Gendered chivalry

Drawing on literary sources and documentary evidences in Old French, Anglo-Norman, Middle High German and Latin, as well as the material culture of the aristocracy, this chapter explores how far chivalric practices, values and modes of conduct were gendered in Western Europe between the twelfth and early fourteenth centuries. It adopts a broad definition of chivalry that encompasses the lifestyles and ideals of behaviour of those persons who belonged to the aristocracy. It examines the ways in which chivalric literature was interwoven with gendered ideas and stereotypes that reflected many of the tenets of elite society. The chapter argues, above all, that noblewomen had a central, if subordinate, role to play in the chivalric culture of the Middle Ages.