Courtly Love

In the middle ages, marriage often consisted of mere contracts. The idea of marrying for love, and not convenience or the sensibility of the match, was a foreign idea. However, the concept of courtly love suggests that one can love even while married. Courtly love is a set of guidelines based upon the chivalric ideals of the time period for which a knight, or nobleman, must adhere to when he is in love with a married woman of equal or higher rank. It is a form of sanctioned adultery. The affair between the knight Lancelot and the married Queen Guinevere exemplifies the characteristics of courtly love.