Camelot’s Lady Knight Goes Questing
By Scott Farrell
©2006, Shining Armor Enterprises
www.ChivalryToday.comRegular Chivalry Today readers and podcast listeners know that I was
recently asked to play King Arthur in a stage production of Camelot
in San Diego. I’m happy to tell you that the production has just
closed, and if you wonder what the king is doing tonight … well, he’s
tired. Being King Arthur was an exhausting but wonderful experience.
There’s much to reflect back on, but one of the things that audiences
saw in the play generated a lot of comments in the lobby after the
show — and I think it’s something worth taking a moment to think
about. In “Camelot,” there’s a scene where the Knights of the Round
Table are gathered before Arthur and Guenevere, and several
candidates are called to kneel and receive the familiar “dubbing” of
knighthood. One of these individuals was the famous Lancelot. The
other names were less familiar if you’ve never read Malory or T.H.
White: Bliant, Colgreveance and Castor. In this show, however, there
was also a fourth name that wasn’t in the original script: Eleanor of
Tortosa.
Audiences were obviously surprised to see a young lady with long,
flowing dark hair called forward to be knighted. Based on several
comments, many thought this must be a “modern addition,” inserted by
the director to blunt the edge of chauvinism on Camelot’s image of
all-male knighthood.
The real surprise, however, is that “Sir Eleanor” was conjured, not
out of a modern sense of gender equality, but rather out of real
medieval history. Although there’s a prevalent perception that
knighthood was an honor bestowed exclusively on men, medieval records
indicate that women were occasionally elevated to the rank of knight
as well. Possibly the most famous of these was the Order of the
Hatchet, a 12th century Spanish order of knighthood created
specifically to recognize women who fought against Moorish invaders
to defend the town of Tortosa.
Medieval historical records are sprinkled with accounts of women who
served in noble and knightly positions. In the early 12th century,
King John granted Nicolaa de la Haye the office of Sheriff of
Lincolnshire after she successfully defended Lincoln castle against
rebels. Jeanne, the Countess of Montfort, led a daring military
expedition to liberate the town of Hennebont from siege during the
14th century. And Eleanor of Aquitaine famously led a crusading
expedition to the Holy Land in 1147 alongside her husband, King Louis
of France.
So, the woman who stepped forward to be knighted in “Camelot,” while
every bit as fictional as Lancelot, Pelinore or Dinadan, also
represented the real (but often forgotten) female knights, warriors
and leaders of the Middle Ages.
When the decision was made to add Eleanor of Tortosa into the cast of
characters of “Camelot,” the show’s director worried that audiences
might find the image of a woman being knighted (and later in the
show, fighting in battle) controversial and even offensive. Yet by
and large, it was quite the opposite: Comments from the attendees
seemed to be very positive and supportive of Camelot’s “lady with a
sword.” It seemed that the Round Table, long seen as a symbol of
egalitarian fellowship and social duty, is only enhanced when its
borders are stretched to include an ever-increasing diversity of
members.
If we learn anything about chivalry and honor from Round Table tales,
it must be that no matter who you are, you have both the opportunity
and the obligation to try to make the world a better place. King
Arthur taught us that everyone deserves a seat at the table — and the
sight of a young lady being knighted in the court of “Camelot”
teaches us that the principles of chivalry shouldn’t be limited by
gender, culture or ethnicity.
As King Arthur said, “Perhaps one day we will sit around this world
as we once had at the table and go questing once more — for right,
and honor, and justice.”
[Readers are permitted and encouraged to share this article with
others as a way of furthering the understanding of the Code of
Chivalry in the modern world.]
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