The Description of the Knight
Chaucer creates a rather stupid narrator who praises everyone.
However, by reading between the lines we can see the satirical content.
43A knight there was, and he a worthy man,
Chaucer only uses ‘worthy’ sarcastically to describe rascals in The Canterbury Tales
44Who, from the moment that he first began
45To ride about the world, loved chivalry,
The specific implication of riden out is to go on pillaging raids. Chivalry could mean ‘noble ethics’ but it could also mean simply ‘cavalry warfare’ in Chaucer’s time.
46Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy.
‘Truth’ could just mean ‘trustworthiness’, ‘honour’ might mean ‘worldly glory’ (rather than ‘honourable conduct’); ‘freedom’ may refer to freedom of action; ‘courtesy’ could just mean ‘fine manners’.
47Full worthy was he in his liege-lord’s war,
The knight’s adopted liege-lord is apparently Peter of Cyprus, who became a notorious tyrant and was murdered by his own followers.
48And therein had he ridden (none more far)
49As well in Christendom as heathenesse,
50And honoured everywhere for worthiness.
51At Alexandria, he, when it was won;
An ignoble massacre. Alexandria had a large Christian population who were also robbed and massacred. The crusaders, having sacked the city, abandoned it immediately to be retaken by the Moors.
A widespread argument among the nobility of Europe was that Peter of Cyprus’s crusade against Alexandria was a way to rid Italy of the Free Companies who were pillaging their way from one region to the next.
It was known that Peter had basically recruited an army of bandits
and the outcome of the campaign was predictable.
52Full oft the table's roster he'd begun
53Above all nations' knights in Prussia.
Mercenaries would pay to be at the high table of the Teutonic Knights. Prussia was famous as a place where commoners could earn a military reputation for themselves and ‘transform’ themselves into knights.
The Prussian court was one of the few courts of Europe that made little distinction between the old feudal knights and the new-style military entrepreneurs.
54In Latvia raided he, and Russia,
He was basically carrying out banditry against a Christian population.
55No christened man so oft of his degree.
56 In far Granada at the siege was he
57Of Algeciras, and in Belmarie.
Algeciras was another siege in which mercenaries behaved ignobly.
The only Christian soldiers in Belmarye were mercenaries in the service of the infidel.
58At Ayas was he and at Satalye
Ayas was a fiasco, Satalye saw a massacre of Muslim and Christian civilians.
59When they were won; and on the Middle Sea
60At many a noble meeting chanced to be.
The original word, armee, implied a mercenary force (in contrast to a feudal host).
61Of mortal battles he had fought fifteen,
62And he’d fought for our faith at Tramissene
This is almost certainly ironic. Tournaments were widely considered the summit of worldly vanity, (they were regularly condemned by the church), not something you did out of religious devotion.
The city of Tramissene was disputed between two Muslim dynasties between 1337 and 1388. The only Christians involved there were mercenaries fighting for one or other Muslim force.
63Three times in lists, and each time slain his foe.
The point of jousting was not to kill one’s rival. By the late-14th Century deaths were rare. To kill three times in tournaments suggests a deadly lack of self-control.
64This self-same worthy knight had been also
65At one time with the lord of Palatye
He was fighting in the pay of a Muslim ruler.
66Against another heathen in Turkey:
67And always won he sovereign fame for prize.
The original word, prys, could refer to ‘loot’, ‘war booty’.
68Though so illustrious, he was very wise
69And bore himself as meekly as a maid.
70He never yet had any vileness said,
71In all his life, to whatsoever wight.
72He was a truly perfect, gentle knight.
73But now, to tell you all of his array,
74His steeds were good, but yet he was not gay.
75Of simple fustian wore he a jupon
76Sadly discoloured by his habergeon;
He is not appropriately dressed for a real knight.
77For he had lately come from his voyage
78And now was going on this pilgrimage.
Perhaps the most noticeable thing about the knight is that he has never fought for his king and country.
There were plenty of opportunities in this period Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and Nájera (1367) for example.
Chaucer’s was not an age of chivalry but of the new mercenary armies.
Chaucer actually met the greatest English mercenary leader, ‘sir’ John Hawkwood, leader of the White Company in Italy.
Mercenary’s like Hawkwood were businessmen with no illusions about chivalry.
The basic unit of the mercenary armies such as the White Company was the ‘lance’:
a knight accompanied by a page and an archer.
This is precisely how Chaucer’s knight travels.
Meanwhile, the whole idea of crusading was very much up for debate at the time. People like Chaucer questioned whether the best way of converting the infidel was really to kill them.
The references to Belmarye, Palatye and Tramyssene show that the knight is perfectly happy to work for whoever will pay, Christian or Infidel.
He seems to have few qualms about killing Christians (the implication is that he has done so in Alexandria and Russia).
Watch this cartoon of The Knight’s Tale: