Courtly Love

Courtly Love is the romantic behavior practised in the official courts of the French Aquitaine in the 12th century. The court had hearings of love testimonials, not before a queen or king, but before a panel of usually twelve men and women - the forerunner of the jury system that Eleanor put in place in England.

What was unique about the court was the radical idea that personal love was important. To feel love was the basis for relationships and could become a quest that betters those involved. The nobility of this love was highly regarded. It was not a fashion, but a passion that mattered to the court. The court put forward that marriage was not important without love and that there were grounds to seek love outside of loveless marriage. Supporting a grounds for divorce was heretical for the ruling powers however.

The Book of Love
The Art of Courtly Love, (pub. 1174-1186) , Andreas Capellanus

From the court, the only surviving code book is from André Le Chapelain. It was developed during the reign of Eleanor at Poitier and written while Andre was a patron of Marie - Eleanor's daughter. Eleanor developed the primary court of love in Poitier (1169-1173) where Marie visited, presumably to preside in court. The book recalls a partial list of the codes established at that court. One of the remarkable themes of the court is the importance of love even when the parties are married. Although the church permitted divorce when the parties were "discovered" to be too closely related, Eleanor said love had to be present. Eleanor suffered like many others from the shortcomings of loveless landed marriages. The "Book of Love" codified some of the conditions of love. Clearly it is a small fraction of the letters, songs, hearings and books committed under the pen of the court. Most were destroyed and erased during her 15 year imprisonment and the Catholic Church's severe inquisition which eradicated her "heresy" shortly after her death.

André Le Chapelain composed a "Book of Love" at the request of Countess Marie of Troyes, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, based on active court practices in Poitier (Peitieus) and the courts in the French Aquitaine. He was a French writer on the art of courtly love, best known for his three-volume treatise Liber de arte honeste amandi et reprobatione inhonesti amoris (c. 1185; "Book of the Art of Loving Nobly and the Reprobation of Dishonourable Love"). He was a chaplain at the court of Marie when she was the Countess of Champagne. The book was translated into French twice during the 13th century; Guillaume de Lorris drew upon it for the Roman de la rose. The Liber codifies the whole doctrine of courtly love, containing many of the elements of the cult.

Although the rules of love are intriguing, some of the most amazing writing are Andreas' copies of some of the romantic "form letters" of the courts. These give examples of how men and women of different classes should communicate.

The text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.

The Twelve Chief Rules in Love

1. Thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly pestilence and shalt embrace its opposite.
2. Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the sake of her whom thou lovest.
3. Thou shalt not knowingly strive to break up a correct love affair that someone else is engaged in.
4. Thou shalt not chose for thy love anyone whom a natural sense of shame forbids thee to marry.
5. Be mindful completely to avoid falsehood.
6. Thou shalt not have many who know of thy love affair.
7. Being obedient in all things to the commands of ladies, thou shalt ever strive to ally thyself to the service of Love.
8. In giving and receiving love's solaces let modesty be ever present.
9. Thou shalt speak no evil.
10. Thou shalt not be a revealer of love affairs.
11. Thou shalt be in all things polite and courteous.
12. In practicing the solaces of love thou shalt not exceed the desires of thy lover.

His work, De Amore (About Love), provides a detailed guide to courtly love, though it was written for safety-sake in a satirical voice. This excerpt outlines the effect of love.

Now it is the effect of love that a true lover cannot be degraded with any avarice. Love causes a rough and uncouth man to be distinguished for his handsomeness; it can endow a man of even the humblest birth with nobility of character, it blesses the proud with humility; and the man in love becomes accustomed to performing many services gracefully for everyone. O what a wonderful thing is love, which makes a man shine with so many virtues and teaches everyone, no matter who he is, so many good traits of character! There is another thing about love that we should not praise in few words; it adorns a man, so to speak, with the virtue of chastity, because he who shines with the light of love can hardly think of embracing another woman, even a beautiful one. For when he thinks of his beloved the sight of any other woman seems to his mind rough and rude.

Andres Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love, J.J. Parry, trans., F. Locke, ed. (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1954), p.4. As appears in The Middle Ages: Volume 1: Sources in Medieval History, Brian Tierney, 4th edition, p.211.

DE ARTE HONESTE AMANDI
The Art of Courtly Love, Book Two: On the Rules of Love

1. Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
2. He who is not jealous cannot love.
3. No one can be bound by a double love.
4. It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing.
5. That which a lover takes against his will of his beloved has no relish.
6. Boys do not love until they arrive at the age of maturity.
7. When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor.
8. No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons.
9. No one can love unless he is impelled by the persuasion of love.
10. Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.
11. It is not proper to love any woman whom one should be ashamed to seek to marry.
12. A true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.
13. When made public love rarely endures.
14. The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.
15. Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
16. When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved his heart palpitates.
17. A new love puts to flight an old one.
18. Good character alone makes any man worthy of love.
19. If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives.
20. A man in love is always apprehensive.
21. Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.
22. Jealousy, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved.
23. He whom the thought of love vexes, eats and sleeps very little.
24. Every act of a lover ends with in the thought of his beloved.
25. A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved.
26. Love can deny nothing to love.
27. A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his beloved.
28. A slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved.
29. A man who is vexed by too much passion usually does not love.
30. A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved.
31. Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one man by two women.

Liber de arte honeste amandi et reprobatione inhonesti amoris (c. 1185;)

"Book of the Art of Loving Nobly and the Reprobation of Dishonourable Love"

Book One: Introduction to the Treatise on Love

I. What Love Is
II. Between What Persons Love May Exist
III. Where Love Gets Its Name
IV. What the Effect of Love Is
V. What Persons Are Fit for Love
VI. In What Manner Love May Be Acquired and in How Many Ways
VII. The Love of the Clergy
VIII. The Love of Nuns
IX. Love Got With Money
X. The Easy Attainment of One's Object
XI. The Love of Peasants
XII. The Love of Prostitutes

Book Two: How Love May Be Retained

I. How Love, When It Has Been Acquired, May Be Kept
II. How a Love, Once Consummated, May Be Increased
III. In What Ways Love May Be Decreased
IV. How Love May Come to an End
V. Indications That One's Love Is Returned
VI. If One of the Lovers Is Unfaithful to the Other
VII. Various Decisions in Love Cases
VIII. The Rules of Love

Book Three: The Rejection of Love