the chivalry thesis definition

Gender Differences in Crime – Chivalry Thesis

The chivalry thesis: examining gender differences in crime.

What is the Chivalry Thesis?

The chivalry thesis proposes that because of their perceived vulnerability as victims of male violence, female criminals are treated differently than their male counterparts by criminal justice systems. It suggests that police officers, prosecutors, judges, and juries are all more likely to treat female offenders with leniency due to their gender . In other words, it implies that men face harsher punishments for the same crimes than women do.

‘Men hate to accuse women and thus send them to their punishment, police officers dislike to arrest them, district attorneys to prosecute them, judges and juries to find them guilty, and so on’ – Pollak (1950)

Evidence Against the Chivalry Thesis

Despite early evidence in favor of the chivalry thesis, researchers have since found plenty of data that refutes this hypothesis. For example, a 1998 study by Heidensohn et al., which looked at 35 countries including England and Wales found no evidence that female offenders were consistently treated more lightly than male offenders. Similarly, studies conducted by Carlen (1992) and Walklate (1998) both concluded that there was no significant difference between how men and women were dealt with by criminal justice systems.

In addition to these empirical findings, functionalist sex role theory has also been used to explain gender differences in crime. According to this perspective, differences in offending patterns between men and women can be explained by looking at how society rewards particular types of behavior for each gender based on traditional gender roles—for example, males are rewarded for aggression while females are rewarded for passivity and obedience. This theory suggests that instead of being treated differently because they are female, women commit fewer offenses because they do not receive social approval or rewards for aggressive behavior like men do.

Feminist Explanations for Female Crime

The feminist perspective provides an additional explanation for why women commit fewer crimes than men—namely, patriarchal power structures prevent them from having access to resources necessary to engage in certain types of criminal activities such as drug dealing or theft from businesses (Smart & Neale 2006). Because these activities require some degree of financial independence or freedom from supervision (both of which are largely denied to most women), they are less likely to engage in such crimes than their male counterparts who have greater access to resources and autonomy within society (Smart & Neale 2006). Furthermore, feminists argue that due to patriarchal power structures like sexism and racism which limit economic opportunities for minority women particularly those living in poverty-stricken neighborhoods- many resorting illegal activities as a means of survival.(Smart & Neale 2006).

Gender Differences in Crime

Overall it appears clear from our discussion today that while there may have been some truth behind Pollak’s original chivalry thesis when it was first proposed back in 1950; further research has revealed a much more complex picture regarding gender differences in crime today. As we have seen here there is strong evidence against the notion that criminal justice systems treat female offenders differently than male ones but also important insights provided by functionalist sex role theory and feminist explanations which cast light on why certain behaviors may be seen as ‘deviant’ or ‘criminal’ depending on one’s gender identity or socioeconomic background respectively . All these factors combined prove just how nuanced an issue like this really is – one which requires further exploration if we ever hope to fully understand its implications both now and into the future .

Why not check out our video on Why Women Commit Less Crime Than Men?

Gender Bias and Punishment

Is there a gender bias in the criminal justice system ? Are women and men treated differently by the police and the courts? There are two thoughts on this issue:

The chivalry thesis – chivalry means treating others, especially women with courtesy, sympathy and respect. The chivalry theory states that women are treated more leniently than men by the criminal justice system. Male chivalry means that the police are less likely to charge women, and the courts will tend to give women a lighter sentence, even when they have committed the same offences as men.

An alternate theory is the double deviance theory. This argument states that women are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system. This is because they are guilty of being doubly deviant. They have deviated from accepted social norms by breaking the law and deviated from gender norms which state how woman should behave.

Many woman feel they have been treated harshly by the criminal justice system. They see it as a male-dominated institution and feel their treatment has been unsympathetic and unjust. (Heidensohn 2002)

The evidence:

After arrest, women are more likely than men to be cautioned rather than charged. They are less likely than men to be remanded in custody or committed for trial.

Woman offenders are more likely than men to be discharged or given a community sentence and less likely to be fined or sentenced to prison.

