lördag 3 februari 2018

Knights and Chivalry





2manyIce
Little side note here: at around 4:59 we see a picture of the pope, a king and a peasant holding texts in german. They read: pope: "By my teachings I turned many people to god." king: "By my power I turned many people and lands to my posession." peasant:"Ha, Ha! (he is actaully laughing at the pope and the king!) If god and I would do nothing both of you would have nothing to eat."
Khorps
I used to think the church was useless and was only interfered with. but in-fact it was alot more progressive
Raymond Nolan Scott
The French 13th Century Lancelot-Grail aka The Vulgate expanded on the myth of Sir Lancelot of the Lake and his adulterous love affair with Queen Guinevere. It was a story of courtly love and earthly chivalry.   Galahaut initiated a love pact between Lancelot and Guinevere due to his pity for Lancelot's sorrow about his being in love with the queen.  Lancelot's foster mother, The Lady of the Lake encouraged Queen Guinevere to consummate her love with Lancelot, sending her a shield that depicted them with a crack that separate them.  The crack disappeared after they made love.   Lady of the Lake also gave further advice to Guinevere about loving Lancelot after she cured Lancelot's madness which happened after he was captured and put in prison.  She even told Guinevere that she loves her for Lancelot's sake.

Lancelot wasn't just a knight of King Arthur's court.   He was a foreigner in King Arthur's land.  He was a prince from Gaul.  He was the son of King Ban and Queen Elaine of Benoic.  King Arthur failed to come to the aid of King Ban of Benoic when King Claudas was making war on King Ban who died after losing his kingdom.   The Lady of the Lake stole Lancelot  from his mother, Queen Elaine and raised him as her own son.  She took him to King Arthur to be knighted and told him the truth about not being his mother.  Lancelot didn't find out about his name and parentage until the capture of Dolorous Guard.    

 If Lancelot sided with Galahaut in the war against King Arthur,  King Arthur wouldn't have a kingdom.  Lancelot's extraordinary prowess of arms won over Galahaut who was a conqueror of many kingdoms. Lancelot got Galahaut to surrender to King Arthur even though he was at the point of victory.  All of Lancelot's deeds that led to his being known as the greatest knight in the world were for Guinevere, and he confessed that to her.   When Galahaut requested Guinevere to return Lancelot's love, she readily accepted and she sealed the love pact with a kiss.  Guinevere told Lancelot that she is his because he has done so much and that it gave her great joy.  

Because of the conflict between the ascetic mysticism of the Quest of the Holy Grail and the glorification of Lancelot,earthly chivalry, and courtly love, The Vulgate was reworked by eliminating much of the Vulgate Lancelot material and attributing Arthur's downfall not to Lancelot's love for the queen but to the results of Arthur's early, unwitting sin of incest with his halfsister, Morgause that led to Mordred. This was known as the Post-Vulgate which was also written in the 13th Century.

I cannot help wonder that Vulgate's Lancelot Proper and the Quest of the Holy Grail were written by totally different people.  The former emphasized courtly love and the latter concentrated on the religious in such a great way that it seems like Christian monks wrote it.  Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur seems to be based on the Post-Vulgate with a little bit of Lancelot Proper.
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Raymond Nolan Scott
The following that Guinevere said to Lancelot at the beginning of her 2 year stay in Sorelois with Lancelot and Galehaut during her estrangement from Arthur says it all to me about  the relationship and love between Lancelot and Guinevere.

page 275 of Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation
Volume II edited by NorrIs J. Lacy:

