It is no coincidence that the previous part of the book ended with verses - an ingenuous and not very good "test of the pen" by Richard the Lionheart. None of them, but still became the royal lines of a small piece of literature of their time.

And the knightly ages are not only the crusades, the order of the Knights Templar with its amazing secrets, the incessant competition of offensive and defensive weapons, the erection of impregnable castles, the puzzling science of heraldry and strict adherence to the knightly code. Like any other time, they left their own literary works - both poetic and prosaic. As in any other time, these works influenced the minds and hearts of those people for whom they were written, but also influenced the literature of the following centuries.

Slightly less famous are Jaufre Ruedel, Bertrand de Born, Guillaume de Berguedan, En Blacatz, Guy de Cavallon. And how many simple knights were among the troubadours, famous for their skillful poetry! Name after name can be written out - Peyre de Maensac, Raymond de Miraval, Berengière de Palazole, Guillaume de Saint-Leider, Guillaume de Montagnagol, Huc de Lobière, Pons de Bruyelle, Rollent de Gassin, Savaric de Malleon ...

Learned from infancy to wield weapons, accustomed to the blood and brutality of battles, they felt in themselves at the same time a wonderful poetic gift. Their poems about the vicissitudes of love, about serving ladies, often windy and capricious, quickly became common property - they were sung in a chant, to the accompaniment of some simple musical instrument, by professional singers, who at that time were called jugglers, moving from castle to castle , from city to city.

By the way, singing food for the sake of other people's songs, many of the jugglers composed their own, and thus themselves became troubadours.

And you can also find among these medieval poets many people about whom history has left such, for example, evidence:

“The monk of Montaudon was born in an Auverne nobleman from a castle called Vic, which is near Orlak, and was ordained a monk at the Abbey of Orlak. While still in the monastery, he began to compose poetry and syvents to the wickedness of the day, and the knights and lords of the surrounding area, taking him from the monastery, began to show him all kinds of honors, giving him everything, whatever he liked and what he did not ask ... "

“Bernart of Ventandoorn was from Limousine, from Castle Ventandoorn. He was a simple family, descended from a servant man and a baker ... However, no matter whose son he was, God gave him a beautiful and pleasant appearance, and a noble heart, from which all nobility comes, and gave him intelligence, intelligence, knowledge and sweet talk, and he also mastered the refined troubadour art of putting beautiful words into a cheerful melody ... "

“Folkett of Marseilles was the son of a certain Genoese merchant named Messer Alfonso, who, when he died, left Folkett a very rich man. But he valued valor and glory more and began to serve among worthy lords and valiant men, converging with them and giving them to please them. In troubadour art he was very skillful and good-looking ... "

It is not difficult to understand: as in all times, in the era of chivalry, the poetic gift could condescend to a person from any class. And as in all times, the living word of the poet-troubadour meant a lot to society, and attracted many people to the author himself.

By the way, why, in fact, was a poet called a troubadour in chivalrous times? This word is still heard, but its original meaning has long been forgotten. Meanwhile, in Provençal it means roughly - "to find, invent, compose poetry." But knightly poetry was born and flourished in Provence of the XI-XIII centuries. Here, in the south of France, a special refined culture developed, the cult of the Beautiful Lady was born, one of the most attractive manifestations of chivalry.

In the north of France, poets were called trouvers, and this can be literally translated in about the same way.

But, of course, not only refined lyrics make up the literature of chivalrous times. And not only Provence and northern France outlined its borders. Remarkable works were created at the same time as troubadours and trouvers, both before and after. They were created everywhere - in other counties and duchies of France, in Spain, in Germany.

In early times, distinguished by harsh simplicity and more straightforward ideals, a huge number of epic poems were composed about battles, knightly loyalty to the lord, given his word. Of course, not all of them have come down to us, because poems were transmitted orally, like our Russian epics, and not all of them were written down in later times.

However, on the basis of just such oral creativity of nameless authors, constantly modifying, complementing each other or, conversely, omitting something in the course of each new subsequent retelling, such masterpieces as the "Song of Roland" in France, "Song of Nibelungen "in Germany," Song of my Side "in Spain.

The plots of the earliest works of this kind were unpretentious. Usually, it was based on some real event, gradually overgrowing with facts relating to other times, to other heroes, and finally taking on completely fantastic outlines.

The volumes of these naive heroic poems vary - from 1,000 to 20,000 lines. Initially, they kept only on the rhythm, but gradually, over the decades, subsequent performers, who, of course, should be called co-authors, tried to look for rhyme lines. And a poem once invented by someone was spread throughout the duchies and counties farther and farther, translated into other languages, becoming more and more unrecognizable.

The performance of this or that work of this kind was an event for a medieval city or castle. Stopping in the main city square, the juggler attracted attention, gathered around him at first a small but still arriving circle of listeners. When there were enough of them - however, they continued to approach afterwards - he with an energetic exclamation called everyone to silence and then began to sing in a recitative, accompanying himself on a small harp or viola.

Usually the juggler did not have time to finish the entire poem until nightfall, and therefore the performance continued the next day. If the piece was very large, sometimes it would last for a whole week. And while it lasted, the juggler was already receiving an invitation to a neighboring city, or even some noble lord sent pages from his castle ...

This is exactly how many centuries ago sounded throughout Western Europe and the most famous work of this genre - "Song of Roland". And not only in cities and castles for entertainment - it was sung before battles to inspire warriors. For example, there is evidence that the "Song" was performed in the camp of the Norman knights at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, after which William the Conqueror became king of England, and even the name of the singer was kept by history - Tyfier.

The reason for the creation of "The Song of Roland" was a real historical event and its hero is a real person, about whom, however, only one line in the testimony of the contemporary chronicler Einhard has survived: “In this battle, Eggihard were killed along with many others, the royal steward, Anselm, count palatine, and Hruodland, chief of the Breton mark. "

This Hruodland, about whom we really do not know anything, except that he was the governor of Charlemagne in Brittany, the "mark", as parts of the empire were called, and became the hero of the poem, a model of knightly valor, honor and fortitude.

The plot of "Song of Roland is so famous that everyone probably knows about the battle in the gorge, that the valiant knight did not want to blow the horn, calling for help the main forces of Charles's army, and did it, already dying. But here's how it was transformed. It is curious to trace the real event in a poetic work, how the views of later times were superimposed on it.

In 778, Charlemagne was called to Spain by one of the Muslim rulers fighting against the Caliph of Cordoba. As a reward for his help, he promised to give the city of Zaragoza to the Franks, but the ruler of Zaragoza did not want to open its gates to Christians. Charles and his army had to leave Spain. However, when crossing the Pyrenees passes, the Basques, avenging Charles for the destruction of the city of Pampeluna, killed his rearguard.

“On his return,” says the chronicler, “Charles had to suffer from Basque treachery. For, when he was moving in an extended formation, as required by the conditions of the terrain and gorges, the Basque people, setting up an ambush at the very top of the mountain (these places are very favorable for ambushes due to the dense forests there), attacked from above, dropping the baggage train into the valley. and those who, going in the rearguard, guarded the front. And, starting a battle with them, they killed every one, and they themselves, having plundered the baggage train, with great speed fled in all directions under the cover of the already come night. In this matter, the Basque people were helped by the lightness of their weapons and the location of the area where this happened; on the contrary, the severity of the weapons and the inconvenience of the terrain made the Franks unequal to the Basque people in everything ...

In such an essentially ordinary skirmish, "Hruodland, Chief of the Breton Mark" died.

However, everything became an event in those simple and naive times; Moreover, according to the testimony of contemporaries, Charlemagne himself was very upset by what happened. Apparently, the very first oral poetic version of the incident appeared in hot pursuit. It is impossible only to say why Hruodland was chosen as the main character - after all, other notable people died in this skirmish. But be that as it may, already in the oldest surviving manuscript copy of the Song of Roland, dating from the 12th century, the clash with the Basques was transformed beyond recognition ...

The rearguard of the French army, led by the nephew and favorite of King Carl Roland, heroically perishes in the name of "sweet France" and Christianity, fighting the myriad hordes of Muslim Moors. The main culprit of the death of the rearguard was the traitor Ganelon, who out of hatred for the valiant knight conspired with the king of Saragossa Marsil. For the death of Roland, his friend the knight Olivier and all twelve French peers, Karl brutally avenges himself, defeating a huge army gathered from all over the Muslim world.

Many times the unpretentious, apparently, at first story has been transformed in countless oral retellings. And much has changed during this time in the very life of Western Europe. The motives of Charlemagne's campaign in Spain were forgotten, but the crusades began with incredible battles between Christians and "infidels". The poetic fantasy of the performers added new characters and additional details to the versions of the "Song". And life itself made the work more and more epic and significant.

It found a response in souls, because it was necessary, consonant. His ideals were simple and clear: knightly valor and fortitude, loyalty to the lord, irreconcilable war with the "infidels" ...

The Song of Roland has been extremely popular in Europe for several centuries. Its variants are known in fifteen languages. In later times, prose texts appeared, and so complicated that they even described Roland's childhood, his first love - episodes that had nothing to do with the battle.

In Spain, the plot has completely changed - in one of the later versions, not Roland, but Karl himself is defeated. In Denmark, the first role is played by the knight Ogier-Dane, one of the minor heroes in the French version ...

In a word, great literary works have a great destiny. And in its classical form, "The Song of Roland" entered the history of literature, as a heroic warrior epic with the ideals of valor, friendship and fortitude, which should never become outdated.

But many other heroic works that were created in France at the same time as the great Song, left a noticeable mark in literature.

For example, "The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne", where, by the way, the same heroes act - Roland himself, and his friend the valiant knight Olivier, and Ogier the Dane. Here Charlemagne, together with his entourage, set off to measure strength with the Greek emperor Gugogon. The holy relics received during the pilgrimage to Jerusalem help the French to perform all their deeds.

A large epic cycle has come down to us, united by one main character - Guillaume of Orange.

In the oldest of these poems, the influence of the "Song of Roland" is clearly felt, it is even called "The Song of Guillaume". Here the action is based on the fact that the nephew of the hero, the young knight Vivienne, vowed never to retreat before the Saracens. In a terrible battle with the hordes of the Cordoba king Derame who landed in France, he stubbornly refuses to turn to his uncle for help and only before his death sends his cousin to him.

Guillaume himself is a daring warrior with a rather unbridled disposition, hot, bold, direct. He vowed to avenge his nephew, but twice his troops were defeated. Then, on the advice of a faithful and intelligent wife, a baptized Saracen, he demands a new army from King Louis, achieves his goal, not without royal objections, and cruelly deals with the Moors.

Generally speaking, Guillaume has to show his temper more than once, sometimes he even acts against the will of the king, but in the interests of the kingdom. In the poem "The Crowning of Louis" the hero had to literally force Charlemagne to crown his heir, and he immediately killed the traitor Anselin with his fist.

In two other poems - "The Nimes Cart" and "The Taking of Orange" - Guillaume, bypassed in the distribution of lands, requires from King Louis only Nimes and Orange, the cities that were in the power of the Saracens at that time, and seizes them for himself, driving out "infidels".

Having grown old and having gone to a monastery, as the poem "Monasticism of Guillaume" tells about, the warrior retained all his prowess and violent temper. He frightens the monks with his obstinacy, single-handedly beats up a whole gang of robbers. And then, when Paris is besieged by the Saracens, Guillaume leaves the monastery and again goes to save the ill-fated King Louis and the kingdom.

He has a cycle of poems about Guillaume of Orange, no less than two dozen. But, of course, not all of those composed have ever reached our days ...

Known in the French epic and poems about Gerard Roussillon and Ogier-Dane. These proud vassal knights are not afraid to compete and quarrel with the kings themselves. The enmity, however, ends in reconciliation. One of the collisions directly resembles our famous epic about Ilya Muromets, who was held in captivity by Prince Vladimir, but was forced to release at that dramatic moment when Kiev was besieged by enemies. In the same way, Charlemagne has to release Ogier from prison only when the pagans moved to France, and no other savior could be found ...

Since literature reflects all the noticeable phenomena of its time, heroic poems could not fail to reflect feudal strife, family enmity, conflicts of vassal duty with family relations. All this can be found in the poem "Raul de Cambre", which researchers date back to the second half of the 12th century.

Raul de Cambrai is endowed with approximately the same features as Guillaume of Orange - indomitability, willfulness. All the same literary king Louis deprived him of his paternal lands, but granted a foreign one - the hereditary feud of the Counts of Vermandois. And for two generations, feudal strife lasts in the poem.

But unlike Guillaume of Orange, Raoul de Cambre was ferocious, cruel, unjust. In the poem, he is opposed to the squire and vassal of Raoul - young Bernier. At first, he is forced to support de Cambrai against his own parents, even to endure the death of his mother, burned along with the entire convent by his master. And yet the poem ends with Bernier killing Raoul de Cambre.

His heroic epic was created simultaneously with the French in other countries. In the same Spain, where Charlemagne once went for the promised city of Zaragoza, but was forced to turn back, his masterpiece also appeared, which can be put on a par with the "Song of Roland".

In France, itinerant singers were called jugglers, in Spain - huglars. The "creative laboratories" were also similar - in Spain, real events were also taken as the basis for epic works, which over time acquired many additional details that had little to do with reality.

So there is nothing surprising, since the hero of "Song of My Side" turned out to be as real a person as "Hruodland, Chief of the Breton Mark". The only difference is that we know nothing more about the real Roland, except for this short report from the historian. Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar is better known.

He is one of the closest advisers and gifted military leaders under the King of Castile Sancho, one of the heroes of the reconquest, the ongoing war between the Spaniards and the Arabs in the Iberian Peninsula. The Arabs also called him Sid (al-seid - lord).

Everything happened in the life of the real Sid. When, after King Sancho, Alphonse VI began to rule, and not the Castilian, but the Leonean nobility came to the fore, he happened to be out of favor, even in exile.

In exile, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar was at first an important person at the court of the Count of Barcelona, \u200b\u200bBerengaria, then served as the Muslim ruler of Zaragoza. After some time, having collected an army at his own peril and risk, Rodrigo-Cid began to recapture the lands under Arab rule. He occupied Valencia and then reconciled with Alfonso VI, then won several more brilliant victories in battles ...

The years of this man's life are precisely known - 1040-1099. The poem about his glorious deeds took shape, apparently, half a century after his death. Only one list of "Poem of My Side", compiled in 1307, has reached modern literary historians. And from him one can judge that this time the Huglar singers, both in general terms and in the names of the characters, have not gone so far from the true events of the life of the Spanish hero.

But, of course, there is no need to talk about literal accuracy. Many real events in the "Song" merge into one, as, say, three quarrels between Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar and King Alfonso VI turn into one exile. It happened to the hero of "Song" to gain such victories in those places where nothing of the kind actually happened.

And the exile itself becomes a truly epic event - such a motive itself is common in many literary works; and in "A Song of My Side" the anonymous authors tried, of course, to extract everything they could from it.

It is very thoroughly and with great sympathy that the unfortunate exile wanders around the country with only a handful of relatives and most loyal vassals, not knowing at first where to lay his head. In order to lend money for food and maintenance of his vassals, he is even forced to resort to such a trick - to take money from rich Jews, pledging sealed chests filled with stones.

But gradually, owing everything to himself, his valor, intelligence, and even the loyalty of his most devoted warriors, Rodrigo-Sid conquers the lands previously owned by the Arabs, obtains untold riches, and only after that, out of generosity and nobility, is reconciled with the king.

However, during his struggle, winning victories and taking away the lands from the Muslim rulers, Sid, at the slightest opportunity, emphasizes his vassal loyalty to the unjust king, sends him a part of his booty. And it’s not so difficult to understand why such a motive sounds in the “Song” - reconquista, the expulsion of the Arabs from the Spanish lands, would, of course, be impossible in a rebellious and full of willful country, the lords and kings inevitably had to unite for a common cause ...

If, again, we compare "Song of my Side" with the French "Song of Roland", it is immediately striking that Syd is outlined much more multifaceted than Roland.

Roland is a valiant knight, faithful to duty and blindly following his ideas of the ideals of honor. He is heroically fierce in battle, recklessly daring.

Sid, on the other hand, is balanced, he is an excellent diplomat. He is not only a brave warrior, but also a zealous master in his domain, a commander who cares about ensuring that his army is provided with everything necessary. In addition to this, he is also a wonderful family man.

The Song of Roland is a heroic work only about war. But in "Song of my Side", no less heroic, it is not only about the war, but also about everyday life. But, in fact, there is nothing surprising in this difference: the Spanish "Song" began to take shape later than the French, when the views on everything around them, on relations between people, became more complicated.

I must say that although many other heroic poems were created at that time in Spain, Sid remained a beloved hero for a long time. Other legends about him were also composed, many episodes of his life were presented in separate romances - short lyric-epic poems, similar in form to northern ballads.

Among the epic works close in time to the "Song of Roland" and "The Song of My Side", the famous German "Song of the Nibelungs", a poem of 39 chapters, including about 10 thousand verses, stands out. Its plots are still popular today - mainly thanks to the famous operas of Wilhelm Richard Wagner, which make up the tetralogy Ring of the Nibelungen.

Of course, this work is based on even more ancient Germanic-Scandinavian legends, but by about 1200, which is the date of the manuscript of the Song, the poem, which had previously been passed down orally, acquired the final appearance that made it famous. In terms of content, color, philosophy, it has nothing to do with the simpler and more clear "Song of Roland" and "Song of My Side".

But all the same, it is probably worth recalling at least briefly the content of the "Song of the Nibelungs".

After hearing about the beauty of his sister Krimhilda, the king's son Siegfried from the Lower Rhine goes to the king of the Burgundians Gunther in the city of Worms. And Gunter at this time himself wooed the hero Brynhilda, who reigns in Iceland. And he asks Siegfried to help him in this.

Thanks to the invisibility cap, Siegfried really helped Gunther defeat the hero in military competitions. The king marries her, but Siegfried, as a result of further intricacies of the plot, remains Brunhilda's ring and belt.

Ten years later, two queens argue about the merits of their husbands, and Kriemhilda, showing Brunhilda her ring and belt, which Siegfried took possession again with the help of the invisibility cap, calls the Icelandic mistress Siegfried's concubine.

Vassal and adviser to the Burgundian kings, Hagen von Tronier, with the consent of Gunther, avenges Brunhild. Siegfried is invulnerable - he was bathed in the blood of the dragon Fafner he killed, and now he is not afraid of any weapon. But while swimming, a small leaf stuck to his back, and this is the only place where you can hit him.

Hagen tricked Kriemhild out of this secret of Siegrfid and treacherously killed him while hunting, when he clung to a stream to quench his thirst. After that, Hagen and Gunther took possession of the treasure that Siegfried possessed - the wonderful treasure of the Nibelungen ...

In the second part of the poem, which takes place many years later, Kriemhilda, formerly naive and tender, is completely transformed. During this time, she married the powerful king of the Huns Etzel, but was absorbed in one desire - to take revenge on Hagen and Gunther for the death of Siegfried and regain the treasure of the Nibelungs. For this purpose, she invites the Burgundians to the country of the Huns.

During the battle, which began right in the banquet hall, all the Burgundian soldiers perish, and Gunther and Hagen themselves were captured by the famous Hunnic warrior Dietrich of Berne. But he gave the prisoners to Kriemhild on the condition that she would spare them.

However, Kriemhilda killed first Gunther, and then Hagen, whose head was blown off by Siegfried's sword. Then the old warrior Hildebrand with blows of the sword hacked Kriemhild to pieces ...

