Line #44 Main/ChivalricRomance


1	[[quoteright:316:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ThomasColeThePast.JPG]]
2
3	->''"Of Fairy Damsels met in Forest wide\
4	By Knights of Logres, or of Lyones,\
5	Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore"''
6	-->-- '''Creator/JohnMilton''', "Paradise Regain'd"
7
8	Chivalric Romance is the original romance genre, back from the days when "{{romance}}" [[HavingAGayOldTime meant]] "work written in the vernacular". If you're looking for the sort of romance you might find in a Chivalric Romance, see CourtlyLove. The association is what produced the current commonest meaning of romance.
9
10	Plentifully supplied with [[RoyalBlood kings and queens]], [[PrincessProtagonist princesses]], [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]] doing [[TheDulcineaEffect noble deeds]] on behalf of the [[BeautyEqualsGoodness beautiful]] DamselInDistress, [[KnightErrant wandering the lands in search of quests]], receiving orders from [[DamselErrant mysterious women with knowledge of the perils and evils of the land]], meeting with ambiguous though lovely [[TheFairFolk fairy ladies]] and [[SolitarySorceress enchantresses]], fighting [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]], [[OurGiantsAreBigger giants]], [[WildMan wild men of the woods]], {{bears\|AreBadNews}}, [[PantheraAwesome lions]], or [[BlackKnight other knights]] ([[TheTourney often in tourneys]], with [[StandardHeroReward the prize sometimes being the hand of the princess]]).
11
12	Though they differ wildly in their realism, many of them include fantastical elements. The later ones start to turn into the genre {{Fantasy}}, in that they include tropes that were not believed in by the writer or audience -- not even as possibilities in a far-off land.
13
14	Myth/ArthurianLegend (part of the Matter of Britain) is among the best known, but in medieval times, there were also those about UsefulNotes/{{Charlemagne}} (the Matter of France) and UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat (the Matter of [[AncientGrome Rome]]). The association could be rather loose, with tales from UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar falling into the Matter of Rome, and despite the claim that these encompassed all romances, there were also "non-cyclical", independent romances, such as the ''Constance'' tales (all with the same basic plot as Creator/GeoffreyChaucer used), and the tales of El Cid Campeador, the national hero of Spain. If the era was earlier, do not expect any resemblance to the actual earlier society; Alexander the Great invariably appeared as a feudal king. This is how King Arthur ended up a KnightInShiningArmor.
15
16	They obviously are OlderThanPrint and found only in manuscripts. This has produced a great deal of variation in the texts. Recognizably the same tale appears with great changes in locations and even the names of the characters.
17
18	''Literature/DonQuixote'' was written as a {{Deconstruction}} of the genre and is the sole memorial of quite a number of these once-famous knights.
19
20	Many tales later collected as {{Fairy Tale}}s or ballads are first found in romances, although we do not know how close they are to the OralTradition of their own times. This usage is also the root of the names RuritanianRomance, and PlanetaryRomance, and is why the term is sometimes used for tales of magic and larger-than-life characters, such as Shakespeare's late comedies, which are sometimes called his romances. See also {{Wuxia}} for the Chinese equivalent (''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' in particular could be considered the "Matter of China").
21	----
22	[[index]]
23	!!Chivalric romances having their own pages
24	* ''Literature/AmisAndAmiloun''
25	* ''Literature/{{Bisclavret}}''
26	* ''Literature/CantarDelMioCid''
27	* Several of ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', such as "The Wife of Bath's Tale", "The Knight's Tale", and "Sir Thopas"
28	* The Arthurian romances of Creator/ChretienDeTroyes
29	** ''Literature/ErecAndEnide''
30	** ''Literature/YvainTheKnightOfTheLion''
31	** ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart''
32	** ''Literature/PercevalTheStoryOfTheGrail''
33	* ''Literature/TheChronicleOfDukeErik'' reads a bit more closely to Literature/TheIcelandicSagas, but there's still plenty of CourtlyLove, Single Combat (the refined Jousting kind, not the rough and thoroughly Viking ''Holmgång'',) and even some [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Arthurian references.]]
