Troubadours and brothels
Everyone in the medieval literature
knows the troubadour songs, in which a knight begs the beloved lady in bile.
Still, there was no chance that the relationship would become a reality.
Troubadour poetry in the XII.
started from the southern French nobility of the 16th century. His main feature
was that the poet always writes his songs to a married woman. The point was
that the husband himself was not fit for love: he could not love his wife,
could not bile for him, could not court him. The main reason for this is that
in the Middle Ages, marriage between nobles was a simple property transaction
arranged by the parents, the young people to be married had no say in it: money
married with money, land with land, and so on. Emotions played no role. Also,
the purpose of marriage is to birth, a child who has inherited the family
property. So the husband cannot feel anxiety and torment, which is one of the
essential components of troubadour love. The chief virtue of knights in
troubadour love is patient humility, with which he endures the torment of a
woman adored from afar.
The ideal lover
A true hero-loving knight is
humble, kind, attentive, making sure everyone has a good opinion of him. The
knight avoids profanity and rudeness. The ideal lover can earn the mercy of his
lady if he patiently bears the spiritual pains. The essence of this love is the
constant threat and uncertainty, where suffering and true love belong together.
The troubadours even compete with each other to see who suffers better. A true
lover is very discreet, and he would never reveal where his love affairs are.
According to the troubadour songs, the lady may have rewarded her persistent
knight. But what that was, the knights did not reveal much about, because, as
we know, they were discreet. One possible reward might have been the sight of
the beloved woman’s naked body, and the other was a kind of love test that we
could best describe today with the word petting. The lady allowed the man to
lie next to her after promising that she would behave following the
requirements of moderation.
A XII. It was an everyday reality
in 19th-century France that in noble families, the firstborn son inherited the
property, and the other boys were either given to a priest or served in a
nearby castle lord and remained wealthless. That’s why they couldn’t even think
of marriage. So they needed something in which they could be more than and rich
above the wealthy knights — at least morally. And that was pure, Platonic love.
However, he formulated the sexual overheating of knights in literary form. It
also drew a sharp line between nobles and citizens and peasants who mated in
the “animal way.”
Marriage as a sacrament
However, based on many literary
works - Boccaccio, Villon, Chaucer - it can be thought that the whole of
society was obsessed with sexuality.
Boccaccio
imdb.com
Brothels, baths, and rape
The poor and unmarried knights
found relief in brothels. Despite early medieval prohibitions and severe
punishments, prostitution was introduced in the XI-XII. Century lived its
heyday. Organized prostitution has been recognized as the strongest guardian of
marriage because it protects married women from the seduction of unmarried men
and provides young men with an opportunity “without consequences.” The
importance of brothels was even acknowledged by St. Thomas Aquinas as a
necessary evil.
There were brothels in every city
where, according to their social rank, budget, and taste, everyone found the
woman they liked. There were brothels for the ordinary people, and especially
for the gentlemen, which could be used with certain moral and hygienic rules
(prayer three times a day, ban on the admission of virgins and married women).
Prostitutes over the age of 30, mostly married and often became respected
mothers and virtuous matrons.
The brothel accessories were
complemented by the medieval bathhouses, where nudity was allowed, and the bath
girls were happy to fulfill all the wishes of the guests. An XVI. however, from
the 16th century onwards, the church increasingly complained that men and
women, honorable women, and prostitutes bathed together so that the bathhouses
were soon closed.
Rape was a usual custom in the eyes
of medieval youth. Every second young urban man took part in such action at
least once in his life at the age of 16-26. Most of the violence took place in
public. The authorities did not punish their activities either, because young
people often singled out their victims in the role of “moral beaker”: women who
were already in bad news: priest lovers, widows, adulterous women, foreign
female visitors. The violence was often introduced by cat music held under the
victim’s widow. Then a team of 4-15 people broke into the house and raped by
the whole company, accompanied by harsh punches and loud whips - it was a
peculiar medieval ‘gangbang'.
The opposite pole: the morally degraded Byzantium
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