Book of Chivalry member of the nobility to one of the most respected knights in France, especially under the kingship of Jean II of France. Jean created the Company of the Star in 1352, intending the chivalric order to outshine that of his rival, Edward III of England, who had shortly before created the Order of the Garter. Charny was promptly made a member of the Company of the Star, and it is believed that he wrote his "Book of Chivalry" in this context. However, the Company began to lose members immediately due to losses on the battlefield, both in civil wars and
Chivalry often presented as a civilizing and stabilizing influence in the turbulent middle ages. On the contrary, Kaueper argues “that in the problem of public order the knights themselves played an ambivalent, problematic role and that the guides to their conduct that chivalry provided were in themselves complex and problematic.” Many of the codes and ideals of chivalry were of course contradictory, however, when knights did live up to them, they did not lead to a more “ordered and peaceful society”. The tripartite conception of medieval European society (those who pray, those who fight, and those who work) along with other