A Guide to the History of Physical Education

CHIVALRY.

Chivalry, or the body of law and custom relating to knighthood, prevailed almost universally throughout western Europe between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. Its usages were international, and in its ideal of war, religion and gallantry was summed up the whole duty of the gentleman of that age. The system can be traced in part to various customs of the ancient Germans, developed later under the influence of feudalism; but its final form was not received until the time of the Crusades (1096-1270), when the Church, in order to further her own designs, adopted and modified its practices. It was in large measure the inroads of Mohammedan warriors in Christian territory and their profanation of the Holy City which led to a substitution of military Christianity for the ascetic ideal cherished hitherto, and caused war with the infidels to be pronounced a religious duty and the battlefield a direct road to salvation. This union of chivalry with religion-the consecration of military prowess to the service of the Church-is typified in the three orders of soldier monks, the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights, which had their origin in the twelfth century. The hermit of early Catholic legends had thus been displaced as a popular hero by the king and the knight who figure in the romances of Arthur and of Charles the Great. The decline of chivalry as a military system began soon after the last crusade (1270), and in the fifteenth century became complete; for the introduction of gunpowder in warfare, with the increased importance attached to infantry and artillery, made the arms and armor of the knight of no avail and lessened the opportunities for personal distinction on the field. At the same time the growing centralization of power in the hands of the sovereign was rapidly destroying the independence of the nobility of lesser rank.