Knights going into battle for the pure love of a woman—that's one of the enduring images of the medieval era. Chivalric orders first appeared with military activities against non-Christian states. During the Middle Ages, Europeans aggressively sought to expand their areas of control. The Crusades were fought for a variety of motives, but they were, for the most part, wars over religion. The Catholic Church sought to harness both the knight's energy and martial skills-and found a role for him in the church's structure of society as protector. Rules were formulated under which a "just war" could be fought and enlisted the knights to fight for them in the Crusades.
Chivalry's main virtues were piety, honor, valor, courtesy, chastity, and loyalty. The first orders of chivalry were very similar to the monastic orders of the era. Both sought the sanctification of their members through combat against "infidels" and protection of religious pilgrims, and both had commitments that involved the taking of vows and submitting to a regulation of activities. Three of the most well-known orders, the Templars, Hospitallars and Teutonics, tried to add components of piety, faith, humility and chastity.
Medieval conventions of chivalry directed that men should honor, serve, and do nothing to displease ladies and maidens. Chivalric love was largely platonic. Knights were members of the noble class socially as bearers of arms, economically as owners of horse and armor, and officially through religious-oriented ceremony. While some were knighted on the battlefield, most spent long years as a squire, practicing the art of war while serving his master. People during the Middle Ages read of the exploits of these adventurers, both mythical and real, in epics like La Chanson de Roland and La Morte D'Arthur. Chivalric conduct was never free from corruption, and its outward trappings declined in the 15th century.