An incredible jumble of events, bizarre twists of the plot - that's what distinguishes this work. It is full of violent passions, rage, thirst for revenge. But the heroes, in their own way, preserve the concept of honor, despite their own terrible atrocities. So, say, the killer of Siegfried Hagen, having learned from the Danube mermaids about the impending death of the Burgundians in the land of the Huns, breaks the carrier's shuttle so that his compatriots could not disgrace themselves by flight.

This work is full of ambiguities and mysteries. Even the name Nibelunga itself is used in the "Song" in a variety of ways. They are also called the original owners of the treasure, which was possessed by Siegfried, fabulous creatures endowed with enormous growth and strength. In addition, the Burgundian kings of the Gibihungs - Gunther and his brothers after the transfer of the treasure into their hands are called Nibelungs ...

This motley mishmash of vicissitudes, unexpected turns, many actions, dramatic collisions, the intensity of passions, travels from one country to another, the most fantastic details - in a word, everything that so distinguishes the "Song of the Nibelungs" from the clear and simple in essence "Song about Roland "and" Songs of my Side ", other heroic poems of the same period, brings it closer to a completely different genre, which developed a little later and gained extraordinary popularity in medieval Western Europe - the genre of the knightly novel, the very one that ridiculed in the 17th century, Cervantes in his Don Quixote.

But in fairness, I must say that, of course, he ridiculed far from the best examples, but in reality literature knows many achievements in this genre. The famous touching and tender novel "Tristan and Isolde". Numerous novels about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table ...

However, the conversation about them is ahead. The time has come to remember the troubadours, whose lyrics have become as important and integral part of the literature of the chivalrous ages as the heroic epic, as the chivalrous novel.

It is no coincidence that poetry flourished primarily in Provence. Many cities in southern France were founded in the era of Ancient Rome and largely preserved ancient cultural traditions. In addition, for a long time they had close trade relations not only with the northern Christian countries, but also with the more sophisticated Muslim world, as well as with Italy, Sicily, Byzantium. Already by the 11th century, they became large economic centers with developed crafts, including the production of luxury goods.

By this time, the poetic movement began in the castles and cities of Provence, which reached its heyday by the XII century. The poetry of the troubadours went beyond the borders of Provence, became a common phenomenon for all the countries of Southern Europe, and had a great influence on the countries of the German language, on England.

The lyrics of the troubadours were very different. Different directions, genres were defined in it - for example, a two-voiced pastor, which is usually a conversation between a knight and a shepherdess he liked. Or alba is a dawn song, in which, as a rule, a faithful friend reminds a friend who has forgotten about the time on a date with his beloved that dawn has come, or lovers themselves complain about the inevitability of separation.

Another genre is sirventes, satirical songs that respond vividly to current events or problems. There is also a debate song, a crying song, a strife song ...

Of course, the troubadours sang the Beautiful Lady, complained about the vicissitudes of love, the cruelty of separation, but it happened to them to poetise the rapture of battle, the thrill of battle.

But how much can you tell about poetry using prose? Wouldn't it be better to imagine yourself for a moment in one of the Provencal castles of the XII century, to look into it just at the moment when the juggler-performer wandered there by chance or at the invitation of the owner ...

Here he tries the strings of his simple instrument, listeners freeze, gathered in the courtyard or looking out of the windows of the apartments. And, for example, the lines of the alba - the dawn song sound:

The hawthorn leaves in the garden wilted,
Where donna and her friend catch every moment:
The first click is about to be heard on the horn!

- Oh, if the Lord gave the night forever,
And my dear did not leave me,
And the guard forgot his morning signal ...
Alas, dawn, you are too hasty!

Let's go down to this meadow to the singing of birds.
Kiss me harder, dear friend, -
My jealous spouse is not afraid of me!
Alas, dawn, you are in too much haste ...

Let's continue our game here, friend,
Until the horn sang from the tower:
After all, the time comes to part.
Alas, dawn, you are too hasty!

How sweet with the breeze
Flowing here from afar
Suck in the breath of a dear friend!
Alas, dawn, you are too hasty!

The beauty is adorable and sweet
And blossomed with tender love,
But, poor, she was not happy, -
Alas, dawn, you are too hasty!

Unfortunately, the name of the author of these lines remains unknown. But it is well known that the usual theme for Bertrand de Born, a knight and a poet, was military courage and valor, his own strong hand and a reliable friend. Among his sonorous poems - "laments" about the fallen hero-knights, including about King Richard the Lionheart, poems about important political events. However, he did not shy away from love lyrics.

And you could also hear in the courtyard of our Provencal castle and the complaint that the crusades, battles for the Christian faith, are bringing separation to hearts in love. The name of the author of such poems has also survived to this day. “Marcabrune was a foundling,” a contemporary says about him. - found at the gate of a certain rich gentleman, so they never knew who he was and where he came from.

Perhaps, had Mercabrune been a knight, he would never have written such lines.

Alas, history was preparing a truly tragic end for the refined poetry of the troubadours. At the beginning of the 13th century, a devastating war took place in the flourishing lands of Provence. It was started by the knights of the northern French provinces with the blessing of the Pope, since the war was officially called a crusade against the Albigensian heretics.

The Albigensians, mostly artisans and some peasants, opposed church dogmas, and their beliefs, in contrast to Christian asceticism, were based on a much more life-loving philosophy. It is not surprising that a large part of the nobility of Southern France began to profess the Albigensian ideals, as is undoubtedly the fact that this belief largely nourished the work of the troubadours. It became more and more popular, pushing aside strict Christian tenets and spreading to an ever larger territory.

This religious movement was condemned by the Ecumenical Council in 1215, but the wars of faith unfolded in southern France even earlier - in 1209 and lasted twenty years. In the end, King Louis VIII of France himself took part in the crusade against the Albigensians, who as a result annexed part of the Toulouse County to the royal domain. Cities and villages burned, collections of manuscripts perished in the fire, among other values, and many creations were lost irretrievably.

And the troubadours themselves, at least a significant part of them, had to seek refuge in the Italian feudal principalities, at the courts of the Catalan, Portuguese, Aragonese, Castilian monarchs. Their poems had to sound in foreign languages. And, defeated in their homeland, the lyric poetry of the troubadours, which never reached its former heights, nevertheless had a huge impact on the literature of other Western European countries.

But simultaneously with the subtle Provencal poetry, another popular literary genre developed, which had a happier lot - the knightly novel, at first always poetic, and then prosaic. By the way, the word "novel" itself appeared in the 12th century in relation to this particular genre and at first meant only a poetic text in a living Romanesque language, in contrast to a text in church Latin.

By its content, the chivalrous novel is close to the lyrics of the troubadours in that it certainly contains the theme of sublime love, service to the Beautiful Lady. At the same time, the knights acting in the novels experience the most incredible, fantastic adventures, perform dizzying feats, and embark on wanderings to distant fairy lands. Moreover, all these feats are performed not for the glory of the motherland and the seigneur, as in epic poems, and not even in the name of the honor of the family, but for the sake of personal glory. Another significant feature of the novels of chivalry was that although the action took place in them in the most remote and fantastic countries or in time immemorial, the reader found in them pictures from his contemporary life, modern society, consonant with topical problems.

A knightly romance arose primarily in the north of France, and from there the hobby for him gradually spread to other countries. And the very first material for this literature was ancient times. This is explained by the fact that in antiquity it was possible to find plots combining both love themes and the most incredible, fantastic adventures, completely echoing the knightly ideals of the Middle Ages.

One of the first works of this kind was "The Novel about Alexander", or rather, several adaptations of the most ancient biography of the great commander Alexander the Great. It first appeared in Egypt in the 3rd century AD, then it was translated from Greek into Latin, and the Latin edition served as the basis for several versions in French, but with the addition of a complete set of all knightly "attributes".

In the most complete of them and the most artistically developed, Alexander the Great, the conqueror of half the world, is represented as a brilliant medieval knight. The poetic novel first of all tells in detail about his upbringing. As a baby, Alexander rejected the nurse, considering this way of feeding too rude. I had to put a princess to him, who began to feed the baby from a golden spoon. One eye of Alexander was, according to the authors (and historians of literature call them two poets of the 12th century - Lambert de Torah and Alexander de Berne) blue, like a dragon, and the other black, like a vulture. Alexander easily bridled the horse Bucephalus, who seemed to be a cross between an elephant and a camel. In his youth, Alexander received two shirts from the fairies - one protected him from cold and heat, and the other from wounds. When the time came to dedicate the future hero to the knights, the shield was presented to him by King Solomon, and the sword - by the queen of the Amazons, Pentesilea.

In his wanderings and campaigns, Alexander is driven not so much by the desire to conquer the world as by the desire to learn and see everything. Among other wonders of the world, he meets people with dog-headed heads, finds the source of eternal youth, finds himself in the forest, where instead of flowers, young girls grow out of the ground in spring, who with the cold again go into the earth, reach earthly paradise. He travels for a long time, first in the land of eternal darkness, and then - eternal light. Not confining himself to the earthly firmament, Alexander wants to comprehend the secrets of the waters and heavens. In a huge glass barrel, he went down to the bottom of the sea and watched its wonders. With the help of huge birds - vultures - he rose into the air ...

Alexander is endowed with all the traits required for a knight: courage, the ability to please ladies, generosity. When one juggler admired him with his art, Alexander presented him with a whole city as a reward, and those close to him began to be seriously afraid that he would give away all his wealth and possessions in one year.

Simultaneously with the "Novel about Alexander" appeared "The Novel about Aeneas", which goes back to Virgil's "Aeneid" and was composed by an unnamed French author. Almost immediately, it was translated into German by Heinrich von Veldecke and thus became popular practically throughout Europe. And The Novel of Three, composed by Benoit de Saint-Mor. However, in contrast to the classic antique story, the heroes here are not Greeks, but Trojans. The author composed many episodes himself - for example, the love story of the Trojan prince Troilus to the captive Greek woman Brizeida, ending with the betrayal of the insidious beauty. Benoit de Saint-Maur sternly condemns female impermanence: “The sadness of a woman does not last long. She cries with one eye and laughs with the other. A woman's mood changes quickly, and even the most reasonable of them is quite frivolous. "

Presumably, these works enjoyed great success, both in castles and in cities, because a large number of their handwritten copies are known. But nevertheless, the chivalrous romance owes its special flourishing not to antiquity, but to Celtic folk legends.

