by Wine hoe October 11, 2019
An idea developed first by Queen Eleanor of England. Basically, it encouraged gentelmenly behavior between knights, and proposed a system of courting ladies to gain their hearts instead of dragging them home by their hair (sarcasm).
The White Knight very politely sliced his opponents head off and carried it back to his lady. He slept on the couch that night.
by The Kestrel January 06, 2005
by TDWPdrummer1 February 19, 2012
Etiquette of how knight should behave. It doesn't really have much in common with being nice to women, rather it dictates what rules there are at fight, etc., etc. If a woman (especially feminist) tells you chivalry is dead, throw your gloves on the ground in front of her and challenge her to duel to death with longswords and shields to show her what this word really means.
Lately, a woman walked to me and told me "chivalry is dead", so I challenged her to a sword duel. It seems chivalry is well enough, the woman's dead, though...
by Tomsow(12) January 09, 2020
From the old French word for knighthood, "chevalerie", the art of being a chevalier (a knight or horseman).
This was originally a system by which mounted warriors were to act, but while service to their people is touched upon the general goal of medieval knights was not saving many a damsel in distress, devotion to God, or enforcing justice; most knights defined chivalry as warfare and obtaining fame and fortune in the name of their king(s) and without any display of cowardice in battle. In a sense, it's hardly different from joining the military for the benefits that it offers, including the money that pours in from the business of war. Chivalry was basically a boy's culture: fighting other men, riding horses, power and profit and the ability to exploit that power.
The modern notion of chivalry as courtesy to women has tenuous links to chivalry as it was originally conceived. Perhaps courtly love (coined in 1883 to describe the worship of a married noblewoman by a lowly troubadour or knight and his vow to do great deeds in her honor) influenced this notion, but courtly love is, for all intents and purposes, adultery (very dangerous to both participants) and to what extent that courtly love was ever practiced remains unknown.
This was originally a system by which mounted warriors were to act, but while service to their people is touched upon the general goal of medieval knights was not saving many a damsel in distress, devotion to God, or enforcing justice; most knights defined chivalry as warfare and obtaining fame and fortune in the name of their king(s) and without any display of cowardice in battle. In a sense, it's hardly different from joining the military for the benefits that it offers, including the money that pours in from the business of war. Chivalry was basically a boy's culture: fighting other men, riding horses, power and profit and the ability to exploit that power.
The modern notion of chivalry as courtesy to women has tenuous links to chivalry as it was originally conceived. Perhaps courtly love (coined in 1883 to describe the worship of a married noblewoman by a lowly troubadour or knight and his vow to do great deeds in her honor) influenced this notion, but courtly love is, for all intents and purposes, adultery (very dangerous to both participants) and to what extent that courtly love was ever practiced remains unknown.
Chivalry, for the most part, was the opposite of the Geneva Convention; it was all about making a profit on war. The image of an honorable knight saving a fair maiden from a dragon is not much more than sheer fantasy, and most of it seems to stem from the Victorian era; the Victorians, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, looked at the Middle Ages through rose colored glasses as an idyllic place of pre-industrial innocence, projecting their own ideals of men and women onto the knight and the damsel in distress. A real knight in shining armor was actually more like a trained assassin and the local rapist rolled into one and the damsel in distress, a helpless shrinking violet, never really existed.
by Lorelili October 09, 2011
by Deadyll August 05, 2007
Son: Daddy, why do I have to let her go first? she's a creep to everybody.
Dad: Because, when somebody has a certain chemical called estrogen in their body, they automatically deserve more respect than you. It's called chauvinism, I mean chivalry.
Son: BULLCRAP!!
Dad: Because, when somebody has a certain chemical called estrogen in their body, they automatically deserve more respect than you. It's called chauvinism, I mean chivalry.
Son: BULLCRAP!!
by smashdummies August 20, 2012