I appear on this week’s episode of Kent Chronicles on KMTV, looking at Thomas Wyatt and courtly love. You can watch the show here:
www.kentonline.co.uk/kmtv/video/k...
#kentchronicles #thomaswyatt #courtlylove #tudor #tudors
Sanjay Mohindroo
Explore the rich history of Valentine’s Day, shaped by saints, poets, and scholars who turned love into a lasting culture. #ValentinesDay #SaintValentine #Chaucer #Shakespeare #RomanHistory #MedievalCulture #CourtlyLove #PhilosophyOfLove #SeekReflectEvolve
sm.stayingalive.in/did-you-know...
Sanjay K Mohindroo
Explore the rich history of Valentine’s Day, shaped by saints, poets, and scholars who turned love into a lasting culture. #ValentinesDay #SaintValentine #Chaucer #Shakespeare #RomanHistory #MedievalCulture #CourtlyLove #PhilosophyOfLove #SeekReflectEvolve
sm.stayingalive.in/did-you-know...
DYK the 12thC art of #CourtlyLove was about a knight’s seduction of a lord’s wife by doing difficult tasks for her? It was a lord’s strategy to tame landless men who would stir up trouble unless they had something to do. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #GenderHistory #primogeniture
DYK #CourtlyLove raged in 12thC Europe? Bachelor, landless knights wooed wives of landlords, to gain favor w/lords who might marry them to propertied wives of their own. The most famous triad was #KingArthur, #Guinevere & #Lancelot. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #HistSex #romance
The 12thC art of #CourtlyLove was about a knight’s seduction of a lord’s wife by doing difficult tasks for her. It was a lord’s strategy to tame landless men who could stir up trouble unless they had something to do. #GenderHistory #primogeniture
DYK #troubadours sang about the art of #CourtlyLove across Europe in 12thC? They taught knights how to submit to the loving tyranny of their married #domina ladies & gave the seeds of love in marriage. Ghosts of #WmnHist still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #HistMarriage
👁️ Candles on a stone ledge covered in many layers of melted wax 📍 Krčma, Prague 📅 8 Jun 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 25600, ƒ9, -0.3 ev, 1/80s
Vicarus
A #poem in three parts
—
i.
The candles’ wax
has dripped and run,
smoke cataracts
still cloud wicks’ suns
and shafts of light
through windows barred
are faded, slight
like the penitent’s scars
🧵👇🏼
#poemaday #poetry #prague #courtlylove #moody #photography #poetrysky #blueskypoets
👁️ An old pink rambler rose on a trellis on a stucco wall 📍 Palace Vrtba, Prague 📅 11 Jun 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 100, ƒ4.5, -0.3 ev, 1/400s
Rose hips
A #poem in two parts
—
i.
An ancient rose,
she’s trellised high.
Her velvet folds:
love’s fleeting sigh.
Damascus scent,
French pedigree,
in a purple tent
though wild and free.
🧵👇🏼
#poemaday #poetry #courtlylove #bloomscrolling #roses #flowers #photography #poetrysky #blueskypoets
There are some differences between the plots of today’s pulp #RomanceNovel & the rules of medieval #CourtlyLove. In the pulp romance, the girl is not married & is usually a #virgin.
DYK the spirit of #CourtlyLove embodied today in America’s most popular kind of novel, the #BodiceRipper? Millions of American women read #RomanceNovels about shy, chaste women who tame the wickedly attractive bad boys in their lives.
👁️ Elaborate stone tracery in a Gothic cathedral 📍 St. Vitus’ Cathedral, Prague 📅 9 Jun 2025 📸 Nikon D5600 ⚪️ Nikkor DX 35 mm ƒ1.8G 🎞️ ISO 800, ƒ5.6, -1.7 ev, 1/125s
Sacré Cœur d’Aquitaine
A #poem in three parts
—
i.
Gothic details
in living sandstone,
rock veins under veils
by mason’s hands known.
🧵👇🏼
#poemaday #poetry #gothic #cathedral #monochrome #courtlylove #photography #poetrysky #blueskypoets
DYK #adultery was acceptable in courts of #CourtlyLove? In one case, a knight complained to the court of Ermengarde of Narbonne that his beloved had no right to break the bonds of their love just because she had married an honorable man.
