The Knights of Khryl in The Acts of Caine have this reputation as an order, which makes it all the more depressing in that their membership consists of individuals who either count as this, or Knight Templar. Caine Black Knife reveals that Caine himself has a secret admiration for the Knights and their most exemplary members that dates back to the stories he enjoyed as a child (which is ironic since Caine is a Combat Pragmatist and the Knights' code of honour is a primary cause behind how he spends most of the novel kicking their asses).
There are occasional references to upstanding men as this trope in the Aunt Dimity series, especially when they demonstrate their goodness openly. Also, among Lori and Bill's wedding gifts is a portrait of Bill on horseback and wearing armour—and his glasses.
Bazil Broketail: Count Trego may act like a jerk due to his rather backward worldview, but a common lout he is not. As a nobleman, he usually minds his manners and treats other people with courtesy, even if — in his own eyes — they are inferior to him due to social standing. While he does act grumpy and offended by Endysia's presence at a strategic meeting, once she greets him in his own language, he is immediately embarrassed, recognizing the fact that he behaved like a boor. He is also a valiant warrior, always ready to fight in the first line with other knights.
In Patricia A. McKillip's The Bell at Sealey Head, Princess Ysabo's home also has many knights, and part of her prescribed ritual is to perform certain services for them, filling cups with wine. She is told she must marry one, and when she asks why, the knight hits her. However, this turns out to be a false knight, not even human. The crows she feeds every day as part of the ritual are in fact the true knights, and when restored, they behave in a much more knightly manner.
Bolo: The eponymous supertanks of Keith Laumer's series are intentionally programmed with this notion in mind.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: Subverted. Knights are portrayed as little more than wandering bullies who picked fights with each other or even defenseless passersby for no reason. The tales of their heroic deeds are entirely fabricated (and absurd on their faces, leading the main character to marvel at how nobody picks up on the implausability of it), and the story features a lengthy description of how uncomfortable the main character is when he is put in his own shiny armor to go on his own quest. Arthur nevertheless proves himself noble in a situation entirely unrelated to combat: having taken refuge in a peasant's home, Arthur and his companions learn no one goes near it because the occupants are dying of the pox, with the daughter upstairs and the mother too weak to see her off. The king, without a word, leaves the room and is heard going upstairs.
In John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton series, The Hermetic Millennia has the frozen Knights Hospitallar wake when the Tombs need protection.
Anthony Woodville is portrayed as this in Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War Series. While Anthony is a genuinely good man who really does fit this trope, he's often dragged down by the turmoil, the conflict-ridden surroundings, and the far less upstanding people around him.
Daughter of the Sun: Orsina is a female knight and a paladin who has sworn to protect people against evil. She roams around doing this. However, though people generally expect knights to wear plate armor, Orsina doesn't usually as it's far too hot in Vesolda, where she's stationed, only doing so when facing extreme danger.
The Deed of Paksenarrion: Played straight with the eponymous character in the trilogy by Elizabeth Moon. Paks is intentionally designed to be a Paladin from Dungeons & Dragons (see below), written after seeing so many Lawful Stupid Paladins at conventions. Also literally true: the armor worn by paladins will gradually become more lustrous whether or not they actively polish it. The gods have decreed that paladins imply shining armor.
In Discworld, Carrot Ironfounderson is an urbanized version, right down to the well-polished City Watch breastplate.
Dragonlance has the Solamnic knights from Dungeons&Dragons Dragonlance setting. In particular, Sturm Brightblade holds to the Oath and Measure upheld by his father, even though he was never actually knighted and most people he knows hold the order in scorn.
In Dragonvarld, King Edward of Idlyswylde is inspired by stories about these, and wants to fill this role himself. He gets a chance, because there's a dragon to drive off and the fair Melisande to rescue. He doesn't succeed (since the dragon was play-acting and Melisande ends up raped and dead), but it's not really his fault.
Harry Dresden, despite his continual disbelief at the concept, is a Wizard version of this. He isn't a firm believer in God, but holds to the "Tao of Peter Parker." He has great power and with it comes great responsibility. He will fight the monsters of the dark with all he has. While he will work with evil at times, he will never submit to it. He endures a shadow of a Fallen Angel whispering in his ear for years when no shadow has taken at most days, or weeks to make the person fall. His good heart and stubborn determination changes the shadow herself into something new, and should Harry have taken the coin at that point, would have been killed by the Fallen. Indeed, it goes even further than that: her Heroic Sacrifice to save him is a sufficient Act of True Love to actually produce a child of both their minds, a Spirit of Intellect. Which Harry is technically pregnant with. Cue Murphy laughing so hard she can't breathe.