Woman sent to prison receive shorter sentences than men (Home Office). This suggests that the criminal justice system does treat woman more leniently. However we need to take the seriousness of the offence and difference in offending history into account. The higher cautioning rate for woman and the lower likelihood of being remanded in custody or sent for trial reflects differences in the type of offence and past offences (Home Office). Female offences tend to be less serious and women are less likely to have a criminal record. This suggests that there is no sympathetic bias for or against women.

Courtesy of Lee Bryant, Director of Sixth Form, Anglo-European School, Ingatestone, Essex

Criminology, Sociology and Policing at Hull

Student research journal, gender differences and sentencing: a critical literature review.

This review focuses on various pieces of literature that surrounds the perceived differences in sentencing gender. Also, literature examining the reasons why these differences are taking place between genders, and theories that could be applied when explaining these differences, will be scrutinised in order to give an indication as to whether a reason for gender differences in sentencing has been identified. The two theories that will be focused are the Chivalry theory (including Selective Chivalry) and the Double Deviance/ Evil Woman theory. Some other factors effects on sentencing, and the literature surrounding them, were also looked at as it would be negligent to say that only one factor could cause the perceived disparity between male and female sentencing. This review mainly focused on bodies of work based in the United States of America. This is because a large amount of research has been done in this area in the United States. Therefore, any questions answered will mostly be only applicable to that country due to cultural and legal differences in other parts of the world. Throughout the review a lot of bodies of research can be seen to be relatively supportive of the ideas that Double Deviance and Selective Chivalry has on the sentencing process, less so for regular chivalry. This is because various other factors seem to have some sort of effect as well as gender. Therefore, it is perhaps inaccurate to point to gender being the factor that decisively affects the sentencing outcomes. More research should be done in this area to fully grasp the relationship between gender and sentencing outcomes, while taking into account a larger number of relevant factors (legal and extra-legal) in order to not over attribute the outcomes to gender.

Author: Kieran Malon, April 2020

BA (Hons) Criminology with Psychology

1. Introduction

A question that has long been discussed in various forms of academic literature is why there seems to be a difference in how genders are treated during the sentencing phase of trials. Within the United States the male population in prisons massively outnumber the female population. This may suggest a difference in how genders are treated at some stage during the criminal justice process in the United States. The stage that will be focused on within this review will be the sentencing phase of the system. A focus will also be made on two theories that have been looked at in various pieces of academic literature as well as other factors that may be contributing to this disparity in treatment. The literature will then be reviewed, and its validity will be looked at in relevancy and ability to test and explain the differences between genders.

The sentencing phase of the criminal justice process was chosen because there is evidence to suggest that this area is where the most difference in how the differing genders are treated in relation to what they are sentenced to do. This is suggested by academic literature like authors such as Steffensmeier et, al (1998), who used the gender effect as one of the factors that affect how an individual is sentenced, and Gelsthorpe (2013) who also looked at this factor as well as whether that number is justified in the crimes the crimes they commit. The justifiability may come in the form of whether the different genders get the same treatment when it comes to being sentenced to a crime that is similar in nature. If after looking at that justifiability differences do appear, we will then begin the process of looking at why that may be. Some theories that have been hypothesised will be looked at in relation to any differences in treatment found and the literature surrounding these theories will be reviewed and scrutinised in order to find if they have any relevant effects on modern sentencing outcomes.

The two theories that will be focused on when it comes to this topic are the Double Deviance theory and the Chivalry theory. These two are theories that have been discussed frequently in literature when it comes to this area of the criminal justice system. The literature surrounding these theories will be further discussed later in the text and their relevance, or lack of, will also be discussed further on. Beyond these two theories however, I will also be briefly looking at further factors that have been hypothesised to affect this stage as well as the gender of a defendant. This may include popular factors in research in this area such as race and age of a defendant. Also, as these factors may interrelate with each other it is important to discuss how these may be advantageous to some groups of people and disadvantageous to other groups. This may lead to different sentencing being given to different groups of people depending on characteristics that may be out of their control.

Review Structure

Within this review, three studies have been chosen as the focus for each of the theories (Chivalry and Double Deviance/ Evil Woman). These studies will be analysed as well as various other forms literature on these theories and relevant studies will be mentioned in reference to whether they support the studies in focus. An attempt at looking at a variety of different crimes has been made to investigate whether the theories apply or not across a spectrum of different sentencing events. In order to take into account other factors that may contribute to any differences, other than gender, in sentencing, two legal and two extra-legal factors have been chosen for further discussion. However, it should be noted that there are a range of other factors that will not be discussed in as much detail due to the large amount. But it is noted that these other factors exist that may influence sentencing decisions. This will be finished with a discussion on future studies that could be conducted as well as the limitations of this review and a conclusion on what can be found from the reviewed literature.

