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between two knights only, and in being attended with less ceremony.

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Character of the Knight. Chivalric loyalty to the mistress of his supreme affection was the first article in the creed of the true knight. "He who was faithful and true to his lady," says Hallam, was held sure of salvation in the theology of castles, though not of Christians." He must also be gentle, brave, courteous, truthful, pure, generous, hospitable, faithful to his engagements, and ever ready to risk life and limbs in the cause of religion and in the defense of his companions at arms.

But these were the virtues and qualifications of the ideal knight. It is needless to say that, though there were many who illustrated all these virtues in their blameless lives and romantic enterprises, there were too many who were knights only in profession. "An errant knight," as an old writer puns, with too much truth, "was an arrant knave." Another writer says, "Deeds that would disgrace a thief, and acts of cruelty that would have disgusted a Hellenic tyrant or a Roman emperor, were common things with knights of the highest lineage."

But cruelty, treachery, untruthfulness, ingratitude, cowardice, baseness, and crime of every sort were opposed to the true spirit of Chivalry; and the knight who was convicted of such faults was punished by expulsion from the holy order of knighthood, by what was known as the ceremony of degradation. The spurs of the offending knight were struck off from his heels with a heavy cleaver, his sword was broken, and his horse's tail cut off. Then the disgraced knight was dressed in a burial robe, and the usual funeral ceremonies were performed over him, signifying that he was "dead to the honors of knighthood."

Decline of Chivalry. The fifteenth century was the evening of Chivalry. The decline of the system resulted from the operaand was of frequent enough occurrence."-Cutts's Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 412. "The combat at outrance was, in fact, a duel, and only differed from the trial by battle [see above, p. 56] in being voluntary, while the other was enforced by law."-James's History of Chivalry, p. 46.

INFLUENCE OF CHIVALRY.

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tion of the same causes that effected the overthrow of Feudalism. The changes in the mode of warfare which helped to do away with the feudal baron and his mail-clad retainers likewise tended to destroy knight-errantry. And then as civilization advanced, new feelings and sentiments began to claim the attention, and to work upon the imagination of men. Persons ambitious of distinction began to seek it in other ways than by adventures of chivalry. Voyages of maritime discovery, and commercial enterprise, were more profitable, at least, than bootless expeditions among enchanted castles. Governments, too, became more regular, and the increased order and security of society rendered less needful the services of the gallant knight in behalf of distressed maidens. In a word, the extravagant performances of the knight-errant carried into a practical and commercial age- -an age very different from that which gave birth to Chivalry - became fantastic and ridiculous; and when, finally, in the sixteenth century, the genial Spanish satirist Cervantes wrote his famous Don Quixote, in which work he leads his hero-knight into all sorts of absurd adventures, such as running a tilt against a windmill, which his excited imagination had pictured to be a monstrous giant flourishing his arms with some wicked intent, everybody, struck with the infinite absurdity of the thing, fell a-laughing; and amidst the fitting accompaniment of smiles and broad pleasantries the knight-errant took his departure from the world.1

Influence of Chivalry.—“For the mind," James affirms," Chivalry did little; for the heart, it did everything." Doubtless we must qualify the latter part of this statement. While it is true that Chivalry, as we shall in a moment maintain, did much for the heart, its influences upon it were not altogether good. The system had many vices, chief among which were its aristocratic, exclusive tendencies. Dr. Arnold, indignant among other things at the

1 That is, from the world of romantic literature; for the satire of Cervantes was aimed at the extravagances of the romancers of his times. (Recall Spenser's The Faery Queene.) There were not many real knights-errant when Cervantes wrote.

knights' forgetfulness or disregard of the equal brotherhood of men, exclaims bitterly, "If I were called upon to name what spirit of evil predominately deserved the name of Antichrist, I should name the Spirit of Chivalry." And another indignant writer declares that "it is not probable that the knights supposed they could be guilty of injustice to the lower classes." These were regarded with indifference or contempt, and considered as destitute of any claims upon those of noble birth as were beasts of burden or the game of the chase. It is always the young and beautiful lady of gentle birth whose wrongs the valiant knight is risking his life to avenge, always the smiles of the queen of love and beauty for which he is splintering his lance in the fierce tournament. The fostering of this aristocratic spirit was one of the most serious faults of Chivalry. Yet we must bear in mind that we should charge the fault to the age rather than to the knight.

