The medieval Code of Chivalry was more of a convenient myth than a real sign of nobility

Within the chaos of post-Carolingian Europe, knights frequently engaged in feuds, raids, and acts of brutality that destabilised communities.

In response, Church leaders began promoting ideas like the Peace of God and the Truce of God, which aimed to restrict knightly violence against clergy, peasants, and during certain holy days.

These movements were first launched in southern France during the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, and gained momentum with the support of reforming popes.

Councils such as the Synod of Charroux in 989 and the Council of Clermont in 1095 played a significant role in spreading these ideas.

At the latter, Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade and encouraged Christian knights to channel their aggression toward enemies of the faith.

Though the Truce of God had been endorsed earlier, the spirit of the movement influenced the rhetoric used at Clermont and reinforced efforts to sanctify conduct in batatle.

As a result, the identity of the knight began shifting towards a model that combined martial skill with Christian virtue. 

As the Crusades continued into the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the image of the ideal knight was further influenced by religious military orders such as the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers.

The Templars, which was founded by Hugues de Payens in 1119 and officially recognised by the Church at the Council of Troyes in 1129, were seen as the perfect example of the fusion of piety and warfare.

The Hospitallers, originally a charitable hospital in Jerusalem, evolved into a disciplined martial order.

These groups blended monastic discipline with military obligation and their conduct on the battlefield and in garrison helped solidify the concept that a true knight fought not for personal gain, but for justice, faith, and the defence of the innocent.

Figures such as Godfrey of Bouillon came to embody this model in later chivalric literature, reinforcing the spiritual justification for martial activity.

Though Godfrey ruled Jerusalem as Defender of the Holy Sepulchre rather than king, his image was elevated by subsequent writers and Church officials who used such examples to craft moral expectations for all knights, even those who never set foot in the Holy Land. 

By the time of the twelfth-century Renaissance, chivalric ideals had begun entering literary culture.

Authors such as Chrétien de Troyes, writing between c. 1160 and 1190, created narratives around figures like Lancelot and Percival, using Arthurian legends to explore knightly conduct, courtly love, and quests for spiritual truth.

Other writers, including Marie de France and Andreas Capellanus, contributed to this idealisation of chivalric behaviour.

In these stories, knights were portrayed as champions of virtue who showed loyalty to their lords, devotion to noble ladies, and mercy to the vanquished.

Earlier works such as the Chanson de Roland, which was composed around 1100, had already begun to promote the heroic image of the Christian knight.

The popularity of such romances influenced the way real knights viewed themselves and their responsibilities.

As such, nobles began commissioning poems and chronicles that praised their ancestors’ chivalric deeds, often exaggerating their piety, bravery, and generosity. 

Kings and emperors soon recognised the political value of promoting chivalry as a means of encouraging loyalty and order among their mounted elites.

Monarchs like Edward III of England, who founded the Order of the Garter around 1348, used the ideals of chivalry to reward service and bind the nobility to the crown.

Although the exact year of its founding is debated, 1348 remains the traditional date associated with its establishment.

This exclusive order, with its motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense," exemplified the effort to institutionalise honourable conduct.

Heraldry, jousting tournaments, and codes of conduct at court became tools for reinforcing the knight’s place within a rigid social hierarchy.

Written manuals, such as Ramon Llull’s Book of the Order of Chivalry (composed c. 1274–1276) and Geoffroi de Charny’s Book of Chivalry (mid-fourteenth century), provided practical guidance for knights navigating both the battlefield and the court.

Llull used his treatise to advocate for a spiritually disciplined and ethically guided warrior class.

These texts advised knights to act with humility, loyalty, courage, and religious devotion. 

Although chivalric ideals often conflicted with the brutal realities of medieval warfare, knights continued to cite the Code of Chivalry when justifying their actions.

During the Hundred Years’ War, for example, English and French knights spoke of honour and loyalty even as they burned villages and slaughtered prisoners.

Specific incidents, such as the massacre of French prisoners by English forces at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, highlighted the gap between ideal and reality.

Ordered by Henry V during the battle due to fears of a renewed French attack, demonstrated how expediency could override chivalric codes.

The code functioned as an aspirational standard rather than a binding legal framework.

Knights who violated chivalric norms risked shame and condemnation, though political convenience and personal ambition often took precedence.

Still, the idea that noble birth carried with it a duty to act honourably persisted across centuries.

Chroniclers like Jean Froissart recorded both the nobility and hypocrisy of knights, helping to shape the image of chivalry in posterity. 

By the fifteenth century, changes in military technology and the rise of professional infantry had begun reducing the military dominance of the knight.

The increasing use of gunpowder weapons and centralised armies, as seen at battles like Castillon in 1453, diminished the practical role of the mounted noble.

Although knights continued to appear on the battlefield, their role had shifted from dominant force to symbolic presence.

However, the ideals of chivalry remained embedded in aristocratic culture.

Renaissance authors revived and reinterpreted chivalric themes, often using them to reflect on honour, loyalty, and human virtue.

Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, which was first published in 1485, presented a nostalgic vision of knightly values in an age when they were already fading from military relevance.

Even in later periods, the chivalric code retained symbolic power, influencing political theory, literature, and social customs long after knights had ceased to dominate the battlefield.