508 CHI 
e /ery country were perpetually affociated; and Impartial 
tafte muft prefer tilts and tournaments to the Olympic 
games of claffic antiquity. At thefe martial entertain¬ 
ments, each knight was attended to the tournament by 
iiis faithful fqtiire, a youth of equal birth and fimilar 
hopes; he was followed by his archers and men at arms; 
and four, or five, or fix, foldiers, were computed as the 
furniture of a complete lance. The lance was the proper 
and peculiar weapon of the knight: his horfe was of a 
large and heavy breed; but his charger, till he was roufed 
by approaching danger, was ufually led by an attendant, 
and he quietly rode a pad or palfrey of a more ea-fy pace. 
His helmet and fword, his greaves and buckler, it would 
be fuperfiuous to defcribe; but we may remark, that at 
the period of the crufades the armour was lefs ponderous 
than in later times; and that, inftead of a many cuirafs, 
his bread was defended by an hauberk or coat of mail. 
When their long lances were fixed in the reft, the war¬ 
riors furioufly fpurred their horfes againft the foe; and 
the light cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could feldom 
Hand againft the direft and impetuous weight of their 
charge. In the expeditions to the neighbouring king¬ 
doms or the Holy Land, the duties of the feudal tenure 
no longer lubfifted ; the voluntary fervice of the knights 
and their followers was either prompted by zeal or at¬ 
tachment, or purchafed with rewards and promifes ; and 
the numbers ofeachfquadronwere meafured by the power, 
the wealth, and the fame, of each independent chieftain. 
They were diftinguifhed by his banner, his armorial coat, 
and his cry of war; and the moft ancient families of Eu¬ 
rope muft feek in thefe achievements the origin and proof 
of their nobility. From what has been faid, we might 
trace a ftrong refemblance between the manners of the 
age of chivalry, and thofe of the old heroic ages deline¬ 
ated by Homer. 
The military enthufiafm of the barons is but of a piece 
vdth the fanaticifm of the heroes. Hence the fame par¬ 
ticularity of defcription in the accounts of battles, wounds, 
deaths, in the Greek poet as in the Gothic romances. 
Hence that minute curiofity in the difplay of their dref- 
fes, arms, and accoutrements. The minds of all men, 
being occupied with warlike images and ideas, were much 
gratified by thofe details, which appear cold and unaf- 
fefting to modern readers. We hear much of knights- 
errant encountering giants, and quelling favages, in 
books of chivalry. Thefe giants were opprefiive feudal 
lords ; and every lord was to be met with, like the giant, 
in his ftrong hold or caftle. Their dependents of a lower 
form, who imitated the violence of their fuperiors, and 
had not cattles, but lurking places, were the favages of 
romance. The greater lord was called a giant for his 
power ; the lefs, a favage for his brutality. Another ter- 
Tor of the Gothic ages were monfters, dragons, and fer- 
pents. Their ftories were received in thole days for fe- 
veral reafons : t . from the vulgar belief of enchantments: 
2. from their being reported on the faith of eaftern tra¬ 
dition, by adventures from the Holy Land; 3. in flill la¬ 
ter times, from the ftrange things told and believed on 
the difcovery of the new world. In all thefe refpefls, 
Greek antiquity refembles the Gothic, For what are 
Homer’s Lasltrigons and Cyclops, but bands of lawlefs 
favages, with each of them a giant of enormous fize at 
their head ? And what are the Grecian Bacchus, Hercu¬ 
les, and Thefeus, but knig’nts-errant, the exaft counter¬ 
parts of fir Launcelot du Lake, and Amadis de Gaul ? 
With the greateft fiercenefs and favagenefs of charac¬ 
ter, the utmoll generofity, hofpitality, and courtefy, were 
imputed to the heroic ages. Achilles was at once the 
molt relentlels, vindiftive, implacable, and the friend- 
lieft, of men. We have the very fame reprefentation in 
the age of chivalry. As in thole lawlefs times dangers 
and diftrefs of all kinds abounded, there would be the 
lame demand for companion, gentlenefs, and general at¬ 
tachments to the unfortunate, as of refentment, rage, and 
animolity, againft their enemies. 
