Chivalry Finds Product Market Fit
Nobles were anything but noble around the year 900 AD.
Power had devolved to the hyperlocal level, meaning that whoever was the toughest, meanest bully was now in charge of his own measly patch of mud. If you had possession of a castle, that pretty much meant you owned it. And that meant you could pretty much do whatever you wanted.
As a peasant, you could do nothing to resist the armed and armored knights that served the lord. As a lord, you could tax your peasants into oblivion, and then still fine them whenever you needed extra cash. Yes, you probably owed fealty to some higher lord, but he mainly needed you to fight with him against other nobles, which made it easy to overlook any shortcomings in your character if they were outweighed by strengths in your sword arm.
The aristocracy rose to the top because of their fighting prowess, so they were constantly at war with each other. Knights whomping on other knights wasn’t really a problem; that’s just how they rolled. The problem was that peasants got in the way, literally, and they were often injured or killed during the fighting. When your best case is that your crops are destroyed and your cottage burned down but somehow you still survive, you know it’s a rough time to be alive.
The clergy was constantly trying to tamp down on noble violence. In 975, a council called for the Peace of God to give immunity to the defenseless: priests, women, pilgrims, etc. In 1027, a synod introduced the Truce of God, which tried to suspend fighting during specific times such as during Lent, on Sundays, and festival days.
These ideas didn’t catch on. Priests would get knights to swear on sacred relics that they would adhere to these policies. Knights would get down on their knees, maybe even with good intentions, but they would forget their oaths when it was inconvenient to follow them.
Beyond the battlefield, the clergy tried to civilize these rowdy warriors at court too. They wrote courtesy books that were filled with scolding advice to improve people’s manners. Not only were they nagging, but they were written in Latin too. Most knights didn’t speak Latin and were illiterate in any language, so they were not overly likely to read these critiques between burps at the table.
After the year 1100, chivalric romances began to emerge as a new entertainment genre. These were tales of adventure and glory that focused on honorable knights. They were written in the vernacular languages that everyone understood and read aloud to audiences at court as entertainment. Chivalry glorified an image of a genteel knight who could be both daring on the battlefield and gallant toward the ladies at court.
These ideas appealed to knights in ways that previous attempted interventions by the church had not. Instead of hectoring crude brutes to be less brutish, chivalry presented an image that they could aspire to become. Knights could see how following the chivalric code could improve their reputations and increase their status among their peers. This notion caught on big time.
Knights all across Europe signed on to the program. Did they always follow the chivalric ideals of piety, honor, courtesy, chastity, and loyalty? Of course not. But at least now they wanted to be more than just tough guys.
Chivalry as “courteous conduct expected of a knight” peaked during the Crusades. In the Late Middle Ages it evolved to highlight status hierarchies and public displays of gallantry rather than fair play on the battlefield. The concept was a hit with its key audience and influenced aristocratic ideals for centuries, elevating behavior out of the mud, at least for some people, some of the time.
Startups talk a lot about “getting to product/market fit” and rightly so. It’s probably the most important thing for the startup to do to survive and then thrive. It’s a simple concept, but sometimes misunderstood.
At its core, product/market fit means playing in a strong market with a product that works for that particular market. Good market, good enough product. If there are highly interested buyers with an unmet need, they’ll jump on a so-so product that meets that need. But it must at least meet the need and be good enough to stand on its own wobbly legs.
Medieval nobles were a “market” with a need: to increase their status. The “product” they chose for centuries was fighting each other. Yes, the world would benefit if the nobles would whomp on each other (and the poor random peasants) less. So, everyone begged them to stop and try a new “product” instead: peace. But the nobles didn’t particularly benefit from getting nagged about doing the one thing that gave them their noble status: fighting.
Chivalry met the needs of the market better than any of the previous efforts. It worked for knights, as it gave them a new way to attain status among their peers. It worked for everyone else because it reduced violence among the nobles, which always just made everything worse. It was a “product” that the “market” wanted, and it sold like hotcakes.
