'Authentic' Knight Identities and 'Ideal' Depictions of Chivalry between c.1350- c.1410 in France

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Literature - Medieval Literature, grade: 1st, University of Chester, course: MA History, language: English, abstract: Using fictional and 'factual' literature, the dissertation attempts to understand the multiplicity of masculinity and individual knightly motivations caused by competing factual and fictional depictions of chivalry. Overall, histories of chivalry and masculinity between c 1350-c 1410 in France have been treated singularly. The ideal qualities of chivalry have been treated as the reality for all-knights, when in fact chivalric ideologies were unique to individuals and overlapped in both factual and fictional literature of the period. Chivalry in the Middle Ages has often been defined as 'the religious and moral system of behavior that the perfect knight was expected to follow'. However, singular definitions of chivalry should be disregarded because displays of medieval masculinity and chivalry were a complicated mixture of social conditions, institutional influence, and individual motivation.