2. Chivalry, Selective Chivalry, and Paternalism Theory

This is an idea that was put forward by Otto Pollak (1950) to suggest that women within the criminal justice system are treated much more leniently than men due to the idea of chivalry towards women. Later Paternalism would be identified as something that frequently follows the chivalry aspect. It is suggested under this theory that law officials/judges see women as child-like and defenceless in their behaviour (Herzog and Oreg, 2008) and therefore are in need of protection, this leads to said leniency I favour of women. It can be said that Pollak’s research could be seen as outdated, we look at whether elements of the theory can be seen in today’s criminal justice system when looking at sentencing. Paternalism has led to modifications to the Chivalry theory however, this has been called Selective Chivalry. It is suggested by Farnworth and Teske (1995) that the leniency that comes with this chivalry idea is only open to white women and those who have wealthy backgrounds (Jeffries and Bond, 2013). There have been studies conducted on a range of different crimes which then have looked at how chivalry could possibly influence how sentencing decisions turn out the way in which they do.

Holland and Prohaska (2018) conducted a study in which they looked at whether females were more likely than males to receive shorter sentences while also controlling for relevant factors that could possibly affect the sentences also. One factor that they did want to account for and investigate further, in addition to gender, was race. Racial effects will be discussed in more depth further in the review, however they did want to see, as well as if there are differences between men and women, whether there are differences in sentences between women of different racial groups. This would allow a view into whether just gender could possibly effect sentencing between the males and females, or if other factors also need to be present to effect sentencing. Therefore, a second hypothesis was that white women would receive more lenient sentences than women of colour, which would support the work of Farnworth and Teske (2008) who suggested chivalry would only apply to white women. They also took into account geography when making various assumptions about what the results may show in their hypotheses. They hypothesised that women in the south of the country will be sentenced differently from women in other regions. The data collected looks at all federal cases that spanned the year between the 1 st of October 2014 and 30 th of September 2015. Also, due to the database containing information on a range of controls for legal and extra-legal factors, it means that an in depth analysis can be done to measure the various factors influence on the sentencing process and seeing how they could interact with the gender factor to lead to a sentencing outcome.

From the results, they found that their first hypothesis was proven correct. Women in general did receive shorter sentence lengths in comparison to males. This is also with legal factors considered and supports the chivalry theory. This supports the various bodies of work that have shown similar results through various experiments they have conducted (Doerner and Demuth, 2010; Rodriguez et al., 2006). This supports the idea that women are not seen by law officials as being as culpable for the crimes they committed as men are. However, the results contradicted the selective chivalry claims that would suggest that white women would mostly benefit from the leniency hypothesised in the chivalry theory. Hispanic and black women got shorter sentences when sentenced for federal drug crimes. This is surprising as the reverse has been shown in respect to selective chivalry as white women have benefitted the least from the suggested leniency shown in the results of this study. However, that may be because they have been adjudged to have been more out of line with traditional gender roles leading them to punished as doubly deviant rather then being viewed as needing protection.

There are some limitations on this study even if it does cover a population across a large area (Across multiple states). This is a problem in itself as guidelines differ across different states. This means that some judges will have more discretion than others, allowing them more freedom in decision making on sentences. Therefore, that has to be taken into account when looking at the results. Therefore, this may need to be built upon by more studies looking on a state by state basis accounting for those guidelines and taking them into account. There are also multiple other variables that could be explored. These may explain any contradiction with other forms of research that show support for selective chivalry as it does not have any detail on if these other factors could have had a effect on the sentencing process.

