Love not war
JOHN JULIUS NORWICH
The Knight and Chivalry Richard Barber (Longmans 75s)
It was in AD 778 that Roland's horn rang through Roncesvalles; barely two months ago that I found myself carrying a knight's banner through St Paul's Cathedral during the annual service of the Order of St
Michael and St George. Thus, in one form or another, the concept of chivalry has been in existence for well over a thousand years; even today, it is not quite dead. In this valuable book Mr Barber has set himself the task of tracing its history from the beginning—a venture every bit as daunting as any undertaken by his heroes—and has acquitted himself with honour. His place at the Round Table is now assured.
It has been won by a combination of scholarship with quite exemplary thorough- ness. The forest through which he has passed—never more romantically portrayed than in the glorious Altdorfer picture on the book's jacket—is dark and often treach- erous, but he has not left a corner unex- plored. Starting with an essay on the origins and institution of knighthood, he moves on to a meticulous survey of chivalric literature in its two strangely discordant manifestations—on the one hand the rollick- ing chansons de geste, on the other the sensitive, wistful lyrics of the Minneslinger and the troubadours. For me this section was slightly clouded by the absence of any quotations in the original; though Mr Barber may be right in his tacit assumption that most of us would be baffled by old Provençal or the Middle High German of Walther von der Vogelweide, surely he ought to allow us a try. Nevertheless, he has plenty of perceptive things to say: 'That man could become noble through love is the essential discovery of the troubadours; personality and love are connected for the first time ... Troubadour poetry is not about women, their beauty or charms; it is about the lover and his longings.'
There follow two chapters on the tour- nament, considered first as a sport and then as a political weapon, in which functioh it proved throughout the Middle Ages a use- ful substitute for baronial warfare. Here again Mr Barber has much intriguing information to impart. I was enchanted to read of 'the faintly fantastical figure' of Ulrich von Lichtenstein, who in 1227 rode through Italy, Austria and Bohemia chal- lenging all corners, occasionally and inap- propriately dressed as Frau Venus 'in honour of his lady'; my heart went out to the organ- isers of the tournament at St Omer in 1446, 'when after elaborate preparations only one middle-aged knight from Germany ap- peared'; but I wish we could have been told more about the German Turnier mit Kipper to which we have but a single, tantalising reference on page 182.
The more serious aspects of knighthood are discussed in the section on 'Chivalry and Religion', which is largely devoted to a dis- cussion of the great Military Orders. Mr Barber is particularly good on the Templars and their downfall, and also gives us a useful chapter about the Teutonic Knights—on whom, so far as I know, not a single book exists in English. This remarkable body of men, originally founded in 1191 as a charit- able institution in Palestine, soon found itself directing its considerable energies to the forcible elimination of paganism in north- eastern Europe; by the early fourteenth cen- tury its influence was paramount throughout the Baltic territories from Danzig to the Gulf of Finland.
In its main object, however, it was less successful; Christianity, unlike Islam, has never found the sword an effective means of propagation and after nearly a hundred years of Teutonic hammering the Lithuan- ians remained as cheerfully pagan as ever— until 1386, when their Grand Duke married the Queen of Poland and the national religion changed overnight. It was a shock from which the Order never recovered.
'Make Love, Not War'—the moral should have been plain enough; but its time was not yet come. The essence of the chivalric ideal lay in the desirability of making both, its interest in the contradiction between them. Still, by the close of the fourteenth centun the world was rapidly moving out of the Middle Ages; neither concept would ever be the same again. Love as the Troubadour, knew it was already dead, while the medi• aeval knight in armour had been dealt his death-blow at Crecy and was thenceforth a distinct liability on the battlefield. In the tilt-yard, to be sure, he could go on enjoying himself for quite a while longer—regular jousts were held in England until 1621. But by then `chivalry had been kept alive in too artificial a world for too long . . . The ideals of knighthood had no place in royal court, where Castiglione and Machiavelli were ad- mired, and where gentlemen and diplomat, took precedence over mere rude soldiers .. . The taste for the spectacular abates; and only at the end of the century does it re- appear at Versailles.'
Mr Barber, it must be admitted, can conic up with some pretty frightening generalisa- tions. 'It was only with the advent of the Goths that cavalry began to count.' I should like to be present in some future life when he tries that one on Alexander the Great. There are also a few slips—misnumbering of Crusades, Leo ix instead of Leo iv—and at least one inaccuracy. Charles of Orleans did not 'spend his twenty-five-year captivity in England 'languishing in the Tower', but as a guest in a series of rather agreeable country houses—among them that of the Earl of Suffolk, who was married to Chaucer's grand- daughter.
But such uncourtly carping in no wa) diminishes the value of this book. The illus- trations are admirably chosen—though 1 wish they were not huddled together in those indigestible wodges—the maps, index and in particular the bibliographies are all that could be desired. Together they combine to make a worthy memorial to that magnificent. monstrous pageant of innocents who, as Auden once put it,
. turned aside to be absurdly brave, And met the ogre and were turned to stone.
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