She said, "My dear friend, this where things stand, as you see: I am separated from my husband the king as a result of my misdeed-yes, I acknowledge it-not that I am not his lawful wife and just as crowned and anointed as he, and daughter of King Leodegran of Carmelide as well, but I have been hurt by the sin of going to bed with a man other than my husband."
"Still, there is no upstanding lady in the world who would not feel impelled to sacrifice something to make an upstanding knight like you happy. Too bad Our Lord pays no heed to our courtly ways, and a person whom the world sees as good is wicked to God. But now I have to beg a favor of you, because I have reached a point where I have to watch myself more closely than ever before. I ask you, then in the name of your great love for me, to seek no more of me from now on than a kiss or an embrace, if you like, unless at my invitation. This much of me, though, you will have as long as I stay here; and when I find the time and place are right and you are willing, I will gladly let you have the rest."
   "But my will right now is that you be patient for awhile. You must not doubt that I am yours forever;you have deserved it, and my heart, besides, would never let me give you up. Remember, when my lord the king asked that I urge you to remain in his household, I said more to him than I have said just now, for I told him I preferred being with you to being with him."

"My lady," said Lancelot, "nothing you wish can be a burden to me. I am wholly subject to your will, even if it means no less than happiness; and I'll endure whatever you like, because my fulfillment can only come through you."


As a person that has Neo-pagan,New Age, New Thought,and Unitarian Universalist beliefs and see things in gray, I view Lancelot and Guinevere's love for each other as something that is not necessarily good nor bad. I think it's relative. 
I definitely don't view this couple as the type that just want to have sex. I view them as having romantic feelings for each other. 
The contrast between courtly love and traditional religious views is definitely acknowledged by Guinevere. 
Lancelot comes off as somebody that views Guinevere as more than object of carnal desire.  He seems to be entirely devoted to her.
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joseph crosby mecham
Raymond Nolan Scott ,,,Astounding that you think these fantasy narratives are relevant to a video on theological history.
Raymond Nolan Scott
The video is about Knights and Chivalry.
The beginning, there was talking about Arthurian Legend. He mentioned stuff about Lancelot and Guinevere as well as the Holy Grail.

Everything that I mentioned was relevant to the video.

Therefore, it's not astounding that I thought these fantasy narratives are relevant to a video on theological history.
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Guess again wrong It's stomedy
thank and fiction are linked life and art imitate one another.
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Garðar Breki
This is very interesting good job.
KarlHeinzofWpg
It's funny to note how some of these themes are reflected, in amusing and often beautiful ways, by popular novels. While listening to your lecture I couldn't help comparing what you had to say with The Once and Future King and The Mists of Avalon. haha
Gawaine Ross
The biographies of Eleanor of Aquitaine that I've read claim that she formulated the rules of courtly chivalry. Other historians claim that the Church detested the code because it made women adorable, a direct threat to Christ.
Marty Woldt
How, exactly, did the Christian church foster and promote chivalry?  Which pope or what edict was handed down which would have put a stop to all that violence?  It is my understanding that chivalry was promoted by the court of Aquitaine under the rule of Eleanor, the separated wife of Henry II.  It seems to me that the main way the Christian church tried to control all the fighting in the Middle Ages was by calling for the crusades.  Taking up the Byzantine emperor's request, for help against the Muslim attacks, was a convenient way to get rid of all those ultra violent warriors in the West.
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Marty Woldt
It seems I commented before watching your video long enough to hear about the Council of Charroux.  However, I have not read much about it having any effect upon the blood-thirsty hordes existing at that time in the West.  That would have been almost equivalent to banning the gladiator fights in Rome, or more to the point, eliminating the football matches which occur now.  I hate to knock the Catholic Church, but I think this macho warrior culture stemmed from its misogynistic rules and regulations as promulgated by the old testament and confirmed by the council of Nicaea.
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probro9898
Camelot was a silly place.
roflmows
great stuff. love these vids. it's just like being back at university....without having to loan $40,000 for the privilege of learning :)
ResistCom
The chevauchée of that era went against the ideals of chivalry. It could be said that the church had attempted to create beta male characteristics in the knights and nobility. All of this ended at Agincourt.
dlwatib
It's a misnomer to think of a coat of arms as belonging to a family. It was always assigned to an individual by the king's herald. They were a means of personal identification. The herald had certain conventions he followed that used the same symbols on a son's shield as his father's, but both were distinctive because no two individuals were allowed to bear the same arms at the same time. They came to be associated in Victorian times with the families that descended from those individuals and lands they owned and the buildings and they built or sponsored and thus decorated in stone and stained glass with their arms. The son might be allowed to inherit his father's arms on his death. If a man married a titled woman he could quarter his arms with hers, and over several generations this could result in a great checkerboard of landholdings and titles represented on a single shield.