Embry and Lyons (2012) focused their study on the discrepancies in the way that male and female sex offenders are sentenced and how chivalry theory could possibly have an influence in these sentencing decisions. They give an initial idea of what they expect to find, which is based upon previous literature (Jeffries, Fletcher and Newbold, 2003; Curry, Lee and Rodriguez, 2004), that females receive more lenience than males do when it comes to sentencing. For their study, they collected data from the National Corrections Reporting program in order to do secondary data analysis. The sample they used was spread over ten years but they originally had more than this. They used the most recent ten years in order to get the most relevant results. This gave them a more modernised picture of what is affecting the current sentencing process as values and views can change over time. Also, using a large time frame allowed them to offset another problem which is the low number of female offenders who have been sentenced on being a sex offender. Therefore, looking at a data set over a larger period allows them to have a large sample of female offenders in the data to look at and analyse.

From the study, the evidence showed that although there is no difference in sentencing rates between men and women who commit sexual offences, men do tend to get harsher sentences. This shows that although judges can see that women should be charged (because they have committed a crime), they may not believe that they are as perhaps dangerous as male sex offenders are. Embry and Lyons (2012) earlier talk about this stereotypical image of a sex offender, which is usually a male offender with victim coming to mind as a young female according to them. This could be proven to have some accuracy if you look at the perceived leniency that could be inferred from the results of this study. Due to women not fitting the stereotypical image of a sex offender, even if they have in fact committed the crime, they may still be deemed as less dangerous as a male sex offender. This shows that although the decision that all genders need to be punished for criminal offences is equal, the severity of the punishment across genders is not equal.

There are areas that could be developed in this study in order to perhaps improve its scope and relevancy to a broader population as well as limitations that can be identified in this study. Although the number of women that were included in these studies was a fairly even split, this may not always be a study that can be compared to real life. This is because although it was a fairly even numbers, compared to a lot of studies, the offending rates of women are way below the offending rates of males. Therefore, even if they did get a better idea how the factors and theories may affect a trial. Therefore, if you did want to investigate these discrepancies women will based on even figures, women will be sampled far more than they generally offend. These results may simply seem to point to one answer when it is simply just a question of numbers in terms of offending rates. There is also an issue with the fact that the study they conducted was built from basic figures taken from the data base they were sourced. Although we can assume from the studies that support the chivalry theory that sentence lengths were affected by the gender of the individual being sentenced, we can be certain due to the lack of specificity within the statistics. Therefore, we cannot rule out the fact that there was a higher percentage of males who had committed a more severe form of the crime that they had committed in comparison to the females who were being sentenced. A final limitation would be that although they would class this as a cautious generalization, they could only possibly say that it is a cautious generalization of the population in the United States, where it was based. The sample population that had been sentenced that they were looking at was entirely from the United States, if they broadened their sample to include statistics from various other countries a much larger cautious observation could be made.

Therefore, if they were going to look at doing a further study with this as the basis, a few steps should be taken to expand on this body of research. A more detailed data set would be needed in order to see more information about crimes committed or perhaps so we can find out more about the defendant being sentenced. We would hopefully be able to see whether Chivalry was in fact taking affect in the sentencing phase, if there were legitimate reasons for sentencing for one group being to harsher degree or if other theories and factors may be able to be more relevant in affecting the process. Finally, a sample of offenders that are from a range of different countries in order to give it the best chance of it being more generalizable to the rest of the world. Different countries have different views, values and offending rates. It would therefore be interesting to see if these theories can be applied across more than just one country.

Study Three

A final study that looks at the Chivalry theory is a study conducted by Spivak et al. (2014), who looked at an area that is unique from the other pieces of literature that were focussed upon. They looked at status offences committed by juvenile offenders. Status offences committed by juveniles include but not limited to, truancy, consumption of alcohol or tobacco or running away. This is an interesting area as previous literature done on this suggests that status offences are the only area in the juvenile system in which female offenders outnumber male offenders (Tracey et al., 2009). It is generally assumed that males do commit more crime than females (Messerschmidt, 2007) and so to find a category in which males do not outnumber females, and in fact females outnumber males, makes it an area for further study. The study was conducted in Oklahoma and the data was collected by a local agency that collects basic data on juvenile cases. They then cut down the cases to only look at the relevant cases in relation to the type of crime they were looking at (Status offences). In relation to this review, two of the hypotheses included looking at the cases as to whether the chivalry theory could apply to these cases. More specifically, they wanted to see if girls’ cases were filed for review, in comparison to boys. They suggest that if proven this may show a want to make sure girls’ cases are scrutinised to make sure they get a correct judgement.