The three Knights of the Cross are this too. Bearers of holy blades, each blade has one of the Nails that pierced Jesus Christ, and reflect one particular virtue, Hope, Faith, and Love, respectively. The Knights, male or female, are bound by His codes. Their jobs are not to kill the hosts of the Fallen Angels, but offer them redemption. Should they violate this, or break their word, harm an innocent, or other corruptible act, it threatens the very nature of the Sword and risks depowering it at best, or breaking it at worst. That said, nothing is lost forever and there is always hope the Sword can be reforged at the right place and at the Right time. They do not recruit people, nor do they force them to serve for their lives. Many Knights have taken up the Sword to help with one Crisis and set them down, no consequences upon them.
Michael Carpenter even meets his wife by saving her from a fire-breathing dragon. While he is an idealist, he isn't dumb. He can work many things out in time and plan accordingly. Even though it pains him, when he gets a call, he will depart from his family, trusting Him to keep them safe.
Sanya is the Atoning Knight in Shining Armor as he was once host to one of the Fallen, but a moral epiphany freed him from the demon's clutches. He wields the Sword of Hope, bringing it to the world and helping save many people.
Sparhawk fits the spiritual heroism of this trope even as he rejects its superficial aspects. Ironically, Sparhawk's own mental image is the aging, weather-beaten, not-especially handsome professional soldier he is, rather than a romantic hero, and the affections of his formerly Damsel in Distress wife were at first a source of considerable guilt, as she is almost half his age. His armor, by the way, like all knights of the Pandion order, is far from shining; it's enameled black.
Downplayed with Sir Bevier and by extension the rest of the Cyrinic Knights from the same series who are literal Knights in Shining Armor. The Cyrinic Knights polish their armor to a mirror finish as opposed to the Pandions, and the other two orders of Church Knights go with unadorned dull steel.
Sir Mandorallen from David Eddings's The Belgariad saga (and its sequel, the Malloreon saga) is a textbook example of the Knight in Shining Armor; he embodies this trope, both outwardly and inwardly. Complete with a tragic chivalric love-from-afar affair. Eddings lampshaded the heck out of the trope, though: Mandorallen is heroic, brave and fearless, unbeaten in combat, honorable, truthful, and so on and so on. The first time in his life that he suddenly felt real fear (when he faced a magical opponent that he couldn't defeat) let to a kind of nervous breakdown, a self-doubt of epic proportions during which Mandorallen developed phobophobia, a paralyzing fear of being afraid. He eventually got over it, with the help of his friends, culminating in a moment when he kills a lion with his bare hands.
The other characters routinely tended to poke gentle fun of Mandorallen's utter dedication to chivalry, wondering to each other if he actually has any brains (answer: yes, to an extent. However, he has absolutely no common sense whatsoever) and people who met him for the first time kept asking "Is this guy for real?" and "Did he really just charge the enemy? He's going to die!" — "No he isn't. He's Mandorallen." Everything you need to know about Mandorallen is summed up in this exchange from Castle of Wizardry, wherein Mandorallen is escorting the Rivan Queen out to the center of a field to address over fifty thousand heavily-armed, potentially hostile soldiers during a very tense diplomatic stand-off. It's important to note that Mandorallen is speaking here with absolutely no irony whatsoever:
Mandorallen: We are some distance from our own forces, your Majesty. I pray thee, be moderate in thine address. Even I might experience some difficulty in facing the massed legions of all Tolnedra.
In the sequel series, he suggests to the rest of Big Guy Band - all barred from involvement this time around by the strictures of prophecy - that they should help their friends indirectly. Specifically, by going to Mallorea, a continent ruled by a single almighty Empire, and take on the entire Mallorean army. Barak, the Only Sane Man, just puts his head down on the table and cries.
In Erl of Toulouse, a queen is saved by a champion after two knights falsely accuse her of infidelity for refusing their advances.
Each of The Faerie Queene's protagonists are mighty knights who achieve great feats of strength, but are more praised for their virtue. Each is chaste, active, slow to anger, kind, and humble even as gods of greed, beautiful sorceresses, and suicidal monsters try to corrupt them.
