page_title: Gentry
section_title: Chivalry
hierarchical_section_title: Gentry / Values and traditions / Chivalry
context_page_description: Gentry is a largely historical term for the European social class of people who were "well-born, genteel and well-bred". In its widest sense, it refers to people of good social position, from families of long descent, and connected to landed estates or the upper levels of the clergy. The gentry largely consisted of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate; some were gentleman farmers.
  The British social class of landed gentry was distinct from, and socially below, the country's peerage, although in fact some of them were wealthier than some peers, and many were close relatives. The gentry were typically armigerous, but, owing to the primogeniture rules of the peerage of England, most gentry did not have titles of nobility. In contrast, in Continental Europe where nobility and titles were inherited by a family, a greater proportion of the population held titles. This was the case with the French and Polish landed gentry.
  There were analogous traditional social elite strata based in cities.
context_section_description: Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood. It is usually associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honour and courtly love.
  Christianity had a modifying influence on the virtues of chivalry, with limits placed on knights to protect and honour the weaker members of society and maintain peace. The church became more tolerant of war in the defence of faith, espousing theories of the just war. In the 11th century, the concept of a "knight of Christ" (miles Christi) gained currency in France, Spain and Italy. These concepts of "religious chivalry" were further elaborated in the era of the Crusades.
  In the later Middle Ages, wealthy merchants strove to adopt chivalric attitudes. This was a democratisation of chivalry, leading to a new genre called the courtesy book, which were guides to the behaviour of "gentlemen".
  When examining medieval literature, chivalry can be classified into three basic but overlapping areas:
  Duties to countrymen and fellow Christians
  Duties to God
  Duties to women
  These three areas obviously overlap quite frequently in chivalry and are often indistinguishable. Another classification of chivalry divides it into warrior, religious and courtly love strands. One particular similarity between all three of these categories is honour. Honour is the foundational and guiding principle of chivalry. Thus, for the knight, honour would be one of the guides of action.
caption: A knight being armed.
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