- [Voiceover] Think of chivalry,
and you might imagine knights in shining armor
and damsels in distress.
Chivalry originated in ideals
associated with a knight's code of conduct.
Over time it came to more broadly represent
a model for the behavior and moral principles
of the upper classes.
- [Melanie] We can think of chivalry as
a code of honor that really came to fruition
in the 11th and 12th centuries,
and many of the values that chivalry championed
are things that we still value today.
Loyalty, bravery, protection of the weak.
- [Voiceover] Chivalry wasn't just about gallant acts
meant to impress a princess.
It widely affected culture
from love relationships to hunting,
fashion to law.
This illustrated E is contained within a medieval law book.
You see two knights on horses facing one another.
They are about to settle a disagreement over a debt.
Hunting was a chance to improve oneself
physically and mentally,
not unlike the goals of chivalry.
- [Melanie] It's typical in these stories
that there is an aristocrat or a knight
who is in love with a woman of a higher social standing
that's already married.
It was thought that the man's love for this
higher standing woman
would have had a civilizing affect on him.
Code of honor provided a means for aristocrats
to kind of move up the social ladder.
If they knew these rules, if they knew how to behave
in a tournament or how to dress for a banquet,
then that was a way of displaying one's social standing.
But it's the nature of having rules like this
that certain people are left out of that club.
Because we have such romantic notions of what chivalry is,
we don't tend to think of the practical
consequences of chivalry during this period.