In The Guardians, Hugh was a medieval knight sincerely striving towards honor and chivalry when he met Lilith. She taunts his naiveté by nicknaming him "Sir Pup". He was rewarded for his life of honesty with the Gift of lie detection.
In Robert A. Heinlein's Have Space Suit – Will Travel, Kip has a dream featuring knights in shining space armor (and dragons and Arcturian maidens among its tamer elements). Afterward, he insists on preceding Peewee out of the cell like a proper knight, and after a failure regards himself as not a knight, but a soda jerk.
Horseclans: Sir Geros Lahvoheetos, a gentleman's valet who earns a knighthood and myriad other honours through his chivalry and courage. Honest, humble and kind to others, convinced of his own cowardice - because in his eyes wetting himself in terror outweighs such suicidal courage as running into a blazing inferno to rescue a wounded comrade pinned beneath debris.
Journey to Chaos: Siron Esrah is a chivalrous nobleman who insists on propriety and protecting the Crown Princess. His introduction is during a joust.
The Lady of Shalott: Part III of the poem is dedicated to describing Sir Lancelot. He is written as a bold and loyal knight who sings a song by the river, and the Lady cannot help but take a look at him.
The Lord of Bembibre: Don Álvaro, the titular lord of Bembibre, is a -literal- Templar Knight. He strives for behaving honorably -even when it causes him personal suffering-, being loyal to God, faithful to his lady and kind to his servants.
In Le Morte d'Arthur, written by Thomas Malory, many characters are subversions in that they all had glaring flaws: King Arthur, usually portrayed as The Good King, had an early Nice Job Breaking It, Herod moment and later is struck down by Mordred because he was too enraged to heed a prophetic dream; the wise mentor Merlin was a Dirty Old Man and met his doom because of it; Gawain, while on the Quest for the Sangreal (Holy Grail), refused to do penance and was rebuked by hermits and disembodied voices alike for his homicidal ways; the great Lancelot was an adulterer who had an affair with Arthur's wife, Guinevere, and failed in the Sangreal Quest due to his unstable virtue. Indeed, the Sangreal Quest itself shows, and was meant to show, how all these noble knights, great in the world, fell short spiritually. The only knight allowed to achieve the Sangreal was Galahad, who exemplified the knightly ideal. Galahad is described as a flawless creature because he was intended to represent knightly perfection. There is an unused chair at the Round Table that will kill any who sit in it, except the one destined to find the Sangreal. Galahad introduces himself to Arthur by sitting in it. Arthur then takes him to a stone with a sword sticking out of it that can only be pulled by the best knight in the world. Galahad pulls it. Arthur announces a jousting tournament. Galahad beats everyone he faces. The text makes several remarks on his virtue (that he's still a maid, that he doesn't wantonly kill), and he achieves the Sangreal, eventually being allowed to ascend up to Heaven.
The Once and Future King points out the issues with Galahad being the perfect knightly ideal. is too perfect, almost invariably coming off as distant and self-righteous, to the point of being outright inhuman. He discomforts and annoys his fellow knights as a result, and comes off as rather less likeable than the similarly righteous (but more human) Sir Percival.
In Living Alone by Stella Benson, one silly woman describes herself as fighting spiritually against the Germans as this.
"Yes, I was," persisted Miss MacBee. "I lay on the hammock which I have had slung in my cellar, and shut my eyes, and loosed my spirit, and it shot upward like a lark released. It detached itself from the common trammels of the body, yes, my spirit, in shining armour, fought with the false, cruel spirits of murderers."
In Jack Campbell's The Lost Stars series, the Tarnished Knight novel leads up to the Title Drop, Iceni reflects that she doesn't have this, but she may have a somewhat more tarnished version.
In Devon Monk's Magic to the Bone, Allie plays with this, speaking of looking for police in shining armor and the like.
In John Hemry's Paul Sinclair novels, Jen refers to Paul as this, repeatedly. Her father ironically observes that he expected to need sunglasses while meeting him.
Despite his anti-hero tendencies, the titular character of Philip Marlowe is explicitly compared, by Raymond Chandler, to a knight in shining armor.
The Queen's Fool portrays Lord Robert Dudley as this. He rides to battle in the war against France to show the Queen his loyalty after he loses all his lands. He also remains respectful towards Hannah after she refuses him, and remains cool with his wife when she accuses him of cheating on her.
