What was NOT called

1
What was NOT called courtly love in the Middle
Ages

• But properly called fin amor

2
The term courtly love is a 19th century
invention.

• Was possibly coined by Gaston Paris, a
  translation from Provençal cortez amors
• Much of the myth and literary viewpoints of
  courtly love were developed and elaborated on in
  the 19th and early 20th centuries
• At this distance, its harder to be sure what the
  Middle Ages thought of the subject

3
Confluence of Forces

• Introduction of stirrup in 8th/9th centuries led
  to class of warriors mounted on
  horsebackchevaliers
• Set of behavioral expectations evolved for this
  class of warriors--chivalry

4
Cultural Imperatives

• Social class distinctionsemerging concepts of
  feudalism
• Churchs need to control civilian power
  structures
• Late 10th c. onwardsaffective piety and worship
  of Virgin Mary as intercessor
• PoliticsCrusades and the disruption caused by
  travel and family separation
• Economicsneed for major noble families to move
  and divide households and circulate from one
  residence to another

5
Fin amor is a code of behavioral expectations
that govern a particular class of people in a
particular time frame

• It is a codified set of historical practices that
  governed and determined complex social,
  political, and class interactions.

6
Continental Influences

• 11th century troubadours and trouvéres
• Southern and central Franceparticularly around
  the Angevin courtAndreas Capellanus (going back
  to Ovid)
• Spread across Europe through vehicle of
  Crusadesat least some Arabic influencereally
  start to see it after 1st Crusade (1099 C.E.)

7
Those pesky Angevins
8
As codified by G. Paris, courtly love in a
literary sense is

• An idealizing love based on mans sexual
  attraction to woman
• Lover accepts beloveds independence
• Lover attempts to win beloveds admiration by
  accomplishing noble deeds, living virtuously, and
  thus conveying renown to the ladycalls her
  midons (term of feudal vassalage)
• Sexual satisfaction not always expected

9
(No Transcript)
10
Quickly popularized

• C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (1936)
• Talked about the religion of love
• Assumed that actual adultery was part of the
  system
• Also assumed that humility and courtesy were
  parts of the system
• Seen in a lot of later scholarship as a truth
  of the Middle Ages

11
The actual circumstancesare harder to pin down

• Hard to accept that nobility would patronize a
  system that encouraged adultery and infidelity
  (too dangerous to inheritance rights)
• Church seems to have endorsed at least some of it
  as building moral virtue
• Best to think of it as a highly-codified
  role-playing game

12
The Rules

• Largely those established in The Art of Courtly
  Lovecomplete with RPG scenarios
• Govern behavior among people who are NOT married
• Incorporate emerging cultural religious
  expectations for behavior of chivalric class
• Probably culminate in establishment of Order of
  the Garter (1344or maybe 1348) by Edward III
• By Malorys time, an archaic concept but still
  valuedpractices mostly gone but attitudes
  remained.

13
(No Transcript)