The Celts, the most ancient tribes that lived on the territory of Europe even before our era, settled the British Isles (the Celts of Britain were called Britons), left a huge number of legends saturated with bizarre fantasy. Many of them are associated with the name of King Arthur, whom historians identify with one of the real leaders of the Britons of the 5th-6th centuries, who heroically defended the regions of Britain that had not yet been captured by them from the Anglo-Saxons.

Around 1137, the Latin Chronicle of Galfrid of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, appeared. This manuscript set out the fabulous, mythical history of ancient Britain, starting with the origin of the Britons from the legendary Trojan Brutus, the grandson of Aeneas, to the events of the 7th century A.D. But the central place in it was assigned to King Arthur. Relying on the ancient Celtic legends, but exaggerating them even more, Galfrid turned him not only into a powerful king of all Britain, but also into the ruler of Scandinavia, Gaul, the victor of the Roman emperor, the ruler of half of Europe.

According to legend, Arthur asserted his dominion over Britain, having managed to pull out a wonderful sword from under the stone lying on the altar, which no one had been able to do before. Galfrid tells not only about the military exploits of King Arthur, but also about his miraculous birth, about his departure, when he was mortally wounded, to the magical island of Avallon, the abode of immortality, about the deeds of his sister, the fairy Morgana and the wizard Merlin. The court of the king of the Britons is presented as the center of the highest valor and nobility. In addition to Arthur himself, his wife, the beautiful Queen Guinevere, rules here, and around the royal couple are gathered Arthur's nephew, the valiant Govin, Seneschal Kay, another nephew of Arthur, the evil Mordred, who ultimately rebelled against the king and caused his death, the valiant knights. ..

The Chronicle of Galfrid, written in Latin, was soon translated into French and English. But the translators added some more details, drawing them again from Celtic legends. One of the most significant details turned out to be this: King Arthur allegedly commanded to build a round table in the banquet hall of his palace so that there would be no better or worse places behind it, and so that all knights would feel equal behind him.

It was this chronicle that became the main source for many novels about the magnanimous and brave King Arthur, a wise ruler, and the exploits of his knights of the Round Table.

But Celtic legends also became the basis for another famous plot, processed by many authors of knightly novels - about the all-consuming love of the knight Tristan and Isolde, the golden-haired beautiful wife of King Mark, a wise man, deep down, even sympathizing with two lovers.

And the very first of the authors who created significant works in the genre of the knightly novel was the Frenchman Chretien de Troyes, who lived in the second half of the 12th century. In his work, he used both Arthurian subjects and the legend of Tristan and Isolde. It can be considered that he was the first to connect the adventures of the knights of Arthur's Round Table with the legends of the Holy Grail, laying the foundation for a whole direction of literature of the knightly ages.

Chrétien de Trois is a typical type of French trouver of his time. The life of this educated man, who knew Latin well and in his youth translated Ovid, proceeded at the courts of large lords - Maria of Champagne, Philip of Flanders. After Ovid, he took up his own literary experiments. One of the first was a poetic novel about Tristan, but, unfortunately, it has not reached our time. The next were the novels about King Arthur and his valiant knights - "Erek and Enida", "Klizhese", "Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart", "Yvein, or the Knight with a Lion" and, finally, the unfinished "Perceval".

In terms of sharpness of thought, vividness of imagination, problematics, and finally, in literary skill, Chrétien de Troyes, undoubtedly, must be considered one of the most remarkable French poets of the Middle Ages. He is able to ask important moral and philosophical questions in a fascinating plot, topical for his time. Let's say, like this - is love compatible with feats of knighthood? It is proposed to look for the answer to it in the first novel by Chrétien de Trois "Erec and the Aeneid" Maybe we will try to do it ...

Erek, the son of King Lak, a knight at the court of King Arthur, once met a girl of rare beauty named Enida, the daughter of a poor knight, and fell in love with her at first sight. He asks for her hand in marriage, and the father immediately agrees to this marriage. Upon learning of this, the rich cousin of poor Enida wants to give her luxurious dresses, but Erek announces that she will receive her outfit only from the hands of Queen Guinevere herself, and takes the girl in a poor worn-out dress through the holes of which the shirt is visible.

The entire court of King Arthur is delighted with the beauty of Enida. Soon after the wedding, King Lak, Erek's father, died, and he takes his young wife to his kingdom. For some time the spouses live in complete happiness, but then the courtiers begin to grumble - from excessive love for his wife, with whom he does not part, Erek has lost his strength and valor. Enida, to whom these rumors began to reach, does not dare to retell them to her husband, but one day he finds her crying and finally learns about the cause of her suffering.

Falling into anger, Erek announces that he will immediately go out on exploits. But this will differ from the usual knightly campaigns in that Enida will go ahead of Erek, who, at the sight of danger, in no case should warn her husband about this.

Erek had to endure many battles - with robbers, other itinerant knights, and, in violation of the prohibition, Enida carefully informed him of the impending threat several times. This led to a quarrel between husband and wife, but once only Enida's devotion saved Erek's life. When Erek, wounded and unconscious, was lying in the castle of a count who gave him shelter, Enida learned that the count wanted to kill her husband in order to make her his mistress. Then she brought Erek to his senses, put him on a horse and took him out of the castle. The novel ends with the fact that after many trials, covered with wounds, but triumphant, having proved his valor and reconciled with his faithful wife, Erek returns home, and a happy, serene family life continues ...

Chrétien de Trois created a kind of "theory" of selfless knightly love, capable of any feat, in the novel "Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart". There is evidence that the poet received from Maria Champagne, at whose court he was at that time, a special task to show how he should behave in various situations and what an “ideal” lover should feel. This is how one more knight of King Arthur Lancelot appears in this case, who later became the hero of many other works and other authors.

In this novel, Chrétien de Troyes again string one adventure into another. An unknown knight kidnapped Queen Guinevre, whom the boastful and cowardly Seneschal Kay could not protect. Lancelot, in love with the queen, rushed in pursuit. He asks the dwarf he met which road the kidnapper took, but the dwarf promises to answer only if Lancelot agrees to ride in a cart - a humiliating demand for the knight. But after a moment's hesitation, Lancelot, for the sake of selfless love for the queen, agrees to fulfill the demand.

After a series of dangerous adventures, the brave knight finally reaches the castle of King Bademagyu, where his son Meleagan lives, who kidnapped the queen. To free Guinevere, Lancelot challenges him to a duel, which is watched by both the captive queen herself and King Bademagyu. When it becomes obvious that Meleagan is about to be defeated, Bademagyu begs the queen to intercede for her son, which she does, ordering Lancelot to succumb to the enemy. Reluctantly, the knight in love goes to that too, putting his life in danger; however, the honest Bademagyu declares him the winner and leads Lancelot to Guinevre. But then another unexpected test awaits him: the queen turns away from the knight in love.

With great difficulty, Lancelot finally learned that the reason for the beloved queen's anger was that he still hesitated for a moment before getting into the cart. A knight receives forgiveness only when, in despair, he tries to commit suicide; and for the first time in all the time of selfless service to her, Guinevere appoints Lancelot a date of love.

Then new adventures follow: the freed queen returns to her court, and Lancelot was treacherously thrown into the dungeon by Meleagan's people, where he languishes for long days and nights. Meanwhile, at the court of King Arthur, a knightly tournament is arranged, in which, of course, Lancelot would also like to take part. On his word of honor, the jailer's wife releases him; Lancelot promised to return to the dungeon after the tournament. Hiding his name, the knight valiantly fights in the tournament, but it is by virtue of the queen who guesses who he is.

Knowing that in the whole world only one knight is able to obey any, even the most shameful order, if it comes from her, Guinevere tells him to fight as badly as possible. Lancelot goes to this, posing as a coward and serving as a general ridicule.

Once again convinced of the submissiveness of the knight in love, Guinevere cancels his order, and Lancelot defeats all opponents, and then quietly hides and returns to the dungeon. But in the finale of the novel, he is saved by Meleagan's sister, who Lancelot had a great service to do. Upon learning of the place of his detention, she helps Lancelot escape ...

Again, reflections on what is more important - love or chivalrous deeds and fun - form the moral basis of another poetic novel by Chrétien de Trois "Yves, or the Knight with the Lion." And, of course, one adventure follows another.

Once a rumor reached the court of King Arthur that in a distant forest there is a source with a wonderful property: if you scoop up water from it and pour it out, a terrible storm will rise, and then a black knight appears, who enters into single combat with a daredevil who decided to approach the source and always kills him. The hero of the novel, one of the knights of the Round Table, Iwain, is sent in search of this source.

Of course, he somehow manages to defeat the black knight and mortally wound him. Then, pursuing the enemy on the heels, Yvein enters the castle gates, which immediately slammed behind him. Once trapped, the knight is saved only thanks to Lunete, the servant of the owner of the castle, who, taking pity on him, gives Ivain a ring that makes him invisible. After the burial of the deceased black knight, Lunette gives Ivain the opportunity to leave the castle, but he refuses, because he saw the widow of the murdered Lodina and fell in love with her without memory. Ewaine begs the maid to intercede for him with her mistress.

It would seem that the situation is hopeless - Lodina will never agree to marry the murderer of the black knight, her former spouse. This is truly a Shakespearean conflict; however, Chrétien de Troyes also managed to psychologically substantiate Lodine's decision to give his hand to Ivain.

At first, in indignation, she chases the servant away, as soon as she spoke to her about the possibility of a new marriage, not yet telling her anything really about Ivaina. Then curiosity awakens in Lodin, she herself starts a new conversation with Luneta and becomes furious when she learns that the applicant for her hand has killed the black knight. But the maid's arguments are as follows: the castle and the source must have a defender, and who will be better in this role than the winner of the former defender?