In The Queen's Thief series, Costis in The King of Attolia is an example. Not only does he have "a sense of honor as wide as a river," but he actually spends quite some time hoping that his armor is shiny enough for the King's critical eye.
In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Rachel Griffin series, The Raven, the Elf, and Rachel novel features a princess's vision where she sees two sets of these standing (with some allies) against the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They are referred to as Saracen knights and paladins, so they appear to be from the Matter of France — and in an Enemy Mine situation.
The Royal Diaries series has Eleanor crushing on a knight in Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine, and she wants him to be her bodyguard. Once when they are attacked, Clotaire the Strong pulls her into his saddle, and races her back to the safety of the castle.
In The Last Hero, one of the earlier novels (1931) of The Saint series, Simon Templar takes a back seat to his gallant and tragic associate Norman Kent, who falls in love hopelessly with Templar's girlfriend Patricia Holm (who hardly notices him) and at the end of the book sacrifices his life to let Templar and his other comrades-in-arms escape the current villain and fight again another day. A book called "Knights Errant of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries" by Caroline Whitehead and George McLeod says it all: "Norman Kent is an archetypal knight-errant. Though formally a man of 20th Century England, he lives (and dies) by the Code of Chivalry. He loves totally his Lady, Patricia Holm — who, like Don Quixote's Dulcinea, is not aware of that love. He is totally loyal to his Liege Lord, Simon Templar. Like Sir Gawain in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", Norman Kent takes on the threats to his Lord. Not only physical threats to life and limb, but also the sometimes unavoidable need to take on dishonourable acts which would have reflected badly on the reputation of King Arthur/Simon Templar is taken on, wholly and without reservation, by Sir Gawain/Norman Kent."
Saint George and the Dragon which came from the poem in The Faerie Queene: The Red Cross Knight is champion for Princess Una, traveling with her to slay the dragon which has been terrorizing her land. He makes certain that she's well back from harm when the battle begins. After the king rewards him, he says never to forget the poor and gives away the gifts. He does accept Una as his wife and inheriting the king's crown however.
Frank Yerby's The Saracen Blade describes the hero's friend Gautier of Montrose as "a true knight" and specifically states he was "one of the few" who lived up to the best ideals of knighthood and did a bit to redeem the period from savagery.
Subverted in Second Apocalypse. When Esmenet is about to get stoned by some ignorant villagers, she's rescued by a dashing holy knight called Sarcellus. However, it turns out that Sarcellus is not at all what he appears to be.
In Sir Tryamour, there's Sir Barnard, who rescues the queen after she's attacked by men sent by an evil steward during her infidelity-imposed exile. Then there's the titular character, Sir Tryamour, who goes above and beyond to defend both his lands from Germany's armies, and the honor of Princess Helen, who is seven in this story.
John Moore's Slay and Rescue has a prince literally named Charming, sent by his father's chancellor to rescue fair maidens all over the place (the theory is that it keeps him too busy to try to take over the throne).
Song at Dawn: Dragonetz left for the Second Crusade as one of these; full of confidence in Christendom and Chivalry.
A Song of Ice and Fire: While the series often subverts and even deconstructs the trope, it does contain a few straight examples:
Though she has some aspects of a Knight in Sour Armor, Brienne of Tarth is mostly this trope played as straight as you can get (being a woman in a job otherwise held solely by men notwithstanding). She suffers from deep insecurities, and is struggling to reconcile the ideal of what knights should be with what most are... hence, some of the sour touches. Yet, she nevertheless shows the boys how it should be done. Heck, it rubs off on Jaime.
Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, was this as well. Eddard Stark considers him to be the best knight he ever met, and everyone recognizes him as the greatest knight of his time. Jaime idolized him in his youth and considers the day he witnessed Arthur's fight against the SmilingKnight one of the best moments of his life. Jaime in a moment of self-reflection wonders how the boy who wanted to become the Sword of the Morning became the Smiling Knight instead.
In the prequel novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg, the titular Ser Duncan the Tall is a Humble Hero, but he might well be one of the most down-to-earth decent knights in Westerosi history. His rise to infamy in the first story, defending a common puppeteer from a murder attempt by the King's grandson has everyone calling him "a knight who remembered his vows", which is treated as a rarity. His ethics have a lot to do with his humble upbringing as a former street urchin brought up as a hedge knight's squire. These qualities have a lot to do with he gets the future Aegon V ('Egg') as his squire, producing arguably the most fundamentally decent King that Westeros ever saw.
