Guilherme Queiroz de SOUZA

Adoubement and Chivalry in the Feudal West: Gautier d’Arras’s Eracle (c. 1159-1184)

Adoubement e Cavalaria no Ocidente feudal: o Eracle (c. 1159-1184) de Gautier d’Arras

Published in Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Peninsula Cultural History

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The purpose of this article is to analyze the adoubement and the Chivalry in the Feudal West, through the emphasis on the romance Eracle, written by the French cleric Gautier d’Arras between 1159 and 1184. In this work, the protagonist hero is submitted to the adoubement (rite of passage) to join the Chivalry, category considered by some historians as the dominant institution during the Feudalism. We study the evolution and stages of the rite, as well as the main chivalric virtues (courage, loyalty and prudence), the concepts of largesse and prodomie and the art of war. For this, we utilize comparatively works of the 11-12th centuries.