Court of Love and Chivalry

Imagine a time long ago, when knights and their ladies roamed the moors, when castles were inhabited by kings and queens, when grand festivals honored heroic deeds. What would it be like to live then?

The Accolade

The Accolade
Edmund Blair Leighton

The Rules of Chivalry

Thou shalt believe all the church teaches and observe all its directions
Thou shalt defend the church
Thou shalt respect all weaknesses and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them
Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born
Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy
Thou shalt make war against the Infidel without cessation and without mercy
Thou shalt perform scrupulosuly the feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God
Thou shalt never lie and remain faithful to thy pledged word
Thou shalt be generous and give largesse to everyone
Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and Good and the foe of Injustice and Evil

Chivalry

Chivalry
Sir Frank Dicksee

Rules for Lovers

Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
He who is not jealous cannot love.
No one can be bound by a double love.
It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing.
That which a lover takes against the will of his beloved has no relish.
Boys do not love until they arrive at the age of maturity.
When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor.
No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons.
No one can love unless he is impelled by the persuasion of love.
Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.
It is not proper to love any woman whom one would be ashamed to seek to marry.
A true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.
When made public love rarely endures.
The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.
Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved his heart palpitates.
A new love puts to flight an old one.
Good character alone makes any man worthy of love.
If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives.
A man in love is always apprehensive.
Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.
Jealousy, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved.
He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little.
Every act of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved .
A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved.
Love can deny nothing to love.
A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his beloved.
A slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved.
A man who is vexed by too much passion usually does not love.
A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved.
Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one man by two women.

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