To these arguments is added Lodina's natural coquetry, the conviction of the irresistibility of her charms. And in the end, the owner of the castle asks the maidservant to bring Ivain to her as soon as possible and, while waiting, draws in her imagination the upcoming scene - how the knight will justify the fact that he killed her husband, the desire to get the opportunity to marry her himself, how he will pray to her about love, and how she will have to forgive him ...

The romance does not end with the wedding, however. Arthur, along with his knights, worried about Ivain's long absence, goes in search of him, finds and after a joyful meeting asks Lodina to let him go to his court for a while so that Ivain can plunge into the world of his favorite knightly fun for a while. Lodina agrees, but appoints a strictly defined period for returning. However, as one would expect, among the feasts, tournaments, and hunting amusements, Iwaine forgets about the deadline and when he returns, he finds the gate of Lodina's castle firmly locked.

A new string of adventures ensues: in despair, Ivaine rides at random, not choosing a road, and accomplishes one feat after another. For a while he even lost his mind, suffering from rejected love, but then he was healed. Once he happened to meet a lion limping due to a huge splinter in his paw. The knight safely removed the splinter, and since then the lion has become attached to him and followed him everywhere. In the end, after a long wandering, Iwaine again finds himself near the castle of Lodina and with the help of the new mediation of the servant receives forgiveness.

In the last, unfinished poetic novel by Chrétien de Trois "Perceval", there finally appears the mysterious, incomprehensible, mystical Grail, for the sake of which the knights later performed their feats in many works of other authors.

The Grail, as a kind of magic talisman, has, apparently, a relation to Celtic legends, but at the same time it is also a product of later Christian times. It was the synthesis of ancient legends with Christian religiosity that gave rise to a special direction of the knightly romance.

The Holy Grail is a kind of vessel, a materialized shrine that has magical properties. In Christian ideas, it was usually believed that this was a cup with the blood of Jesus Christ, which Joseph of Arifamey collected, who took the body of the crucified Lord from the cross. It was often assumed that this chalice served Christ and the apostles during the Last Supper - it was a chalice, a bowl for communion.

However, according to other, more rare religious versions, the Grail is a silver dish on which lay the severed head of John the Baptist.

A certain obscurity of what the Grail is - and other objects were sometimes called it - is generally an inseparable part of the legend about it, since it was assumed that the Grail is a mystery, invisible to the unworthy, and being worthy in one way or another. Be that as it may, the Grail has miraculous properties to heal, to saturate its chosen ones with unearthly foods, to give youth. In search of the Grail, one hero after another set off in knightly novels.

Chrétien de Trois' poetic novel about him is called "Perceval", but it also has a second name, which directly indicates its essence - "The Tale of the Grail." The action begins with the fact that the widow of a knight, whose husband and several sons were killed in battles and tournaments, wanting to save her last young son, called Perceval, from all the dangers of knightly life, settled with him in a deep forest. But the grown-up Perceval once accidentally met knights passing through the forest, and then his true destiny was suddenly revealed to him.

He announced to his mother that he wanted to become a warrior like them, and in the end she had to agree to this. Perceval, as usual, went to the court of King Arthur to be knighted there. At first, as a consequence of his former solitary life, he makes one funny mistake after another, but gradually everyone is imbued with respect for him because of his prowess.

Perceval's exploits begin. One day he finds himself in a certain castle, where he witnesses a strange scene: in the middle of the hall lies an old sick knight, the owner of the castle, and a procession with some secret meaning passes by him. First, they carry a spear with blood dripping from the tip, then the Grail itself - a dazzlingly sparkling vessel, then a silver plate.

Out of modesty, young Perceval hesitates to ask what all this means. In the morning, when he woke up in the room assigned to him, he saw that there was no one in the castle. Then Perceval also leaves, and only a long time later he learns that if he asked about the meaning of the procession, the sick knight would be healed immediately, and prosperity would come in the whole country. It also turned out that inappropriate shyness attacked him as a punishment - by leaving the house hidden in the wilderness of the forest, he broke his mother's heart.

Having learned all this, Perceval vowed to find the mysterious castle again at all costs, and again sets off on the road. In turn, Goven, the nephew of King Arthur, is sent in search ...

Alas, what was to happen to them further remained unknown: Chretien de Trois was not destined to bring his novel to an end. It remains unclear what the author himself meant by the Grail - he in no way connects the mysterious cup with the blood of Christ.

However, Chrétien de Troyes' novel was completed by other French poets, and, it happened, independently of each other, so that in the history of literature there are handwritten copies of "Perseval" with identical beginning and different endings.

There are also known numerous imitations, independent adaptations of the plot, begun by Chretien de Troyes, and not only in French alone. In Germany, the theme of the Grail was most successfully developed by a prominent poet, a poor knight by birth, Wolfram von Eschenbach, who lived in the XII-XIII centuries. The main part of his poetic novel "Parzival" coincides with "Perceval" de Troyes, but at the same time it is a completely independent, original work.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival", the Grail is not a vessel, but a precious stone brought by angels from heaven and endowed with the miraculous power to saturate everyone at his will, to give youth and bliss. The Grail Castle is guarded by knights whom von Eschenbach calls the Templars. The Grail Knights are prohibited from loving service, they can only serve the sublime. When a country is left without a king, one of the Grail Knights is sent to protect it, but he cannot reveal his name and origin to anyone.

So in the novel, Parzifal's son Lohengrin is sent by the Grail to protect Elsa, the Duchess of Brabant, oppressed by rebellious vassals. Lohengrin defeats Elsa's enemies, but wanting to find out his name and origin, she violates the prohibition of the Grail, and therefore the knight must return to his country ...

But still, most often in the knightly novels about the Grail, this shrine was precisely the cup associated with Christ. And in search of her, under the pen of numerous authors-poets, more and more knights of the Round Table rushed - and Lancelot, and Galahad, and Bors. But only a few of them managed to achieve their goal and, having seen the Grail, find holiness in their souls and thoughts.

In the thirteenth century, all these poetic novels, which in literary history were called the "Breton cycle", were gradually shifted to more digestible prose. King Arthur and his knights gain even more popularity among readers. Their exploits are overgrown with more and more details, they describe in more detail the everyday life of chivalry and the military life of valiant warriors. Descriptions of the knightly virtues become edifying.

In the end, all this huge number of plots and versions that wandered around medieval Europe were collected and processed in a cycle of five novels, which were later called "Vulgate" - a popular, accessible reading for everyone.

These novels - "The Story of the Holy Grail", "The Story of Merlin", "The Book of Lancelot Lakes", "The Search for the Holy Grail" and "The Death of King Arthur" - were united not so much by the image of King Arthur himself as by the image of the most valiant and noble of the knights - Sir Lancelot. True, there are also all the numerous characters familiar from all the previous "Arthurian" works, and the main motive is precisely the search for the sublime, the symbol of which is the Holy Grail.

All these motives inspired the creation of a remarkable work by another medieval author - the Englishman Thomas Malory. In the second half of the 15th century, he wrote the novel The Death of Arthur. There were good reasons for her birth, for a new revival of a long-known theme.

By this time, knightly culture was already a thing of the past, taking with it the lofty ideals of knighthood. However, could admiration for courage, courage, valor, nobility disappear without a trace in the hearts of people? Will love, the most beautiful of feelings given to a person, ever go away forever?

When Malorie conceived his book, there was a fierce internecine war for the throne in England that went down in history as the War of the Scarlet and White Rose, symbols of the rival families of Lancaster and York. In this struggle, which lasted for many years, perhaps, they no longer even remembered the chivalrous attitude towards the enemy, the code of honor, generous and noble behavior on the battlefield. A man named Thomas Malory, himself a participant in a brutal feudal war, wanted to remind his contemporaries of all this.

And again the world of magnanimous, noble knighthood with its exploits in the name of lofty ideals and the good glory of brave warriors revived before the readers. In the images of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, all the ideal features of a knight are collected - enormous physical strength, but at the same time courtesy, good manners, generous attitude towards the enemy - in a word, everything that Malorie himself called "greatness." And, of course, the knights of Malorie are distinguished by a particularly noble attitude towards the Beautiful Ladies.

It is impossible not to see that the author himself simply admires his heroes, their exploits evoke admiration in him; and therefore the other most frequent epithet in the book is the word "marvelous." “A surprisingly large number of people were killed in the battle,” Malorie tells the reader. - Wonderfully he cut the knight ... wonderfully he struck with a spear ... "

However, another great plot of knightly literature, the love story of Tristan and Isolde, previously developed by numerous authors completely independently of the "Arthurian cycle", was included in Thomas Malory's book as an integral part.

This plot, also based on ancient Celtic legends, was so loved in Europe for three centuries that the names of Tristan and Isolde became synonymous with truly loving hearts. Often they were given as personal names, not embarrassed by the fact that the Church does not know saints with such names. Separate scenes from the story of two lovers were reproduced many times on the walls in the state rooms of castles and palaces in the form of frescoes, on carpets, caskets, and cups.

For the first time, literary processing of the plot was made in France in the XII century in the form of a poetic novel. This first novel caused a huge number of imitations with the addition of more and more new details, first in the same French language, and then in German, English, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Czech, Polish, Modern Greek ... But, unfortunately, until ours time, despite such a success of the novel among contemporaries, only fragments of numerous adaptations have survived, and others have not survived at all. The first, most ancient novel about Tristan and Isolde also perished entirely.

And yet ... there is now a complete prosaic version of it. At the beginning of the century, the novel was "reconstructed" by the surviving fragments, by allusions to it in other works, the French scholar-philologist Joseph Bedier, having done work similar to the work of a paleontologist, who is able to restore the entire appearance of an extinct fossil animal from one bone, or an archaeologist restoring to several shards the character of a whole bygone culture.