34	* ''Literature/EuricoThePresbyter''
35	* ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene''
36	* ''Literature/IdyllsOfTheKing''
37	* Most medieval works involving Myth/ArthurianLegend
38	* Myth/KingArthurAndTheHolyGrail
39	* ''Literature/TheKnightInThePanthersSkin''
40	* ''Literature/LeMorteDarthur''
41	* ''Literature/OrlandoFurioso''
42	* ''Literature/OrlandoInnamorato''
43	* ''Literature/{{Parzival}}''
44	* ''Literature/SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight''
45	* ''Literature/TheSongOfRoland''
46	* ''Literature/TristanAndIseult''
47	[[/index]]
48	----
49	!!Tropes found in chivalric romances:
50	* AnimalCompanion: Knights who help a lion often acquire it as a companion.
51	* AnachronismStew: A few -- very few -- authors notice that maybe customs weren't the same in TheMiddleAges as in the time when the romance was set, but that never influences their writing. This is why Myth/KingArthur and his knights got to be [[KnightInShiningArmor Knights in Shining Armor]], but the biggest impact may have been on the Matter of Rome. Wooing and warfare during UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar featured knights and CourtlyLove; Alexander the Great is a feudal king; the empress of Rome dresses like a medieval queen. In the romance ''Octavian'', the Emperor Augustus and his wife have difficulty conceiving, so they build an abbey to the Virgin Mary.
52	* ArrangedMarriage: Arranging for the heroine to marry a kitchen boy can backfire if he's a rightful king in hiding.
53	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Wishing for a child from God or the Devil is a mistake.
54	* BearsAreBadNews: One monster you can meet in the woods.
55	* BeautyEqualsGoodness: A very common trope of the time period. Not only are good characters always beautiful but beauty is taken as evidence of goodness ''in-universe.''
56	* {{Bifauxnen}}: Silence, the hero/ine of ''The Romance of Silence'' is biologically female, but is raised as a boy so s/he can inherit his/her father's land. The narrator and other characters often comment on [[EatingTheEyeCandy how hot Silence is.]]
57	* BlueBlood: Many, many, many characters. That was, after all, the target audience, since romances were written for the literate.
58	* ButtMonkey: Porters. Other officials who keep minstrels from the court and its rewards.
59	%%* CainAndAbel
60	* ChangingOfTheGuard: Sons after fathers, or brothers after brothers, to keep the story going
61	* CoolHorse: Sometimes magical, sometimes just powerful
62	* CoolSword: being handed it from a lake is particularly good, but that one gets a lot of competition.
63	* CourtlyLove: A constant theme, especially in the Myth/ArthurianLegend.
64	* DamselErrant: She knows where the problems are; the knight needs to know. A perfect combination!
65	* DoingInTheWizard: Downplayed. But as time wound on, women with magic powers were more likely to be mere wizards, who learned by study, than TheFairFolk. Witness that Morgan le Fay, despite her name, became King Arthur's fully human half-sister.
66	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: used for {{Foreshadowing}}
67	* DueToTheDead: Arranging for a dead man's funeral can win you a companion White Knight.
68	* TheDulcineaEffect: Knights tend to fight for ladies on the slightest provocation.
69	%%* EnchantedForest: The normal location for the knight to go on his quest.
70	* TheFairFolk: Possibly their nastiest in ''Sir Orfeo'', but the fairies in romances are always magical, powerful, capricious, and hedged about with taboos to act as ForbiddenFruit.
71	* FallenOnHardTimesJob:
72	** The Man Tried by Fate often loses everything and has to take a menial position, such as TheBlacksmith.
73	** Women driven to exile and poverty by malicious slander take to their needles for support.
74	%%* ForbiddenFruit:
75	%%* HealingHands: The heroines of the ''Crescentia'' romances.
76	* IGaveMyWord: King Orfeo wins a reward from the King of Faerie, who has to admit that if the reward is unfitting, breaking his word is still less so.
77	* ImpoverishedPatrician: Many a spend-thrift knight has spent all he owns.
78	* IWillWaitForYou: Leaving one's beloved in order to win the name that will let you marry her may require this.
79	* KingIncognito: King Orfeo disguises himself as a minstrel.
80	* {{Knighting}}: Many young heroes are knighted to start them off.