From the results of the study conducted, both hypotheses relating to chivalry seem to be supported. The results show in this that girls were more likely then boys to have their cases further reviewed. An idea of why this could be explained by the chivalry theory is they want to try and protect girls from being guilty through further looking at their cases and the circumstances behind them. This perhaps leading to mitigating circumstances being shown on their behalf which could result in them receiving lesser sentences. Therefore, if chivalrous and paternalistic attitudes can be found even when it comes to looking at cases involving juveniles, it suggests that the want to protect females may start from juvenile court and be seen through most age groups once moved to be judged and sentenced as an adult. However, in this case it must be noted that although it was shown that girls did tend to get lesser sentences than boys, the relationship between gender and lesser sentences was very weak. Meaning that more studies must be done in this area as it is inconclusive when it comes to whether sentencing may differentiate between female and male juveniles, even if there is a slight relationship in favour leniency towards girls.

As is a regular problem when it comes to a lot of research in this area, a lot focus on one state for their research. This means that it cannot be generalisable as there are many differences in population and justice processes across the world and even in the United States. Therefore, more research in this area would be needed specially to help the more inconclusive aspects of this study. The database used is also quite dated for this study as they admit. This means that changes might be viewed if data was collected for juvenile cases now. If policies have been brought more recently, this may lead to a difference in results and lead to different hypotheses being drawn.

3. Double Deviance / Evil Woman

Double Deviance is theory based on the point of view that certain women are punished under the view of doing two things wrong. They are viewed as having broken societal norms and expectations of how a woman behaves, as well as breaking the law. They are then judged upon the basis that they have done doubly wrong. Murphy and Brown (2000) suggest that under this theory it creates a situation where women can either be demonised or can be shown more leniency depending on if they broke these societal norms on what is expected of women. Double Deviance theory which is sometimes referred to as the Evil Woman theory. Although this idea may seem like selective chivalry in the way in which some women may be treated more leniently. It differs greatly in the notion that women who break these societal ideas of gender norms are punished even greater than men do when they commit the same crime. Women who fit into this theory and are seen as doubly deviant are seen as more blame worthy in this case which leads to harsher sentences, even if the crime they have committed is the same (Herzog and Oreg, 2008; Tillyer, Hartley and Ward, 2015).

Tillyer et, al (2015) based their study on looking at the perceived unfairness that exists within the court systems. Although they noted various factors may contribute to these differing sentencing outcomes between various groups, they chose to focus this study on gender and the different theories surrounding the gender factor. The crime they chose to investigate was narcotic cases taken from a federal data base. Narcotic cases have been chosen because it is a crime that will be viewed as breaking traditional gender roles. Therefore, if the theory is to be accurate the results will show that women get a harsher punishment then men who commit the same crime. Some factors may effect this as well however such as criminal history as well as evidence showing that race may have an effect as well (Spohn and Holleran, 2006) therefore that also has to be taken into account when looking at the gender and sentencing differences. The dates taken from the database in order to be analysed has been specifically chosen due to it have the highest amount of women to have committed crime within this time frame, with females being most populous being sentenced for this crime than any other in the dates analysed. This should allow for a good comparison to be made between male and female sentencing cases as it gives more cases that will be analysed then other crimes and dates. According to the authors they look to answer two hypotheses. They want to test whether women with limited criminal history will get more lenient sentences and those with extensive criminal history get a harsher sentence then their male counterparts.

The results in this case showed support for both the hypotheses in their assumptions. The first hypothesis which suggested more lenient sentences for women who had limited criminal histories was correct. This can be assumed under the Double Deviance theory that it has led to those who are deemed to have acted in accordance with the image of how an idealised woman should act, which has led to them getting a more lenient sentence overall. The results gained from the database also suggested that the second hypothesis was also correct in it assumption that women who have been deemed to have broken the law and the norms of societal conduct for a women have been punished more severely than men who committed a similar offense. This assumption supports the hypothesis of Bontrager et, al (2013) and Herzog and Oreg (2008) that women are punished further for factors and occurrences that allow them to be viewed as doubly deviant. However, this could also show why there is a gap between the genders within the prison numbers. Although some women are overly punished for breaking a conceived notion of how a woman should act, some are also being given lesser sentences then men for committing similar crimes, which may explain some huge gaps in numbers between the genders in prisons. This study also shows the importance of how criminal history interacts with gender to influence the sentencing phase. That is a unique aspect about this study and has allowed it identify a key factor that has effected women who are being sentenced and may allow law officials to become more aware of factors that may be unconsciously effecting their decision making process. This sort of identification, if it increased awareness, could lead to more equal sentences in regards to these factors.

