The Medieval Knight | Origins, Life & Legacy

Geoffroi de Charny was a fourteenth-century French knight, soldier, and writer who became one of the most respected warriors of his age. Born around 1300, he fought extensively during the Hundred Years’ War and built a reputation for courage, loyalty, and personal honour. He served the French crown, took part in campaigns and crusading ventures, and was entrusted with carrying the Oriflamme, the sacred battle standard of the kings of France.

Charny was not simply writing about chivalry from a distance. He had spent much of his life living the ideals and enduring the dangers of the warrior aristocracy. In 1356, he was killed at the Battle of Poitiers while fighting in defence of King John II of France.

His *Book of Chivalry* is therefore especially valuable because it gives us the perspective of a practising knight on what chivalry was supposed to mean. Rather than presenting chivalry merely as courtly manners or romantic adventure, Charny describes a demanding way of life built around courage, hardship, reputation, loyalty, religious devotion, and the pursuit of honour.

And it is this tension between the ideal of the knight and the realities of a violent profession that makes The Book of Chivalry such a fascinating text.

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