I would like to believe that in our century the poetic and tragic love story of Tristan and Isolde is able to touch many hearts. This is what happens in the ancient novel ...

Tristan, the son of a king, lost his parents as a child and was kidnapped by visiting Norwegian merchants. Fleeing from them, he ended up in Cornwall, to the court of his uncle King Mark, who raised Tristan and, being old and childless, intended to make him his successor.

Growing up, Tristan became a brilliant knight. He killed the Irish hero Morolt \u200b\u200bin single combat and thereby freed Cornwell from paying the Irish an annual "living tribute" - three hundred youths and three hundred girls. But in a duel, Morolt \u200b\u200binflicted a wound on Tristan with a poisoned weapon, and she did not heal in any way.

In search of healing, Tristan sits in a boat and floats at the behest of the waves. The wind carries him to Ireland, where the queen, versed in medicine and not knowing that Tristan killed her brother, heals his wound. When the knight returned to Cornwall, the local barons, jealous of Tristan, began to demand from Mark that he marry and give the country an heir to the throne. To dissuade him from this, Mark announced that he would marry a girl who owns a golden hair dropped by a swallow.

In search of this unknown beauty, Tristan went. He again swims at random and again finds himself in Ireland, where he recognizes the royal daughter, Isolde Golden-haired, the girl who owns the hair taken away by the swallow. Having defeated the fire-breathing dragon that devastated Ireland, Tristan receives Isolde's hand from the king, but announces that he himself will not marry her, but will take her as a bride to his uncle.

But when Tristan and Isolde sailed on a ship to Cornwall, they mistakenly drank the "love potion" that Isolde's mother gave her so that this magic potion would forever bind the bride with King Mark. Now Tristan and Isolde cannot fight the passion that gripped them, until the end of their days they will belong only to each other.

In Cornuel, Isolde becomes Mark's wife, but her passion all the time makes her seek secret dates with Tristan. Isolde Brangien's faithful servant helps the lovers. The courtiers are trying to hunt them down, and the generous King Mark tries not to notice anything.

But all the same, in the end the unfaithful wife is exposed, the court sentenced Tristan and Isolde to death; however, they manage to escape, and for a long time they wander, enduring hardships, but happy with their love. Finally, King Mark forgives them on the condition that Tristan retire into exile.

Having left for Brittany, Tristan, seduced by the similarity of names, married another Isolde, nicknamed Beloruka. But immediately after the wedding, he repented of this and remained faithful to the first Isolde. Several times, having changed beyond recognition, he came to Cornwall to secretly see his beloved.

Finally, in one of the clashes in Brittany, Tristan was mortally wounded. Believing that only Isolde the Golden-haired could heal him, Tristan sent his faithful friend after her, ordering to raise a white sail on the ship if his beloved would sail on it. However, the jealous Isolde Belorukaya, having learned about this agreement, orders him to tell Tristan that the sail on the ship approaching the shore is black.

Hearing this news, Tristan dies. Isolde Golden-haired dies beside him from despair. They are buried, and on the same night two trees grow on the graves, the branches of which intertwine ...

Tragic, cruel, but at the same time touchingly beautiful, poetic plot. No wonder he so excited the imagination of poets of all times, and the Italian composer Donizetti inspired the creation of the famous opera "Love Potion", just as "The Song of the Nibelungs" inspired the composer Wagner.

So the time has come to put an end to the chapter on the literature created in the knightly ages. It is clear that among the many works there were not only achievements, that a huge number of mediocre crafts were created, which quickly sunk into oblivion, and which only literary scholars now remember.

But the heights of medieval poetry and prose - they are still noticeable. Even if not all of our contemporaries know at least approximately the content of The Song of Roland or Perseval, for almost everyone, Roland's name is a symbol of valor and courage, the name of King Arthur is a symbol of wisdom and dignity. And the names of Tristan and Isolde, always standing side by side, have become symbols of all-consuming, immortal love.

However, the romantic knightly times, full of contradictions and drama, gave the world not only their own literature - many centuries later they themselves came to life in the works of completely different writers, authors of historical novels.

Among them are such sonorous names as Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe, Quentin Dorward, Charles the Bold, Count of Paris, Richard the Lionheart, and many other works.

These times were addressed by Robert Louis Stevenson, who left the novel "Black Arrow" about the war of the Scarlet and White Roses. And Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the incomparable Sherlock Holmes, but at the same time created the novel "The White Company" about English chivalry. You can name the name of Henry Ryder Haggard, author of "The Beautiful Margaret." And many other writers, less prominent.

And in our century, the distant era of knighthood interests writers. One of Lyon Feuchtwanger's masterpieces "Spanish Ballad" tells about the times of the Castilian king Alfonso VIII, about the reconquista, the struggle of the Spanish knighthood with the Moors, and about the all-consuming knightly love. By the way, among the characters in this novel there are such real people as the knight-troubadour Bertrand de Born and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the mother of King Richard I the Lionheart.

Maurice Druon, well-known in our country, and another Frenchman, Georges Bordonov, who was just discovered for the Russian reader, wrote about chivalry. He created the novels "William the Conqueror", "The Spears of Jerusalem", "Requiem for Gilles de Rais", wrote a whole study on the lawsuit that the French king Philip IV the Fair led against the knightly order of the Templars.

And, of course, many, many more writers - and readers! - will be attracted by the times of chivalry - warlike, cruel, tragic, heroic. Not only with the heat of passions, exciting stories that life itself built. Last but not least, even though a little naive, but a bright faith in the best properties of the human soul - nobility, loyalty to duty and word, the ability to love and draw strength from love, even unrequited.

It was in the era of chivalry that ideas were created about what a real man should be - an ideal Knight, and a real woman - a Beautiful Lady. It turns out that despite all the vicissitudes that have befallen humanity since then, these ideas are still alive today.

Europe's greatest knights from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the military revolution of the 16th century.

Ulrich von Lichtenstein, Germany.
He was the real forerunner of the fantasy-born Don Quixote, who rose from commoners and reached unprecedented heights. For the sake of his beloved, he decided to cut off half of his upper lip.

Don Quixote, Spain.
The central character in the novel of the same name by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. One of the prototypes of Don Quixote for Cervantes was the conqueror of Colombia Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, whose campaigns in search of El Dorado were overgrown with numerous speculations and legends.

Edward the Black Prince, England.
Edward Woodstock, "Black Prince" - the eldest son of King Edward III of England. The nickname "Black Prince" is associated with the color of Edward's armor.

Jacques de Molay, France.
Jacques de Molay is the twenty-third and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. There is a legend that before his death, Jacques de Molay founded the first Masonic lodges, in which the forbidden Order of the Templars was supposed to remain underground.

Godfrey de Bouillon (Godfrey de Bouillon).
Godfrey de Bouillon - Count of the Kingdom of the Franks. One of the leaders of the 1st crusade 1096-1099 to the East, after the capture of Jerusalem, was proclaimed the ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Took the title of Baron and "Protector of the Holy Sepulcher".

Knight Galahad, Wales.
Galahad, in Celtic mythology, is the only knight of King Arthur who happened to see the Holy Grail in its true form.

Jean le Mengre, Marshal of Boucicaut, France.
Marshal Busico served his country in the years of great happiness. One of his admirers compiled a description of his deeds, based on very extensive information and documents, resulting in the image of an ideal knight.

Richard the Lionheart, England.
Richard's military exploits made him one of the most prominent figures in medieval history and literature. Richard is the hero of numerous legends, books, films and computer games.

William Marshal, England.
William Marshal, according to his contemporaries, was the greatest knight of Christendom. He led the royal army during the uprisings of the barons of the early 13th century, was one of the guarantors of Magna Carta of 1215, and after the death of John Lackland he served as regent of England.

Of all the hostilities engendered by chivalry, military undertakings matched the knights' daring and romantic nature more than others. We have already seen that young people who had just been knighted, in order to avoid idleness in peacetime, went to wander in foreign lands and visit the courts of kings and the most famous princes. It was not always possible for them to help the oppressed or to bring the enterprise to the end, especially when the sovereigns were able to administer justice personally or through the judges they appointed. For lack of adventure, the brave men came up with them: they announced that at a designated place and at a certain time they would fight with everyone under such and such conditions to maintain the dignity of their people, the honor of their king and the glory of weapons. This proposal was called an enterprise (emprise), and its execution was a military feat, a duel (pas d "armes), because it usually consisted of defending a passage either on a bridge, or on a road, or even on a square.

When the challenge, containing the conditions of the battle, was made public, the knights-protectors began to flock to the designated place. There, having established their banner, they hung shields decorated with their emblems and mottos on trees or on specially set pillars, and forced all the knights who wanted to pass by, fight or break spears with them. If several knights entered into an alliance to protect the passage, then as many shields were hung as there were knights; in order not to arouse envy, a passing knight touched one of the shields with his spear, and the owner of the shield had to fight.

The promulgated challenge soon reached the distant lands, and therefore the knights, who wanted to fight with the defenders of the passage, and the ladies who longed for such spectacles, usually offered in their honor, quickly gathered from all over. On the appointed day, fights began in the morning and captured part of the day. They fought either with a sharp weapon, or with blunt spears, according to the conditions of the challenge or permission received from the sovereigns on whose land the duel took place. Most often, the defeated had to give the winner as a guarantee of victory either a gold ring, or a seal, or a fur, or some kind of precious stone. Sometimes the conditions of a duel consisted in the fact that the defeated had to go captive to the victor's sovereign and there, recognizing himself as defeated, fall at the sovereign's feet and remain a prisoner for as long as the sovereign wanted. In these cases, kings usually used their rights, as generously as possible; they fondled, consoled and honored the knights thus sent to them.

During the duels, the breaking of the spear was resumed daily; daily battles were followed by dances, concerts, games and feasts, offered by the knights to all spectators on the banks of the river, at the edge of the forest, on the hillside, because the fights always took place near forests, waters and mountains, not only to be in a picturesque area , but also in order to breathe the air, to cool off under the shade of trees, near the flowing waters, so that the crowds of spectators can more conveniently group together and rest on the slopes of the mountains.

