unworthy of a nature so generous and so
faithful; we can attempt no defence, we can only express regret. Her
personality exerted a powerful influence over those with whom she came
in contact, and from all the best men of her time she received due meed
of praise. Compare her with other women of her day, and there is none
who can be placed beside Blanche _la bonne reine_, or Blanche _la bonne
mere_.

CHAPTER VII

THE ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY AND LOVE

BESIDE such a figure as that of Blanche de Castille, the women of whom
we might next speak would seem pale ghosts, mere masks and shadows; and,
even then, not always pleasing ones. There are, in fact, no immediate
successors of Blanche and her daughter-in-law in the history of France;
there is an interregnum, so to speak, of good, great, even of notorious
women; in this inter-regnum, therefore, let us see how chivalry and
literature were treating woman, what was the ideal, and what was the
real woman in the artistic world at this time.

Between the tenth and the sixteenth centuries Europe saw the birth, the
growth, the culmination, the decay, and finally the displacement of
those ideals and those customs which we associate with the word
"chivalry." The subject of chivalry, interesting in itself, is also one
of peculiar interest for us, since chivalry affected in no small degree
the condition of women; but with its primal origin we shall not attempt
to deal: we shall dig up no roots, but only do our best to describe the
glorious tree itself and the soil in which it flourished. We shall find
that chivalry, like all other earthly things, has its leprous spots,
which one must keep out of sight if one would pour forth genuine and
unchecked enthusiasm; yet the good and the bad alike must be understood
if we would have a just conception of the whole.

We have seen in the case of the troubadours something of the nature of
the extravagant amorous devotion avowed for his lady by the knightly
poet. Though this exaggerated passion and romance is one of the
concomitants, it is not the fundamental idea or the best part of
chivalry. Originally, perhaps, a mere association for mutual defence and
support, the order of knighthood soon came to have a deeper and a better
purpose, a wider significance; it assumed the sanctity of a religious
institution, for which long years of careful preparation were deemed
necessary, and which imposed serious duties.

To defend the weak and the oppres