To most people, at least in America, the meaning of Chivalry is someone who is loyal, trustworthy, a hard worker, and extremely generous. The idea of Chivalry dates back much further than I can account for but has not changed too drastically through out the years. In 13th century England Chivalry plays a significant role within the societal heirarchy. Through the life of William Marshal there is much to learn about just how large a role it truely plays. To take a closer look at what it takes to be Chivalrous we can break it down into three broad categories, which are quite frankly interchangable; religious, moral and social codes.
The best place to start seems to be with the latter, social codes. In england there is a clearly laid out heirarchy amongst the social classes. Of course we have the King and those who serve him but they also have people to serve them and so forth. Those who we can look to to define Chivalry are those who are of nobility; knights, barrons, kings, etc. To become a member of this nobility one must either be born into it or show Chivalry and work for it. We know this from the story of William Marshal, he was not born into nobility but through a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events he was able to make the best of what he was given and earned a place in the much respected noble class. One way he did this was by after being dubbed a knight he took on a kind of mentorship of "The Young King Henry". William taught Henry the way a King should behave and how to fight. William also earned a name for himself socially through many tournaments of jousting. As far as we are told he won everytime taking Knights for himself along with horses and gear. "Consequently the earl, victorious, if we are to belive him, in every tournament---at least once he had managed, after a year and a half of fumbling exercises, to raise the English team to the first rank..." (p.111) At this point William was not an earl but later he ...