This is the closing extract from Geoffroi de Charny’s ‘Book of Chivalry’, essentially a detailed layman’s guide on concept of chivalry in medieval society. Charny has been regarded, even by his contemporaries, as a quintessential knight, exemplar in all that knighthood should represent – all this, despite a largely unsuccessful career. It finished abruptly in the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, facing the English in one of the most significant battles of the Hundred Years War. He had been given the responsibility of carrying the Oriflamme for the French King, the sacred banner that only the most honourable knight could protect, and “must not abandon for fear of death”. He did not abandon the Oriflamme, and the banner fell with him.
One fundamental requirement for carrying this banner was a love and fear of God. This was a central aspect to knighthood that both motivated and justified a knight’s actions. His main role was to protect and serve Crown, Country and Church. However, he was a soldier, prepared to go to war should the time call. How could the Church justify the act of killing in its name?
Naturally, the Church acted in its best interests. It was not so much involved with this relatively secular institution until Church property was threatened. As soon as the Islamic world threatened Christian ground, and war threatened peace, the Church had a more active influence. J. Flori emphasises the importance of both the aristocracy and the Church in the promotion of knighthood in medieval society, encouraging the population to take up its values. However, despite its intrinsic significance in the ideology of chivalry, including the oaths and ceremony associated with it, the Church had minimal involvement with it. But knight was only as chivalrous as he was god-fearing. The Church and aristocracy shaped the mould for a knight, and it served their interests conveniently.
The two knights on one horse is symbolic of the Order's adherence to poverty, suggesting - falsely - that the Knights Templar could not even afford one horse per knight. [Courtesy of http://www.secretsocietieswebsite.com/knights-templar-symbols/]
The Crusades were a blessing for the Christian Church, with the despotic, Islamic threat uniting the rest of Christendom against it. This war was seen as Holy, fighting for the cause would be handsomely rewarded in the afterlife, where death in battle was as glorious as survival. However, this attitude of fighting evil and heresy spread inwards, and though the Church never advocated Christian fighting Christian, R. Barber notes the slide towards defending the Church from not just foreign invaders, but also from the internal threat of criminals and robbers. Contradictions also arise in the idea of courtly love. A. Borst highlights the German knight Aleman Hartmann von Aue’s comments on the ‘true knight’, as the man that turns away from the temporary pleasures he receives in winning favour from a lady, and who instead looks towards eternal rewards when he dedicates his life to God. R. Boase mentions Gabriele Rossetti, a nineteenth century scholar, who agreed that courtly love was a pathway for religious dissent. It was also an opportunity for the aristocracy to pursue love or lust away from the watchful gaze of the Church, under the pretence of courtly tradition. It seems love was held at loggerheads with religion; however, little evidence suggests it was a particularly contentious issue.
As the success of the Crusades waned and the Holy Land was lost, so did the enthusiasm for the Knights Templar, and it gradually dissipated. Evidence from the surrounding literature suggests that religion played a smaller role in the ideology of knighthood, overtaken by the personality of the knight, and his love interest. While religion was still integral to all a chivalrous knight stood for, the Shield is suitably symbolic of the ideals the modern knight would maintain: “You or Death”, a choice between the love of his lady, or the anticipation of an honourable if gruelling death, depicted by the macabre figure ready to catch our knight. Death could mean martyrdom, highly encouraged by the early knightly orders, but the preferable choice is clearly the affection of the woman he is appealing to. It is appropriately representative of the secondary position religion held in the ideals of knighthood in the later medieval period. After all, there is more sex appeal in a damsel in distress than Jesus Christ.