Christian Chivalry: Reviving The Knightly Virtues

[Sir Edward]

I found this on another forum, and apparently that was found on a facebook page entitled "Christian Chivalry: Reviving The Knightly Virtues":


Knighthood is not something won on the battelfield and awarded the accolade of the broadsword’s dubbing the armored shoulder. It is not a matter of gold spurs and splendid trapping.

A knight may wear coveralls and ride an ancient coupe. Knighthood may be as modern as the evening’s newspaper, as prosaic as a paycheck handed to a wife by her husband, as far from battle as the teller’s window in an uptown bank, as unknown to history or poetry as a single rose placed at the bedside of a new mother.

Every Knight, whatever his age occupation, or costume, has certain easily distinguishable characteristics:

A knight is dedicated to the slaying of the dragon of evil.

A knight is an individualist fighting, not in the serried ranks of a disciplined army, but alone.

A knight hates injustice and battles the unjust, loves innocence and protects human needs.

A knight may be harsh with the strong; he is gentle with the weak.

A knight knows that he is on a level with those who are better armed and with those who need the arms he carries.

A knight’s honor is high; he would rather lose a battle than win it by trickery, dishonesty or lies.

Above all a knight respects and honors women for their virginity, their motherhood, their meaning to the human race, their purpose for life today and in the future.

A knight has high courage that never admits that a cause is lost.

A knight’s ideal is to do all thing well.

[Sir William]

All the things a knight should aspire to be...none of which we did not already know implicitly, but it is nicely worded, is it not?

[Sir Brian]

I like it for the most part. 

This line:

A knight’s honor is high; he would rather lose a battle than win it by trickery, dishonesty or lies.

Is my favorite.

[Sir Patrick]

A knight hates injustice and battles the unjust, loves innocence and protects human needs.

I'm partial to this one.

[Sir Wolf]

i like it 

[Sir Matthew]

It is well said indeed. Would that all followed half the ideals expressed there.

[SirNathanQ]

I also like it very much.
 "A knight is dedicated to the slaying of the dragon of evil." is my favorite. 
"A knight hates injustice and battles the unjust, loves innocence and protects human needs." Another very good one. 

"A knight’s honor is high; he would rather lose a battle than win it by trickery, dishonesty or lies." This one is tricky for me. While to win in an unchivalrous manner would be unacceptable to me, there is a fine like between cunning and trickery 

[Sir Edward]

"A knight’s honor is high; he would rather lose a battle than win it by trickery, dishonesty or lies." This one is tricky for me. While to win in an unchivalrous manner would be unacceptable to me, there is a fine like between cunning and trickery 

This is true. There was a fine line historically as well. The greatest honor was winning, assuming we're talking about war. It would be expected that you'd fight with whatever methods you have available to you, and do your best to win. In tournament, obviously cheating would be unchivalrous, but you'd also be expected to fight your best.

So yeah, fine line.

[Sir William]

Besides, some would argue that the use of longbowmen is cheating in the spirit of high chivalry.  LOL

Of course, it was the losing side that said so but there you have it. 

[SirNathanQ]

Yeah. I find stuff like that very interesting.
The greatest controversy was the crossbow in period.
Longbows and bows are one thing, armour does a pretty good job on those, and they took a while to use well. Crossbows are a whole other matter. Easier to use, and the powerful ones are pretty dangerous to the unrienforced maille of the period.