The limitations that have been noted does increasingly affect the ability to make this study generalizable. A large limitation that seems plague this study is the effect that new policy changes have on the sentencing phase. These policy changes may give judges more or less discretion when it comes to sentencing. For example, if a policy came in after this study was released that limited a judge’s discretion on sentencing for crimes like drug crimes, it may lead to a more equal distribution regardless of gender. This would be because a judge would then have less freedom when they are passing a sentence and may have to stick to more rigid guidelines when sentencing. If a policy such as this did come into law, then another study would have to be held in order to investigate how these changes may have affected sentencing and may lead to theories like the double deviance theory losing its validity. A further limitation is absence of a few different factors that may provide more information on the complexities when it comes to examining gender and sentencing. For example, they only limitedly consider factors such as family status and whether they are depended upon by others, which may include children. This is identified as a factor that could influence a sentencing decision and would be helpful if a more in depth study was done to look at how factors such as this could impact the findings and if they would give them a different look to lead to different findings.

The study conducted by Koons-Witt et, al (2012) had a smaller focus when it comes to population they focused on. They conducted their study on the state of South Carolina, whereas the previous study looked at sentences across the country. However, within this study they looked at various crimes to see how the effect of gender changes across the various crimes that are committed. As well as looking at how gender has an effect when it comes to sentencing, they consider various other factors and how they interact with interact with gender sentencing processes. These include race and gender which will be discussed later in the review. Within the study they expect to find that women are treated more leniently when it comes to sentencing, which is in line with chivalry theory. However, as mentioned within this study the environment they a basing this study in must be taken into account. According to Koons-Witt et, al (2012) the state of South Carolina historically has rather conservative views of women which means that there may be stronger view, than in most places, in the traditional gender role of women. Traditional crimes for women are often non-violent crimes such as fraud according to Rodriguez et, al (2006). Therefore, when women commit crimes that are not viewed as traditionally crimes women commit (violent crimes), the evil woman hypothesis may have a stronger effect then it may do in states or countries with less conservative views. The data for this study was collected from a now disbanded commission within the state. They focused on the latest data set that was made by the commission which was from 2001. This was due to various reforms that made the data collected before problematic to use. Therefore, they had 12 months of data to study and analyse.

The results for this study again showed support for the double deviance hypothesis. Similarly Tillyer et, al (2015), shows that only women with very limited criminal history are shown leniency in this case. Koons-Witt et, al (2012) mentions how the effect of women having an extensive criminal history background makes the leniency that is shown to women completely vanishes which then leads to them being sentenced on the same level as men. A woman with an extensive criminal history seems to then lose the protection that is often shown when it comes to sentencing. This could be as the law officials view that as the criminal history builds up, they are viewed as increasingly culpable for their actions and lose leniency that they are perceived to have. As a result, they receive greater sentences than females with lesser criminal histories might have. The support for the evil woman theory is further shown by this study because it again shows that women are shown leniency up until a certain point within the criminal justice system. Although this study focuses just on one state, it still supports a pattern that has been shown in many different pieces of literature on this topic (Belknap, 2007; Franklin & Fearn, 2008). This can also explain why there is a clear difference in how women and men are treated in this study. They note that in the sample they looked at the average for women with no criminal history was lower than the average for males with no criminal history. Therefore, this would then lead to a lack of cases where the double deviance hypothesis would take place which would, if women did have a higher average criminal history, theoretically lead to more women being sentenced on a similar or more harsh level then the males.

