Today’s word of the day, thanks to Words Coach (https://www.wordscoach.com/dictionary), is chivalry. Pronounced / ˈʃɪv əl ri /, chivalry is a noun that means “the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms”; “the rules and customs of medieval knighthood”; “the medieval system or institution of knighthood”; “a group of knights”; “gallant warriors or gentlemen”; or “Archaic. a chivalrous act; gallant deed” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/chivalry).

Merriam-Webster gives some background: “Chivalry is dead, they say. The statement is indisputably true in at least one sense: the word chivalry first referred to medieval knights, as in ‘the king was accompanied by his chivalry,’ and we’re quite certain those knights are all long gone. But the word’s meaning has shifted since the 14th century, with other meanings joining the first over the years. Today, chivalry typically refers to an honorable and polite way of behaving, especially by men toward women. And when people say ‘chivalry is dead’ they’re usually bemoaning either a perceived lack of good manners among those they encounter generally, or a dearth of men holding doors for appreciative women. The word came to English by way of French, and is ultimately from the Late Latin word caballārius, meaning ‘horseback rider, groom,’ ancestor too of another term for a daring medieval gentleman-at-arms: cavalier. In a twist, the adjective form of cavalier is often used to describe someone who is overly nonchalant about important matters—not exactly chivalrous” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chivalry).

According to Etymonline.com, the word enters the English language “c. 1300, ‘body or host of knights; knighthood in the feudal social system; bravery in war, warfare as an art,’ from Old French chevalerie ‘knighthood, chivalry, nobility, cavalry, art of war,’ from chevalier ‘knight,’ from Medieval Latin caballarius ‘horseman,’ from Latin caballus ‘nag, pack-horse’ (see cavalier).

From late 14c. as ‘the nobility as one of the estates of the realm,’ also as the word for an ethical code emphasizing honor, valor, generosity and courtly manners. Modern use for ‘social and moral code of medieval feudalism’ probably is an 18c. historical revival” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=chivalry). So at one level of meaning, chivalry are the guys who ride horses, which makes sense since the hoi polloi didn’t have horses to ride in battle; that privilege was reserved for the knights.

Cavalier, which is almost the same word, comes into the language from “from Italian cavaliere ‘mounted soldier, knight; gentleman serving as a lady’s escort,’ from Late Latin caballarius ‘horseman,’ from Vulgar Latin *caballus, the common Vulgar Latin word for ‘horse’ (and source of Italian cavallo, French cheval, Spanish caballo, Irish capall, Welsh ceffyl), displacing Latin equus (https://www.etymonline.com/word/cavalier). Cavalier can also be an adjective in contemporary English: “’disdainful,’ by 1817, from earlier sense ‘easy, offhand’ (1650s); originally ‘gallant, knightly, brave’ (1640s), from cavalier (n.) in its Elizabethan senses” (ibid.). M-W explains further about the word, “The adjective trotted into English just a few decades after the noun, first describing those thought to embody qualities of gallantry and suaveness associated with such soldiers. However, the English Puritans later applied the noun with disdain to their adversaries, the swashbuckling royalist followers of Charles I, who sported longish hair and swords. Their use undoubtedly contributed to the adjective’s ‘flippant’ sense, which is now the most common. To saddle someone (or their behavior, attitude, etc.) with the descriptor today is to say that they do not demonstrate the expected or required care for serious matters” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cavalier).

One of those Cavaliers was the soldier and poet Richard Lovelace (pronounced / ˈlʌv ləs /, like “love less”). Born in 1617, he was “the oldest son of Sir William Lovelace and Anne Barne Lovelace. He had four brothers and three sisters. His father was from a distinguished military and legal family; the Lovelace family owned a considerable amount of property in Kent” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lovelace_(poet). His father died when Lovelace was just 9, in a war against the Spanish, but his family’s money kept him. He “attended the University of Oxford and was praised by his contemporary Anthony Woodas ‘the most amiable and beautiful person that ever eye beheld; a person also of innate modesty, virtue and courtly deportment, which made him then, but especially after, when he retired to the great city, much admired and adored by the female sex’” (ibid.).

The 1640s in England featured the Puritan Revolution that ultimately toppled King Charles II and brought Oliver Cromwell to power. Cromwell represented the side that came to be known as the Roundheads, so-called because many of them wore their hair cut closely around their heads, unlike the Cavaliers, who wore their hair in long ringlets. Lovelace, and his family, were on the Royalist side, the Cavaliers.

“In 1641, Lovelace led a group of men to seize and destroy a petition for the abolition of Episcopal rule, which had been signed by 15,000 people. The following year he presented the House of Commons with Dering’s pro-Royalist petition which was supposed to have been burned. These actions resulted in Lovelace’s first imprisonment” (ibid.). The experience of prison, though it was relatively brief, led to his writing one of his most famous poems, “To Althea, from Prison.” Althea was a poetic name; we do not know who the model for Althea was or even if there were such a model.

He went to prison again in 1648, and by the time he was released, King Charles had been deposed and beheaded, and the Roundheads were in charge. Lovelace died in relative poverty and obscurity in 1657.

Had he lived in the Middle Ages, he would have been a member of the chivalry, but his famous poem shows the values of the chivalry:

When Love with unconfinèd wings

Hovers within my Gates,

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the Grates;

When I lie tangled in her hair,

And fettered to her eye,

The Gods that wanton in the Air,

Know no such Liberty.

When flowing Cups run swiftly round

With no allaying Thames,

Our careless heads with Roses bound,

Our hearts with Loyal Flames;

When thirsty grief in Wine we steep,

When Healths and draughts go free,

Fishes that tipple in the Deep

Know no such Liberty.

When (like committed linnets) I

With shriller throat shall sing

The sweetness, Mercy, Majesty,

And glories of my King;

When I shall voice aloud how good

He is, how Great should be,

Enlargèd Winds, that curl the Flood,

Know no such Liberty.

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,

Nor Iron bars a Cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an Hermitage.

If I have freedom in my Love,

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone that soar above,

Enjoy such Liberty. (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44657/to-althea-from-prison) Today’s image is of Richard Lovelace (https://anthonyhowelljournal.com/2022/01/21/richard-lovelace-on-poetry-competitions/).