction with the di-fctruc- 

 tion of the feudal system, put a period to the exi-tenc* 

 of chivalry. As it ar>se principally from a peculiar 

 state of society, the evils of which it was calculated to 