These fights were ubiquitous in peacetime. A description of them can be found in knightly novels, but unfortunately in these novels there is so much magic and the miraculous that it seems that the authors cared not so much about describing the mores and the real life of the knights, but about giving their fantasy a runaway. However, one of these novels, leaving aside the impulses of the imagination, gives us such details about the adventures of chivalry that are reliable, or at least probable, because they agree with history and modern customs. Therefore, we can end the chapter with some extracts from this novel edited by the Comte de Tressan (le comte de Tressan): they will supplement what we have said about knightly enterprises.

The young Saintre, the page of King John, having passed all the lower positions, attained the rank of squire poursuivant d "ames. In an effort to celebrate himself with some brilliant feat, in order to get a knighthood as soon as possible, he asked the king for permission to embark on enterprises and travel foreign courts The king, who loved him very much, replied: "How, my friend Sentre, do you want to leave my court at a time when I especially favor you! But," added the good sir, "I cannot blame you, I do not want to refuse you in the opportunity to justify my feelings for you and acquire the right to knight you. "

Having received the permission of the king, Sentre began to actively prepare. At the same time, he was distinguished by splendor and luxury, worthy of the sovereign, whose subject he was. On the day of his departure, he appeared to the king to say goodbye and receive royal certificates of his military rank. According to the custom of that time, the monarch, his family and the princes of the blood made gifts to the young nobleman, if only his enterprise brought honor to the nation. Therefore, the king gave Sentre from his treasury two thousand golden efimki, the queen gave a thousand of hers, the dukes of Burgundy, Anjou and Berry the same, their spouses presented him with bracelets, diamond clasps, rings, precious stones for distribution at those courts where he will fight ...

Young Sentre went to Spain. In all cities on his way, they were amazed at his beauty, feelings and generosity. He became even more generous when he crossed the border, where some adventures marked his agility and his courage. The Catalan knights, who guarded the mountain passages and were defeated by his weapons, gifts and courtesy, preceded him to Barcelona, \u200b\u200bwhere the local owners solemnly celebrated his arrival. Here he stopped for a few days to fix and further decorate the train. From here he sent three heralds; the first was in a French costume adorned with Russian attributes, while the other two wore his family dress and attributes. They were authorized to present the letters of the French king, who released him, and together ask him permission to present himself at the court of the king of Aragon, fall at his feet and lay before him a certificate of his military rank. He was respected in everything, and a few days later he arrived in Pamplona, \u200b\u200bwhere there was then a court and where the fame of the noble French poursuivant d "armes had already reached: he was greeted by many knights and ladies who were amazed at the splendor and grace of his train.

When he appeared at the foot of the throne, the monarch spoke to him warily, inquired about the brave knight who reigned in France, and added that he congratulated this knight on such a disciple. The most glorious knights were ready to challenge each other's honor, challenge (le delivrer), but they were forced to cede this right to Monsignor Engherand, the first of them and closest to the king; the king's niece was his consort. Immediately after the end of the royal audience, Engherand and all the nobility approached Sentra with courtesy and straightforwardness.

My brother, - said Engherand Sentre, stretching out his hand to him, - do you accept my challenge?

I accept, - answered Sentre. “But I am ashamed that I didn’t deserve the honor you are showing me.

What would I not do, - objected Engherand, - for a disciple of such a great sovereign and for such poursuivant d "armes, equally beautiful in the eyes of our ladies and our gentlemen.

Then he hugs Sentre, leads him to the monarch, removes the bracelet from him, summons Aragon, the first herald of the court, and gives him a bracelet with a precious ruby, which he then shows to the ladies and knights.

The next day was marked by a splendid holiday given by the Queen of Aragon. Sentre was distinguished on it by the grace and splendor that characterized the French court. Men liked him with noble politeness, ladies with respectful courtesy. This was the first honor given to him to his nation: the proud and just Aragonese could not help but recognize the advantages of French education.

During the festivities, the arena was being prepared. Sentre's letters said that opponents on the first day should break five copies, and that the reward would go to whoever wins in anything. The same letters said that the next day the opponents would fight on foot, with a sword, a dagger and a reed, and that the winner would receive a rich gift from the vanquished.

The king and queen with a large retinue honored the battle with their presence. Engherand exceeded the young Sentre by a whole head, his warlike appearance, his strength, his courage, tested in twenty battles, spoke for him, but the general voice was for Sentre.

The honor of the first three fights belonged to both opponents. On the fourth it seemed that the advantage was on the side of Engherand, but on the fifth it was positively left for Sentre. Engherand missed; Sentre, breaking his spear to the hilt, hit the visor and, without overturning the enemy at all, bent him back to the horse's rump.

The battle was stopped, the opponents were led to the royal balcony. Aragon, the first herald, proclaimed Sentre the winner. Engherand took the ruby \u200b\u200band presented it to Sentra. Both were invited to the royal feast, and both were given great honors. The next day was the day of the folk festival.

On the third day, the trumpets announced a more important battle; the arena was narrowed for foot fighting. This battle was long and stubborn, and the end was terrible. The young Sentre, dropping the reed, managed to take hold of the sword and for a long time reflected the blows of Engerand with them. Deftly dodging and repelling blows, he chose a favorable moment and struck such a strong blow to the opponent's wrist that if it were not for the strength of the bracers, he might have chopped off Engherand's hand, from which the berd flew several steps. At this time, Sentre quickly grabbed his reed, hit Engerand's visor with it and stepped on his reed in one jump. Engherand, in despair that he was disarmed, jumped up to Sentre, squeezed him tightly in his arms and tried in vain to knock him to the ground: Sentre, embracing the opponent with his left hand for his part, raised the berdysh over him, but did not strike; he was content not to let him grab his hand. The King of Aragon, who wanted to end this dangerous battle, raised his rod. The judges stopped the opponents and easily separated them. Enggerand, raising his visor, exclaimed:

Noble Frenchman, my brave brother Sentre, you have defeated me again.

Oh, what are you saying, - objected Sentre with liveliness, - am I not defeated by you, because my reed fell before?

During this noble dispute, they were led to the royal balcony; the king came down to embrace both. While the heralds were collecting votes to proclaim the winner, Sentre slipped away from the crowd surrounding him, flew up to the king of arms, took his bracelet from him and, folding his arms, presented it to Engherand as his winner, wishing to warn the cry of the heralds. But Engherand, not accepting the pledge, gave him his sword with the hilt. As soon as the king had time to stop these noble impulses, deciding that Sentre should keep his bracelet, he rushed to the queen's balcony and, kneeling on one knee in front of Madame Eleanor, begged her to accept the bracelet as the price of the victory won by her husband. There was a cry of surprise; the queen herself came to raise him from her knees and decided that Eleanor should accept this rich gift out of politeness and in order to honor the one who has such an exalted soul - Eleanor gave in, but immediately removing the diamond thread from her neck said:

Senor, it would be unfair to leave you without a sign of your victory.

The king himself helped to remove weapons from both knights. Sentre, noticing that Engherand was wounded, grabbed his bloody dagger and kissed the blood on it, shedding tears.

The hero's slight wound did not prevent him from participating in the feast that followed the battle; the king put Sentre and Eleanor beside him, and the queen did this honor to Engherand. The day was marked by many celebrations and Sentre was constantly the subject of the most flattering attention. Hurrying to return to France, Sentre bade farewell to the king and queen of Aragon, tenderly embraced Monsignor Engherand, swore unchanging friendship to him and set off on his way back. In Paris, King John gave him the most flattering welcome; the old knights and all the ladies of the court greeted the young poursuivant d "armes with applause, the best reward for the winner.

A month later, on his return from Spain, Sentre had a new opportunity to commemorate his valor in front of the king himself and the entire court. One of the most famous Polish palatines, accompanied by four no less noble nobles, arrived in Paris to admire the court of King John. All five, having completed the same military feat, wore a gold thread on their arms and a chain on their legs, which, however, did not interfere with their freedom of movement. They begged the monarch to allow them to remain at his court until the same number of knights presented themselves to fight them.

The splendor and graceful simplicity of the costume of the Polish nobles amazed the entire French court. A silk half-jacket with gold, covering the waist, reaching to the knees; on the side, on a belt studded with precious stones, hung a wide curved saber; light boots adorned with gold spurs, a hat pulled down over the forehead with a sheaf of heron feathers that seemed to emerge from a pile of diamonds, a long purple mantle lined with sable or Astrakhan merlushka that fell to the feet and fastened on the right shoulder with a precious cufflink - in this simple and the noble garb of the palatine combined the warlike appearance of the northern warriors with the splendor of the nobles of the south. The courtesy and simplicity of their morals were soon understood, despite their proud and even slightly stern appearance.

Many young knights and squires poursuivant d "armes rushed to add their names to the list of those wishing to fight, which the two marshals of France were to present to the king. It is believed that Sentre was not the last among the coveted of this honor, and King John did not hesitate to appoint him the first of five for a duel with foreign knights.

The celebration was magnificent. Sentre was the first to kindly ask the Palatine-Prince if he agreed to join him in battle. The prince, knowing about the glory of Sentre, considered the choice of the French monarch a special honor. He gently hugged Sentre in his arms as he bent down to remove the chain and gold thread.

