Blackthorn
Squire
Anyway- on the whole subject of chivalry- people are obsessed with thinking of the past as a different world, or the people who inhabited it a different species. Simply put, people are people. Always have been, always will be. Some held the codes of chivalry close to their heart, acting on them and trying to exemplify them. To others it was a ridiculous notion created for poets.
Both Saladin and Richard regarded each other by period standards as honourable men due to their little acts of friendship and cross-boundary chivalry, but both also comitted acts the other viewed as an atrocity (the slaughter at Jaffa and the ransom of all the citizens of Jerusalem for Saladin, the execution of 2000 prisoners for Richard). It all comes down to having the balance the idealised position of being a 'knight' with the practicalities of living in the real world. In no period have men acted through noble intention alone. In no period have they been universally morally deformed. People are people. The toys change, the world turns and the grammar changes, but people remain the same. Once you understand the contextual world and its values, we're pretty damn predictable.
Both Saladin and Richard regarded each other by period standards as honourable men due to their little acts of friendship and cross-boundary chivalry, but both also comitted acts the other viewed as an atrocity (the slaughter at Jaffa and the ransom of all the citizens of Jerusalem for Saladin, the execution of 2000 prisoners for Richard). It all comes down to having the balance the idealised position of being a 'knight' with the practicalities of living in the real world. In no period have men acted through noble intention alone. In no period have they been universally morally deformed. People are people. The toys change, the world turns and the grammar changes, but people remain the same. Once you understand the contextual world and its values, we're pretty damn predictable.