Their games of #CourtlyLove became legendary & imitated throughout Europe. Likewise, w/the courts of their sons—kings #RichardTheLionHeart (d.1199) & his infamous brother John—who most of us remember as #RobinHood’s archenemy. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #GenderHistory #HistSex
DYK In 1152, #EleanorOfAquitaine, granddaughter of William IX married Henry Plantagenet, soon to be King #HenryII? By 1160, the most popular songs, poems, & stories about #CourtlyLove poured from their courts.
#romance #RomanticLove #RomanticNovel
#CourtlyLove became the model for the behavior of courtiers through the Renaissance. It helped stabilize & strengthen the state & w/it, the romantic straight couple was born. Ghosts of #GenderHistory still haunt. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #WmnHist
DYK medieval courtliness & #CourtlyLove were among the most powerful civilizing forces in the West since ancient Rome? In pursuing them, high-placed women demanded unruly throngs of bachelor knights, crude clerics, & blasphemous entertainers civilize themselves.
But for a while, #CourtlyLove allowed a homeless knight to enter the world of the élite, perform heroic exploits, & gain love—his just reward. His search for a place in the world was an equal match for his beloved’s search for a place for herself. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #WmnHist
DYK medieval #CourtlyLove helped maintain an enormous class divide? Like spiritual love & passionate friendships, fin d’amour was aristocratic & very public. All three modes of love were ennobling, but they were not for the poor or the less-than-noble.
DYK medieval #CourtlyLove was very much like a joust? It went like this: The knight would pledge his love. The lady would ask him to prove it. The knight would ask her how he should prove it. The lady would set him an arduous task. He would perform the task. Score.
DYK medieval troubadours were the foremost teachers of “fin d’amour”—pure love? In some of their songs (tensons) they debated many questions (jeu parties) about #CourtlyLove, & they argued over the qualities that purified it. Here are a few of the questions they debated:
Most medieval knights were landless because of inheritance laws & could become troublesome marauders as they wandered aimlessly. #Chivalry & #CourtlyLove kept them from rape & banditry. The story of #KingArthur, #Guinevere, & #Lancelot is a prime example.
DYK #troubadours sang about the art of #CourtlyLove across Europe in 12thC, teaching knights how to submit to the tyranny of their married #domina ladies? It was the strategy of lords & the birth of love in marriage. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #HistMarriage #HistSex
So many fun and informative episodes. Discussing books you love or might fall in love with…check us out! #inwalksawoman #bookpodcasts #history #thedarcymyth #prideandprejudice #romeoandjuliet #eighteenthcenturylit #tristanandiseult #courtlylove
#OTD #TDIH #July15, 1796 #HBD #ThomasBulfinch! #Writers #Mythologists #Mythology #AgeOfChivalry #LegendsOfKingArthur #LegendsOfCharlemagne #RomanceOfTheMiddleAges #GraecoRomanMythology #Chivalry #CourtlyLove
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...
Nevertheless, the mannered expressions of #CourtlyLove in the 8th, 9th, & 10thCs were the foundation for the birth of romance between women & men in the 11th& 12th. All was born in #SameSex relationships between lords & their vassals. HowSexGotScrewedUp.com #QueerHistory
DYK aristocrats took #CourtlyLove seriously for a very long time? In 1237, 200 years after the 1st #troubadour, Renmar der Alte sang this minnilied—song of love:
“I wish to be known my entire life as a master of one thing & one thing only.
Each tells the tragedy of a romantic couple getting lost in games of #CourtlyLove. His other heroes are Cliges, Erec, Perceval, & Yvain. The beloved, an incarnation of the Mother of God, drives each toward a divine mission, which brings meaning & transcendence to their lives.
DYK the epic poet of #CourtlyLove was Chrétien de Troyes (d.1191)? His patron was Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The most famous of his works was about King Arthur, his wife Guinevere, & her lover, Lancelot.
HowSexGotScrewedUp.com
“Book Two” includes descriptions of how the Courts of Love enforced the rules of #CourtlyLove. Ladies held these courts to cast judgment on the complaints of lovers against their ladies or of ladies against their lovers. Andreas describes 21 judgments made in these courts.
