12th Century

After an initial historical survey, focussed on medieval France, and a review of the possibilities of a strengthened female agency in twelfth-century culture, this chapter explores the topic of fin’amor , or “gentle love”, and sketches the evolution from its roots in Occitan troubadour lyric poetry – characterised by devotion or even suffering, pious fervour, amatory subservience as well as rivalrous competitiveness – through its transformation in the hands of Northern French writers like Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France. While troubadours emphasised unrequited love, ritual devotion, and the ennobling effects of loving a high-born lady, northern adaptations absorbed these motifs into chivalric romance and other verse narratives, shifting focus towards marriage and rational restraint or, as in the Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde, tragedy and death. The chapter concludes by questioning the expediency of the modern concept of “courtly love”, suggesting instead a more nuanced appreciation of medieval models of love and courtliness.