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What are the rules of Courtly love?

What are the rules of Courtly love?

1 Answer

  1. The rules of Courtly love were loosely established by the code of the court of Love.  It was a noble institution where young knights would be instructed in the ways of love. In particular, they would observe a form of love based on the relationship between a knight and his lady. In the Middle Ages, Courtly love was a popular subject of art and literature.

    Courtly love embodied a certain set of ideals that were based on the idea of a knight’s loyalty to a lady of a high ranking.

    A knight would defend his lady’s honor at all costs and would often die for her. The relationship between a knight and his lady had a distinct set of rules. A knight would always be respectful to his lady and would never address her by her name, but instead refer to her as “my lady” and to himself as “your servant”.

    The knight was expected to be a servant to his lady, and to protect her from any harm. He would never be rude to her, and would always remain faithful. The love was not supposed to be sexual. This kind of love is called “courtly love” because it was a code of conduct practised by the aristocracy in medieval Europe. In exchange for the lady promising to be faithful, her lover would do things for her.

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