Your point is still valid that the aristocracy sought to restrict the privileges of knighthood to its own bloodlines through intermarriage and other favors to their own class. By feudal times all occupations had become more or less inherited, so it's no surprise that the occupation of fighting had become hereditary as well.
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Rich Mollica
I appreciate these videos a great deal. I give you credit for attempting to be gracious with those skeptical of anything coming from a balanced perspective. You don't hesitate to show the warts or the virtues of church history. Great work much needed.
Taylor Walsh
The story of John Hawkwood, English knight buried in Florence. Well worth reading. He curbed and advanced fighting when he was paid.
LibertyJava
No the women will not send you on noble quests.
Jaunyus
Incredible, informative...Ryan Reeves like))
kate dev
cool how (pretty much) the same thing happening in Japan- at the same time period
Duwayne Foreman
Thank you, very insightful.
Holden
The knight class gets fixed and the option of meritocratic upward mobility gets destroyed.
Requiem of the American dream: https://youtu.be/CyFSvnLnCZ0?t=1m28s
ThothHeart Maat
isn't it just possible that all women are just like that and they are the ones who drove men into classically oppressive roles of caring for them? I mean it takes a special kind of stupid to say that hundreds of years of having everything provided to you by working men is oppression.. yes, you worked tirelessly to get for me everything I asked now watch as I rip you to shreds and call you a piece of shit.. Thanks for all the favors and doing everything I asked.. so oppressive.. yes it's oppressive when someone volunteers to be your slave.. that must be the most difficult existence of all time, having everything handed to you by one or more hard working men.. or maybe when you have hundreds of years of never having to do anything, it feels like oppression when you actually have to do something.. even if you are the one demanding to be given roles of responsibility. oh you just wanted the perks and none of the responsibility.. gotcha.. just want to be the leader but not have to lead or think or make decisions.. you want all of that done for you but you want to be given the respect as if you were the almighty leader.. 
whit1981
There is something sad about the state of male affairs these days as compared to the knights of 1000-1300. Obviously, most of us would've been peasants and that sounds fairly miserable but these men sound legitimately hard core to joust and war. That's pretty impressive though the outcomes were often horrific. The Church shines the love of Chrst into the hearts of men and redirects their efforts for the betterment of all. I'm proud, everyday, to be Catholic. The Saints show us how to live.
Horus Lupercal Aurelian
I believe a lot of the info in these vids. That's saying a lot!!
Bakura98
Was the awsome guy you, Ryan
kalamaron i
I heard that the fork was first introduced in court in an effort by the ladies of the court to pacify their husbands. Perhaps this applies more to lords.
Culain ruled by Venus
Excellent video, and a perfect illustration of how the word "romantic" emerges from "Rome".
Teutoniphobic Zombi3
good lecture. (subbed)
I thought the word chivalry was a kind of play on the french word for horseman. (cheval= horse. chevalier=horseman/knight.) chivalry= perhaps the conduct/practice(s) of said horseman like archery is to the archer. its all speculation but as mentioned in your lecture the term derives from the franks (Charlemagne era), the "prerequisite" french. my question is, could this be a great possibility? (linguistically)
1969cmp
Cool lecture ☺
Depipro
To me as a linguist specialized in Russian, calling last names and patronimics synonyms sounds off. In Russian of course it's standard to have a first name, a patronimic and a last name. But this isn't limited to Russia: it used to also be the case in Dutch. For instance, the Admiral who smashed the chains at Chatham to steal the English flagship was named Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter. His father's first name was Adriaen. De Ruyter was given to the Admiral as a token of honour, but it then became the family name after him; not everyone had a last name in the 17th century. But those who did, also had patronimics, and the two were different things.

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