The stadium was arranged near the palace of St. Paul on the vast field of St. Catherine. The battle lasted two days with equal honor for both sides. However, Sentre felt superior to his courageous adversary. But he did not take advantage of this and on the first day he was content with the advantage that honor demanded, and on the second day, out of delicacy, he subjected himself to a most dangerous test. A proud and brave Palatine, who studied from childhood the art of fighting with his crooked saber, perhaps, he would have won a decisive victory if not for the extraordinary dexterity with which Sentre avoided and parried the blows of his opponent. Sentre, constantly cold-blooded, which irritated the enemy, for a long time only parried the blows. Knowing from experience that humility strikes a good soul, he skillfully supported the battle until his appointed hour. Noticing that the prince's hand weakened and inflicted incorrect blows, he let his horse gallop and, seizing the prince's horse by the rump, hit the saber so deftly that it flew out of his hand. Then he easily jumped off the horse, raised his saber, took off his helmet, threw off his bracers and hurried to bring the saber to the palatine. The Polish prince, enchanted by the grace and delicacy of Sentre, quickly dismounted from his horse to accept the saber and embrace such a worthy opponent, generously admitting his defeat. King John had already stepped down from the balcony and embraced both soldiers; squeezing Sentre, he felt his father's tender and lively affection.

What the good-natured King John and his noble, cheerful and helpful court did not invent then to soften the sadness of the Polish nobles after their defeat. Going to the banks of the Vistula, they generously rewarded Sentre, who accompanied them all day, with rich gifts and caresses.

A little later, a simple courier brought the news to the French monarch that twelve British knights had crossed the sea and, having spent some time in Calais, refused to obey the accepted customs that they did not want to appear at court, decided not to do anything that would oblige them to send a herald and they will not even accept a herald from the sovereign who is not recognized as king of France, since he was the son of Philippe Valois. It is known that their king vainly challenged the French crown. Therefore, the British knights stopped only at the turn of their territory, built a tower, pitched tents, hung their twelve heraldic shields to them and decided to wait for the French knights who would dare to touch their shields.

Such news aroused the indignation of the French chivalry and ignited hatred between both nations. Many knights requested permission to punish British pride. They assembled twelve at the port of Ambletez, from where, not inquiring about the number of opponents, they set off to remove their shields with a certainty that did not understand the danger. None of them had the success of breaking the spear, which the British nobility has been constantly practicing since the days of the Knights of the Round Table. Such offensive news was soon learned in Paris. King John looked at Sentre and it seemed to him that the honor of the nation had already been avenged. Sentre, inflamed by the gaze of the sovereign, embraced the monarch's knees and flew to glory.

He set out, accompanied by knights of proven affection and courage, arrived at the scene and removed his shields; The British came out of the tents in full armor and, thinking of fighting a weak enemy, were not afraid to point out the French weapons lying in the dust. Imbued with righteous indignation, Sentre and his comrades attacked the British with fury. The latter soon gave in: spears, reeds, swords were equally disastrous for them; Sentre knocked five of them with the weight of his blows. Finally they were forced to beg for mercy.

Sentre, taking possession of their shields and banners, ordered the French to be picked up and placed them with honors on the platform. He neglected his horses, and, sending the British to Calais, told them that in this very place he would remain for three days, ready to defend himself against anyone who attacked him from Calais. But three days passed, not a single British knight showed up. Then he destroyed the platform and, quickly returning, entered Paris at the cries of a large crowd. Shields were thrown at the feet of the king. The monarch immediately rewarded the winner: on the very next day, a large society was appointed to meet and Sentre was granted a knighthood.

However, military exploits were usually undertaken by simple knights, adventurers, and were not accompanied by either the pomp or solemnity of tournaments.

Notes:

Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, Memoire sur l "ancienne chevalerie.

Delivrer un poursuivant d "armes de son entreprise is a technical expression that meant a challenge. It consisted in the fact that the caller politely or forcibly took from poursuivant d" armes the sign he constantly wore: a ring, bracelet, armband, etc.

Madame Eleanor, niece of the King of Aragon, Princess of Corduana, one of the most charming Spanish ladies, was the wife of Engherand.

The boy could only listen to the songs of wandering jugglers who wandered into his father's castle, admire the exploits of their heroes and make promises to imitate them throughout his life.

Knight and squire

From an early age, the future knight was strengthened in the selfless faith of his fathers in the teachings of Christ, in the Christian commandments. But Christianity was perceived in a simplified way, only in accordance with the chivalrous spirit, since it seemed to justify military aspirations.

The commandments of love and forgiveness usually touched the hearts a little, but they inspired to revenge for the suffering and death of Christ and the desire to spread the kingdom of God on Earth with fire and sword. For the future knight, Jesus Christ became, as it were, the supreme liege, whom it was the greatest shame to change, and who had to be defended to the last drop of blood.

By the age of 12-13, primary education was completed, the boy entered a new quality. His father took him to the castle of a lord or some noble knight, his friend, where he became a squire. He had a lot of worries.

In peacetime, the squire looked after the lord's horses and dogs, met his guests, helped them get off the horse, laid tables, served dinner, served wine, and cut meat.

During the campaigns, he relentlessly followed his knight, carried his armor, spears and swords. In battle, he was two steps away from the master, gave him a weapon to replace, if necessary.

During these years, the squire learned the "code" of chivalry, those ideals that every warrior had to follow after being knighted. What they were today can be judged both by historical sources, and by "knightly literature", literary monuments from the Middle Ages - ballads, songs.

A knight must first of all be a Christian. It was impossible to become a knight without receiving holy baptism.

“These are times of fervent faith,” wrote one of the enlightened contemporaries, “when people have no doubts. They imagine the universe as a vast theater, where an endless drama full of tears and joys is played out, the characters of which are scattered between heaven, earth and hell; a drama, the outcome of which is predetermined, the actions of which are controlled by God himself, but which in each scene presents a large and varied plexus. Divine personalities, angels and saints join humanity every minute to guide it, while Satan and his dark legions seduce and confuse him endlessly. A person, drawn by heavenly grace and hellish temptations in two opposite directions, is free by will and the master of his fate. He has an earthly life to choose between two drives and, depending on whether he is inferior to the first or the second, his soul flies after the death of the body to happy places, where eternal joy reigns, or falls into the abyss - a refuge of despair. "

According to these ideas, the greatest misfortune of man was sin; it was necessary either to avoid it, or to be cleansed of it. But at the same time, it was believed that there were no unforgivable sins, no atrocities that could not be expiated by sincere repentance and godly deeds.

A knight must be not only a Christian, but also a fighter for the Christian Church. He was instructed to guard and protect her. One of the French ballads says this directly: “We are clergy,” says the minister of the Church, the archbishop, “and our duty is to serve God, whom we pray for our friends. And you knights, do not forget that God created you to protect the Church. "

Defending the Church, the knight was obliged to provide assistance to all those who were under her patronage - widows, orphans, the weak. And I must say, there are, especially in literary monuments, wonderful examples of how the knights followed this law. Here is just one of them ...

Feeling the approach of death, Charlemagne bequeathed to his son not to take away their fiefs from the orphans, but from the widows of their last money. However, his son, King Louis, quickly forgot his father's behests and offered Count Guillaume the possession of the fief of one of his vassals, the deceased Marquis of Beranger.

But Guillaume, knowing that the Marquis had a son, was furious with anger. In the presence of all the vassals, he chastised his king: "Noble knights, listen to me! See how Louis, our lawful lord, rewards his best servants. During the battle with the Saracens, Turks and Slavs, the king was knocked off his horse. The Marquis Beranger rushed to With it, dropping the reins, with a shining sword in hand, with it he cut a clearing around the king like a boar between dogs. Then he jumped off his horse to help his lord. He held his stirrup. And the king sat down in the saddle and dashed away like a cowardly dog. Marquis Beranger remained, and we saw how he was killed and chopped to pieces, but we, alas, could not come to his aid.

He left behind him an heir, whose name is baby Beranger. To betray this child, you have to be, I swear to God, worse than a coward and a traitor. If anyone dares to take the land of little Beranger, this very sword will blow off his head. "

On such ballads, the morality of the future knight was formed. By the way, one can judge by this ballad how little feudal lords reckoned with their kings at the dawn of chivalry.

The knights were to serve as defenders of law and good against evil. In the fight against the enemies of the knight, he was inspired by his love for his homeland, to which he was deeply attached. The knight considered his country the best country in the world.

Here is how touchingly the same literary hero, Count Guillaume, says goodbye to his country France, leaving it for a long time: “He turned towards dear France, and the wind from there smelled in his face; he opened his chest to give air more access. Standing up against the wind, he knelt down: “Oh, the gentle breath that comes from France. It contains all those whom I love. I entrust you to the right hand of the Lord, because I myself do not hope to see you again. " Tears flowed from his beautiful eyes. They pour in streams over his face and wet his clothes abundantly.

Knights, defenders of the Church and the weak, were to serve as examples of courage and show this courage, especially in the fight against the infidels. The physical ideal of the knight was a strong and brave warrior who “with one blow of the sword cuts a warrior on horseback and in armor from top to bottom with the horse,” who “easily unbends four horseshoes at a time,” “raises a knight in armor to the head, who stands on his hand, "and finally ... at dinner he eats a quarter of a ram or a whole goose.

The knight values \u200b\u200bhis name: "Better to die than to be called a coward." For a knight, honor is more precious than life.

"Chivalrously" had to deal with the defeated enemy equal in rank. The knight had to treat his prisoner as the most honored guest, even if he was his mortal enemy. The prisoners, as a rule, offered a ransom for their release, as well as expensive armor and a war horse. A knight could not attack another knight without declaring war.

The knights had to be selflessly devoted to their liege, to keep the oath of vassal loyalty unbreakable. The knight had to be true to his word. When he made any promise, he swore to God, "who never lies." And finally, the knights had to be, according to their code, generous ...

The time came, and the squire, masterfully learned to wield a sword and spear, from an early age accustomed to the severity of armor (for training, children's weapons were specially made), to endure marching hardships, having absorbed the "code of chivalry", prepared for knighthood.

In early knightly times, this rite usually took place at the age of fifteen. By the XIII century, the heyday of chivalry, the squire was knighted later - at the age of 21. It so happened that some of the poor barons remained completely uninitiated, because the ceremony entailed too great a cost. In early times, on the contrary, everyone could be knighted for special merit - even a serf or a commoner. But over time, the knights became an increasingly closed, elite caste.