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Question #1: How would you define chivalry?
Chivalry is defined as martial valor, and knightly skills. This definition lacks feeling and depth. I find that there are many qualities in being chivalrous, such as bravery, honor, protection of the weak, tempered treatment of one's foes. These aspects of chivalry are what we seek to achieve within ourselves. Chivalry is not just a word, to some it is a way of life. Not only do we try to be chivalric on the field of battle and in the Society, but to extend that chivalry into the mundane world. I try to be just as chivalrous in the mainstream of society as within the SCA... --Eric J. Gardner
Conduct Around the Field (page 23) Brian R. Price
This is an excerpt from The Book of the Tournament which discusses various aspects of field presence, from saluting to calling blows, as well as a combatants general attitude on the field.
"The most important measure of a tourneyer is his conduct. Recall that the purpose of the tournament is to highlight both the prowess and the virtue of a knightly combatant. This is a governing prerequisite to the tournament of chivalry, reflected in the rules which state that 'combatants shall act in a knightly and chivalrous manner at all times.'
"There is an assumption that combatants will act in accord with what we believe to be worthy of a romantic 'knight', whatever their social background or station. Everyone must make a sincere effort to display virtue in connection with their tourneying, both on and off the field. Without this assumption, and the resulting norm of conduct, we have failed in our effort to strengthen virtue and have only a sport little different from boxing or football."
On Chivalry (page 29) John Stewart Mill
Excerpts from the famous essay, The Subjugation of Women written in 1869
"Editor [Brian R. Price]: Mill's basic argument is that many virtues, including military ones, are held in high esteem by men because of their desire to seek the favor of women; that this desire caused the melding of the virtues of war with the softening virtues of peace... It was a great advancement in a very unadvanced and lost age, he maintains, and one that retains a certain nobility even in the modern day (the essay was penned in 1869)."
"From the combination of the two kinds of moral influence exercised by women, arose the spirit of chivalry: the peculiarity which is, to aim at combining the standard of the warlike qualities with the cultivation of a totally different class of qualities with the cultivation of a totally different class of vitues--those of gentleness, generosity, and self-abnegation, towards the non-military and defenceless classes generally, and a special submission and worship directed towards women; who were distinguished from the other defenseless classes by the high rewards which they had it in their power voluntarily to bestow on those who endeaveored to earn their favour, instead of extorting subjugation. Though the practice of chivalry fell even more sadly short of its theoretic standard than practice generally falls below theory, it remains one of the most precious momuments of the moral history of our race; as a remarkable instance of a concerted and organized attempt by a most dis-organized and distracted society, to raise up and carry into practice a moral ideal greatly in advance of its social condition and institutions..."
The Battle of Poitiers (page 33) Sir John Froissart
Excerpt from Sir John Froissart's Chronicles, translated by Thomas Jones, Esq.
"The lord James Audley, with the assistance of his four squires, was always engaged in the heat of battle. He was severely wounded in the body, head and face; and so long as his strength and breath permitted him, he maintained the fight, and advanced forward: he continued to do so until he was covered with blood--then, towards the close of the engagement, his four squires, who were as his body-guard, took him and led him out of the engagement, very weak and wounded, towards a hedge that he might cool and examine his wounds, dress them, and sew up the most dangerous."
The Company of Saint George (page 50) Brian R. Price
"Attempting to recreate something of the secular knightly orders and tournament societies of the 14th an d15th centuries, the Company of Saint George is a modern tournament society which tries to foster attitudes of chivalry through the tournament experience, and to encourage an increased level of authenticity amongst tourneyers.
"We try to foster chivalric attitudes chiefly through the examples of individual members and through the example of the Company as a whole, while seeking to avoid the mantle of a self-interested subgroup. We are trying to bind our individual examples together into a more cohesive whole, in order to present a picture of greater clarity. We hope that this picture might inspire others to pursue the knightly attitudes with a comparable zeal, and that our interest in authenticity might bring others forward to challenge our example and drive the level of authenticity higher for all of us.
If you would like to find out more about the Company, visit the Comany of Saint George pages.
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