Camelot’s Lady Knight Goes Questing
By Scott Farrell
©2006, Shining Armor Enterprises
www.ChivalryToday.com
Regular 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.”
Copyright
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. Scott Farrell’s seminar “Leadership Secrets of the Code of Chivalry” is available to businesses, athletic teams and civic groups throughout the Southern California area; more information can be found on our website. Please include all copyright statements and attributions when forwarding Chivalry Today articles. Copyright 2006 Scott Farrell and Shining Armor Enterprises. Visit our website at www.ChivalryToday.com .