81	%%* KnightErrant: Necessary to reach all those adventures.
82	%%* KnightInShiningArmor: Main character, usually.
83	%%* LadyAndKnight
84	%%* TheLadysFavour: Many carry it with them.
85	%%* LoveAtFirstSight: ''Sir Degrevant''.
86	* MaliciousSlander: Rebuffed lovers specialize in this.
87	* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Innocent wives charged with adultery are fairly often charged with having borne children to a man other than their husband.
88	* MercifulMinion: How Havelock survived his father's throne being usurped.
89	* MineralMacGuffin: Glowing gemstones are particularly popular
90	* MosesInTheBulrushes: Usually princes sent away to save from usurpers.
91	* MostWritersAreWriters: Many romances praise giving gifts to minstrels, and abuse the porter, who could keep minstrels out of the hall.
92	%%* TheMourningAfter
93	%%* OnlyTheChosenMayRide
94	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They're white knights coming to the aid of the man who saw to their burial.
95	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: They're princes enchanted by their WickedStepmother into that form.
96	%%* ThePardon: ''Gamelyn''
97	%%* ParentalIncest
98	%%* PeerlessLoveInterest: The lady, as is only suitable in Courtly Love.
99	%%* ThePenance: ''Robert the Devil''
100	* ThePromise: Making and keeping oaths is of enormous importance in chivalry.
101	* RagsToRoyalty: Both heroes and heroines have a tendency to marry up -- at least from their ''apparent'' station.
102	* RandomEventsPlot: Especially in those stories known as the Man Tried By Fate. But all chivalric romances were prone to magics, perils, problems, and even heroes shifting about.
103	* ReligionOfEvil
104	* RightfulKingReturns: Many young princes adventure until they have to claim the throne.
105	* RoyalBlood: The knight can be the king, or adventure on his behalf.
106	* SecretIdentity: More than one hero took advantage of the face-concealing armor to show up at the tourney or battle without revealing his identity to those who knew him as a menial servant. UrExample rather than TropeMaker, since the identity is only temporary.
107	* SeriesContinuityError: After the smash success of ''Literature/TheSongOfRoland'', Roland had [[ExpansionPackPast a lot more tales told about him]] and his [[CoolSword magical sword Durendal.]] Durendal is completely unbreakable - in ''Song of Roland'', Roland attempts to smash it to pieces on a mountain so the Saracens can't get it, but even that doesn't work. In a poem written later but set earlier than ''Song'', ''The Sultan of Babylon'', Roland breaks Durendal in the middle of a battle by accident.
108	* ShapeshiftingLover: Some brides are clearly swan maidens.
109	* SolitarySorceress: Many enchantresses live in quite isolated locations, though they may have an entire court of likewise isolated attendants. This is actually a downplayed form of DoingInTheWizard -- enchantresses replacing fairy women.
110	* StandardHeroReward: After the first century of them, instead of giving them a love for a married woman, the authors let them marry their beloveds.
111	%%* StandardRoyalCourt: Often the starting place.
112	* SwansASwimming: The Swan Children, in all their variants, are turned to swans. The Swan Knight is accompanied by one.
113	* TextileWorkIsFeminine: Needlework. How else can a heroine in humble circumstances eat?
114	* TheTourney: Where else would you show off in front of the ladies?
115	* TrialByCombat: Often to defend the honor of innocent, accused queens.
116	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Many nobles and kings claimed descent from Charlemagne and the other characters (real or fictional) in the Matter of France. This meant romances involving them came pre-loaded with political significance, especially those about disputes between him and his vassals. This is one reason why the Matter of France declined in popularity and the Matter of Britain rose, because any attempt to use King Arthur politically (like [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor Henry VII's]] efforts to link the Tudors to King Arthur, including naming his eldest son Arthur) derived from the romances, and was not inherent in them.
117	* WickedStepmother: William of Palerne's friend/sidekick was enchanted into a wolf by his.
118	* WomanScorned: Would-be lovers, both male and female, frequently accuse those who have refused them of adultery (if the accused is female) or rape (if male).
119	* WonderChild: Wishing for a child from God or the Devil will work -- alas.
120	%%* YouHaveWaitedLongEnough

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