The Origins of Cortesia

Superior conduct before the chivalric turn was defined across Europe as something called Courtliness (Lat. curialitas, Fr. courtoisie, Occ./It. cortesia, MHG Hofzuht). Using the early twelfth-century literature of Occitania and England, the chapter establishes it to be then well understood amongst the laity and taught across Europe in elite households (not just those of kings and princes) and considers how far back such lay conduct fit for the court might be found. A case can be made that it was already a pan-European phenomenon by 1000, which partly explains how it was so widespread by 1100. The chapter argues, in contradiction to earlier work, that it was a habitus generated within the aristocracy and taught to youth within its halls, not devised by a civilizing Church from classical models.