Tilting her image: Chivalrous women of Middle English romance

The medieval knight of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries negotiated a precarious social and political landscape and upheld, in principle if not always in practice, the chivalric code as an ideal. This dissertation examines the behaviors and actions of heroines of four Middle English romances and demonstrates that the chivalric code of behavior applied to the medieval aristocratic woman as to the medieval knight. These heroines demonstrate that chivalry is not a gender-specific standard of behavior and that women, like knights, act in accord with its precepts. This dissertation seeks to understand the identity of the late medieval woman by a reading of the Middle English romances that considers the actions of romance heroines in a male dominated patriarchal world as chivalric. These heroines may express an unspoken opinion of contemporary aristocratic women that their own virtuous actions and behaviors deserve honor and chivalric recognition equal to that of the knight. This dissertation seeks to restore to medieval aristocratic woman her rightful place on the chivalric pedestal, her identity as a person of honor, and her significance to the survival of the chivalric system.;Chapter One examines chivalry, gender theory as a critical tool, and current scholarship on the Middle English romances. Each succeeding chapter focuses on a Middle English romance heroine who exhibits chivalric behaviors. Chapter Two discusses Emare; Emare is an active and courageous heroine who employs survival skills and virtues to resist defeat. Chapter Three considers The King of Tars, a romance that depicts a princess who shows prowess and strategic planning, who overthrows an ideology, and who insures dynastic succession. Chapter Four interprets Le Bone Florence of Rome, a romance with a heroine who vindicates attacks upon her honor, overcomes her persecutors, and suggests that chivalric equality can exist in marriage. Chapter Five discusses the princess in The Squyr of Lowe Degre who, when misled and confused about its true nature and identity, remains true to the chivalric ideal, sustains the chivalric dream and keeps it alive for future generations.