English Chivalry in the Hundred Years War

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This paper discusses chivalry displayed by Englishmen during the first half of the

Hundred Years’ War as described in Jean Froissart’s

The Chronicles of Froissart

.  Three

instances of chivalry or nobleness are mentioned here, and it is proved that the War was

not fought only in the name of national identity.  Chivalrous acts were preferred over acts

to secure national identity alone.  

 

 

English Chivalry in the Hundred Years’ War

 

The

 

Chronicles of Froissart

 cover the years 1322 until 1400, describing

how the first half of the Hundred Years’ War were initiated and how they progressed.  

For centuries,

The Chronicles

 have been recognized as the most important expression of

the chivalric revival of fourteenth century England and France.  Indeed, Froissart the

wanderer did not set out with

The Chronicles

 to be partial to anyone.  He disliked the

Germans as unchivalrous, but was a friend to both the English and the French.  Chivalry

or nobleness was his focus, and this quality concerns friend as well as foe.  Whenever and

wherever a man treated a foe as a friendly stranger, Froissart was quick to make a record

of it for future generations.  He began the

Chronicles

 with remembrance of God and

gratitude toward Him for sending him over to the courts and palaces of kings.  He added

that all of the nobles, kings, dukes, counts, barons and knights of all nations, received him

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graciously, paid attention to him, and proved useful to him.  It was this welcome that he

had received from the nobles of all nations that led him to focus his attention on chivalry

regardless of national origin.  Froissart continued:  

 

         Wherever I went I enquired of old knights and squires who had shared in deeds of  


 

   

    arms, and could speak with authority concerning them, and also spoke with heralds in  

    order to verify and corroborate all that was told me.  In this ...

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