There some limitations to this study and suggestions on how to further this line of research in the future, if it has not already been conducted. The focus of this study was on, as the author says, a rather conservative state in relation to how women are supposed to behave. Due to this being on juts the single state, it would be interesting to see how this would compare to other states that are viewed as conservative in a similar way to South Carolina. This would give a better idea of how the ideological in the environment may change how different genders are sentenced. If similar results are seen, then it can be ruled out as an outlier and helps with generalizability. It would also be interesting to see how a more liberal state would sentence with a focus on differences between genders. This would give information on whether the conservativeness of the environment may have an effect of sentencing between genders and if it does, how much of an effect does it have. Due to it being secondary data they are working from as well, they cannot control what was recorded and what was not recorded. This has led to various factors being excluded from the recorded data that may have had an influence on the sentencing process. Although this may not have necessarily affected what was learnt from the results, some information that may have allowed a further, more detailed analysis from taking place. This would have looked at how these factors interacted with gender and sentencing outcomes, due to some of these factors often being stereotypically thought of as female roles, such as whether there are dependent children or the role of the individual with a family. These may have an effect due to women often being thought of as the primary care giver when children are involved compared to males. Daly (1987) suggested that women are more likely to receive leniency due to them holding important familial roles. This therefore that accounts for some disparity in sentencing outcomes between genders. However, without data recorded on this factor we cannot tell if this influenced sentencing outcomes in this case.

Tasca et, al (2018) based their study upon analysing how parental status and sentence length interact with each other. The study was based in the state of Arizona with data collected through self-report and official data. The questions for their study were based around whether the parenthood factor, whether they have children that they care for, get affected by gender when sentencing. They also wanted to look at how sentencing lengths vary between offenders without children as well as parents who are involved with their children and those who are not involved. Various studies have already been done in this area on how familial status may affect sentencing outcomes (Daly, 1987; Freiburger, 2011). However, the unique aspect of this study is that it also considers how involved the offender may be with their children. This will give a more complex look into how the parenting dynamic affects sentencing outcome, while considering how gender plays into the dynamic. Within this study, they also look at various smaller factors within the parenting dynamic, such as how women incarcerated often tend to be single mothers with reliant children. Therefore, with factors like these in mind it may be easier to interpret the results as well as make initial predictions. Although within this study they are not necessarily looking into how the evil woman theory plays into this study, through the results it gives you an idea of how the theory’s ideas may have had a role in affecting the sentencing outcomes.

The results, if split between men and women parents, without breaking them down into the further categories could already suggest that women might be viewed as doubly deviant in the crimes they have committed. This is because the results show that female parents received longer sentences than fathers. Under the evil woman hypothesis, you could suggest that this may be because they have broken the traditional gender role of committing a crime when they are supposedly the primary caregiver in comparison males who are traditionally the economic support for the family. These initial results contradict previous research and hypothesis (Daly, 1987; Daly, 1989), however there may be other factors to be revealed that explain this further in the results section. Once the results were then further broken down, although it did show that women who lived with their children prior to arrest received more lenient sentences compared to mothers uninvolved with their children. However, it still shows that males still received less harsh sentences then the women. The fact that the results did show less lenient sentences on women who were uninvolved with their children could suggest that double deviance has an effect. It could be argued that the women who are uninvolved with their children are being more severely punished for not performing their motherly duties and are therefore being punished for more than just the crime they committed. It is also mentioned that the sample was drawn from offenders who are not new to being involved with the criminal justice system. Therefore, the criminal history factor also has to be taken into account as it has been earlier suggested that it can negate any leniency they may have been granted under the chivalry theory (Tillyer et al, 2015; Koons-Witt et al, 2012). Therefore, it could be argued that because this study was mainly populated by a sample of women who have a criminal history, most would lose the leniency effect that would be applied to those without a criminal history. Meaning that if the evil woman theory was applied here it could explain why the women had on average a higher length of sentence then the males did. As under the theory they would be treated more harshly for breaking traditional gender roles and committing the crime.

There are couple of limitations and suggestions for future studies that could be made based from this study. One limitation of this is the need for a larger sample. This is because varying court systems throughout the United States, as well as throughout the world, may show different results. It may have been more generalizable if they at least looked at various court judgements in different states within the country. Due to the different court systems between states giving judges varying degrees of discretion, that may prove to be a key factor in how sentencing patterns show in the results. Therefore, a larger more varied sample should be looked at in further research to see if the results and hypotheses drawn from the results are applicable to more than just Arizona. As the authors mentioned also, the majority of the sample had criminal backgrounds and that may have had a potential effect on the results. Therefore, a more varied sample in terms of whether they have a vast criminal history or not should be explored. This will allow a more balanced view on how much effect certain factors have on the sentencing process as it hard to measure the effect of factors such as criminal history when many of them have criminal histories.