But to speak of the beneficial, refining influences of Chivalry, we should say that it undoubtedly contributed powerfully to lift that sentiment of respect for the gentler sex that characterized all the Northern nations, into that reverence for womanhood which forms the distinguishing characteristic of the present age, and contrasts it with all preceding phases of civilization.

Again, Chivalry did much towards producing that type of manhood among usa model type, distinguished by the virtues of fidelity, courtesy, humanity, liberality, and justice — which we rightly think to surpass any ever formed under the influences of antiquity. Just as Christianity gave to the world an ideal manhood which it was to strive to realize, so did Chivalry hold up an ideal to which men were to conform their lives. Men, indeed, have never perfectly realized either the ideal of Christianity or that of Chivalry; but the influence which these two ideals has had in shaping and giving character to the lives of men cannot be over-estimated. Together, through the enthusiasm and effort awakened for their realization, they have produced a new type of manhood, which we indicate by the phrase "a knightly and Christian character."

INTRODUCTION.

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CHAPTER II.

THE NORMANS.

I. THE NORMANS AT HOME AND IN ITALY.

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Introductory. The history of the Normans the name, it will be recalled, of the transformed Scandinavians who settled in Northern Gaul is simply a continuation of the story of the Northmen. And nothing could better illustrate the difference between the period we have left behind and the one upon which we have entered, nothing could more strikingly exhibit the gradual transformation that has crept over the face and spirit of European society, than the transformation which time and favoring influences have wrought in these men. When first we met them in the ninth century they were pagans; now they are Christians. Then they were rough, wild, danger-loving corsairs; now they are become the most cultured, polished, and chivalrous people in Europe. But the restless, careless, daring spirit that drove the Norse sea-kings forth upon the waves in quest of adventure and booty, still stirs in the breasts of their descendants. As has been said, they were simply changed from heathen Vikings, delighting in the wild life of sea-rover and pirate, into Christian knights, eager for pilgrimages and crusades.

It is these men, uniting in their character the strength, independence, and daring of the Scandinavian with the vivacity, imagination, and culture of the Romano-Gaul, that we are now to follow, as from their seats in France they go forth to make fresh conquests, to build up a kingdom in the Mediterranean lands, and to set a line of Norman kings upon the English throne. Later, in following the fortunes of the Crusaders, we shall meet them on the battlefields of Palestine, there winning renown as the most valiant knights of Christendom.

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The Dukes of Normandy. Under Rollo (see p. 134) and his immediate successors-William Longsword (927-943), Richard the Fearless (943-996), and Richard the Good (996-1027) — the power of the Normans in France became gradually consolidated. The country of Normandy grew more populous, both through the natural increase of the population at home and the arrival of fresh bands of Scandinavians from the northern countries. Finally, after more than one hundred years had passed, years for the most part of uneventful yet steady growth and development, the old Norse spirit of adventure revived, and Southern Europe and England became the scene of the daring and brilliant exploits of the Norman warriors.

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The Normans in Italy. In the year 1018 some Norman chiefs sailed southward, and landing in Spain, endeavored to wrest from the Moors lands for themselves in that peninsula, but were unsuccessful in their enterprise. About the same time, however, other Norman bands succeeded in gaining a foothold in the south of Italy, where they established a sort of republic, which ultimately included the island of Sicily. The fourth president of the commonwealth was the famous Robert Guiscard (d. 1085), a character only less celebrated than the renowned William the Conqueror, of whom we are to speak presently. His entire career was one series of daring and chivalrous exploits, which spread the renown of the Norman name throughout the Mediterranean lands.

This Norman state, converted finally into a kingdom, lasted until late in the twelfth century (1194). It reminds us of the Moorish kingdom of Spain, which it resembled in many respects. The rule of the Normans in Italy, like that of the Arab-Moors in Spain, gave the subjugated country its most prosperous era. The government was ably and equitably administered, and all classes, Greeks, Italians, Saracens, and Normans, dwelt alongside one another in the most fraternal manner. Education was encouraged, and the schools and colleges of the Normans, like those of the Saracens in the neighboring peninsula, became celebrated throughout Europe.

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