C H I 
The martial games celebrated in ancient Greece, on 
great and folemn occafions, had the fame origin and the 
fame purpofe as the tournaments of the Gothic warriors ; * 
and the paffion for adventures, being fo natural in their 
fituation, would be as naturally attended with the love 
of praife and glory. Hence the fame encouragement, in 
the old Greek and Gothic times, to panegyrifts and poets, 
which made it of mighty confequence who (hould obtain 
the favour of a rich heirefs. And though, in the itrict 
feudal times, (he was fuppofed to be in the power and at 
the difpofal of her fuperior lord, yet this rigid ftate of 
things did not laft long. Hence we find fome diftreffed 
damfel was the fpring and mover of every knight’s adven¬ 
ture. She was to be relcued by his arms, or won by the 
fame and admiration of his prowefs. The plain meaning 
of all which was this : that as, in thefe turbulent times, 
a protedlor was neceffary to the weaknefs of the fex, fo 
the courteous and valorous knight was to approve him- 
felf fully qualified for that purpofe. 
It may be obferved, that the two poems of Homer were 
intended to expofe the mifchiefs and inconveniences arif- 
ing from the political ftate of Old Greece : the Iliad, the 
diflentions that naturally fpring up among independent 
chiefs ; and the Odyffey, the infolence of their greater 
fubjedls, more efpecially when unreftrained by the pre¬ 
fence of their fovereign. Andean any thing more exactly 
refemble the condition of the feudal times, when, on oc- 
cafion of any great enterprize, as that of the crufades, 
the defigns of the confederate Chriftian ftates were per¬ 
petually fruftrated, or interrupted at leaft, by the diffen- 
tions of their leaders ; and their affairs at home as perpe¬ 
tually diftreffed and difordered by the rebellious ufurpa- 
tions of their greater vaffals ? Jerufalem was to the Eu¬ 
ropean knights what Troy had been to the Grecian he¬ 
roes ; for chivalry never ftourifhed fo much as during the 
time of the crufades. From thefe holy wars it followed, 
that new fraternities of knighthood were invented ; hence 
the knights of the Holy Sepulchre, the Hofpitallers, Tem¬ 
plars, and an infinite number of religious orders. Various 
other orders were at length inftituted by fovereign princes: 
theGarter, by Edward III. of England; the Golden Fleece, 
by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy; and St. Mi¬ 
chael, by Louis XI. of France. From this time ancient 
chivalry declined to an empty name; when fovereign 
princes eftablifhed regular companies in their armies, 
knights bannerets were no more, though it was ftill 
thought an honour to be dubbed by a great prince or 
viftorious hero; and ali who profeffed arms without 
knighthood affumed the title of Elquire. There is fcarce 
a prince in Europe that has not thought fit to inftitute 
an order of knighthood ; and the title of Knight-fervice, 
which the kings of Britain conferred on private fubje&s, 
is a derivation from ancient chivalry, although very re¬ 
mote from its fource. See the articles Feudal System, 
and Knight. 
CHI'VALRY,/ [fervitium military, from theFr. cheva¬ 
lier.'] A tenure of lands by knights fervice; whereby the 
tenant was bound to perform fervice in war unto the 
king, or the mefne lord of whom he held by that tenure. 
See Tenures. Chivalry was of two kinds, either regal, 
held only of the king, or common, held of a common 
perfon : that which might be held only of the king was 
called fervitium or ferjeantia , and was again divided into 
grand and petit ferjearty ; the grand ferjeanty was where 
one held lands of the king by iervice, which he ought to 
do in his own petfon, as to bear the king’s banner or 
fpear, to lead his holt, or to find a man at arms to fight, 
&cc. Petit ferjeanty was when a man held lands of the 
king to yield him annually fome fmall thing towards his 
wars, as a fword, dagger, bow, &c. 
CHIVAZ'ZO, a town of Piedmont, fituated in a plain, 
near the union of the river Oreo with the Po. It is de¬ 
fended with walls, baftions, and large foffes filled with 
water : it is well fupplied with artillery and a numerous 
garrifon, efpecially in time ef war. The fituation is fo 
advantageous, 