While not a knight due to his religious affiliations, Ned Stark is a member of the comparable Northern social class of landed warrior elite and has a set of rigid moral standards that he adhere to. He wages a war against the ruling family in part to rescue his kidnapped sister, a Damsel in Distress held in a tower.
Minor character Ser Garlan Tyrell, called Garlan the Gallant, is a tall, handsome and superlative swordsman who exhibits a lot more morality in his brief page-time than most other characters in the series.
Fermi Amati of Spice and Wolf is actually a very successful merchant, but he offers a not-so-small fortune to alleviate the debts of the pagan wolf deity/traveling nun Horo, and rescue her from Lawrence. He'd only seen her twice when he made the decision, and he presents his intention with a written contract and a proclamation in front of a small crowd. Horo points out he's not really in love with her, so much as the idea of rescuing a beautiful Damsel in Distress in a knightly way.
Dalinar from The Stormlight Archive is this to the core, and encourages his eldest son to be. This usually causes him to be regarded as an eccentric or fuddy-duddy by the other characters. Also, in the Backstory of the setting, the aptly named Knights Radiant were knights in literal shining armour.
Also note that the armor stops being shiny if you aren't worthy of it, and a few times when Dalinar is being particularly heroic, his armor starts glowing.
Guy Crouchback in Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh consciously sees himself as a throwback to this. As one of the points is that no one else is honorable, perhaps he is also a Knight in Sour Armor. But despite that, he fits the mold.
The Sunne in Splendour: Richard of Gloucester rides to rescue his lady, Anne, on a white horse. He also is portrayed as being meticulous about the appearance of his armor and his squires are shown polishing it. There are other noble knights in the story, including Edmund, Earl of Rutland, Edmund Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, King Edward IV (at least some of the time), Anthony Woodville and Francis Lovell.
This is enforced for Tortallan knights in the Tortall Universe by nobles sending their would-be knight sons to a central training school in the nation's capital, where they are taught chivalric values along with the arts of war. Although it doesn't always take, the eight-year training is concluded with an overnight trial in the Chamber of the Ordeal. The Chamber is inhabited by a godlike entity which hammers a person's psyche until they survive or break. This doesn't stop them from becoming corrupt later (nor does it make a Jerkass become nice), but it does weed out the truly heinous. Unfit squires have gone mad or run away, or have their crimes brutally exposed, and one character is killed outright. It's noted that one job of a training master is to spot when a youth is unfit for knighthood and end his training well before they can be broken in the Chamber.
There's a rather nice paladin in The Threat from the Sea trilogy (never mind that he once was pious enough to carry the symbol of his divine patron... and then hurl it to sea), but though he eventually acquires a mount (sort of), he never wears heavy armor (after all, he's a seaman). Complemented with the usual chivalric knight for contrast. There were more traditional stiff ones (including some protagonists) in The Pools trilogy. And now there's Thornhold featuring Knights of Samular who "seems to think that Harpers and Zhents are fit to stew in the same pot" (which seems right to some extent) but seems not to be any less fit for the same pot themselves. They have an agent of a Chaotic Evil church among them.
In Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, the hero Holger is thrown in a world where the Matter of France, Charlemagne and his paladins, is fact, and both becomes a knight himself, and meets up with knights. The three hearts and three lions of the title are the coat of arms on his shield. The Paladin class of Dungeons & Dragons is primarily inspired by the paladins from this story. It's revealed in the end that he truly is one of Charlemagne's Paladins—he's Ogier the Dane
In Susan Dexter's The True Knight, Titch has a few flaws but meets the requirements — short of being actually knighted. Wren, nevertheless, pleads at the end that he is the best knight the duke will ever meet.
Prince Merik Nihar of The Witchlands is a Deconstruction. Merik is a kind, noble, self-sacrificing man who doesn't hesitate to literally fly headfirst into trouble if it means saving others. Unfortuanately, because he's so noble and heroic, he's grown conceited and firmly convinced that he's his homeland's only hope for a better future.
Up as a possible modern-era Trope Codifier is Wilfred of Ivanhoe from Ivanhoe. A brave and valiant knight returning from crusade. Who is determined to protect those in need, support his king and adhere strongly to the code of chivalry.
Thornhold
featuring Knights of Samular who "seems to think that Harpers