4. Contradicting Literature

Although a lot of literature that has been analysed show a pattern that supports the hypotheses. There is going to be some literature that contradicts the pattern that is seen. This can be for various reasons and these reasons can be discussed later when looking at the literature. One piece of literature that was reviewed did seem to contradict the pattern of support and although there may be more, only one will be the focus here.

A study that contradicts the findings in support of the theory is one that looks at chivalry in relation to nonviolent offending. Specifically, the study undertaken by Koeppel (2012), looks at nonviolent property crime in rural areas in the state of Iowa, in the United States. This study is interesting as Rodriguez et, al (2006) mentioned that there are varying degrees of leniency in the sentencing process depending on the crime, but males do often receive harsher sentences. Rodriguez et, al (2006) and their body of work suggested that males were more likely to receive harsher sentence outcomes when it comes to property crime. This, if backed up by continuous research as well as the study of focus here, would look like it would be following a pattern on which females receive more lenient sentences across multiple types of crime. The author of this study (Koeppel, 2012) suggests that we may see differences because of the setting also, as the they are focussing on a rural setting. Steffensmeier et al. (1998) suggests that because of the volume of cases that an urban judge must get through, they succumb to using stereotypes and generalizations in order to make their decisions. Therefore, if this theory is correct, we should see a decline in the difference in sentences between male and female who commit the same crime. This could then show evidence against chivalry and suggest other factors may yet have a larger influence on sentencing.

The data was collected from five small rural counties that have similar demographics; this could then decrease the effect that different environments may have had on the process. The sample size in this case is a 507 split between 188 females and 319 males. Worth noting also was that 95% of the sample were white which will be a point brought up later when analysing this study. The presumed result for this study was based from previous research and that a clear pattern of leniency in favour of females would be present. However, the results of the study contradicted previous research and found that gender did not have a significant effect on the sentencing outcomes. This is surprising, if the Chivalry theory is to be believed, considering the nature of the crime itself. The crimes looked at were nonviolent crimes that would, in theory, be seen as crimes a woman would get more leniency under the Chivalry theory. Herzog and Oreg (2008) discuss how the judges would think of women as defenceless and weak under chivalry and paternalism. Therefore, because it is a white, female, nonviolent offender they fill that criteria in which chivalry/paternalism is suppose have an effect and lead to leniency in sentencing them. This may also give support to the idea that sentencing may vary between urban and rural with the idea of chivalry also having a different degree of effect. It also goes against Rodriguez et, al (2006) and their idea that chivalry can be seen across the entire spectrum of crime sentences and even if it does have an effect, that effect is negligible enough to not affect the results as much as it would compared to other crimes perhaps because of the non-violent nature of it. Also, due to there being no specific gender effect notable, the double deviance theory cannot be applied either as measures of traditional sex roles did not have any effect on sentencing length. Therefore, in this case the results suggest that no matter if they have broken traditional gender norms, they sentenced on equal basis with women who might not be viewed to have broken traditional gender norms.

There are some developments that could be made to this study that would allow researchers to develop a clearer and more real to life picture of this area of study. One such development would be to look at basing the study in more diverse areas or look at similar data from rural areas in different countries if they want to focus on the rural aspect of the study. This is because it has been suggested (Herzog and Oreg, 2008; Jeffries and Bond, 2013) that chivalry only really effectively applies to certain women who fit the ideal image of “womanhood” which according to Steffensmeier and Demuth (2006) is white and middle class. Therefore, because this study was done in an environment where there is a miniscule amount of individuals, compared to the sample population size, where from an ethnically diverse background, it makes it hard to be generalizable except from maybe to small counties with little ethnic diversity like the ones that have been researched in this study. Also, although it could show some partial evidence against general chivalry’s effects on sentencing for this crime, it would struggle with some other theories. It would struggle to show evidence against selective chivalry as it has very little diversity to show that certain women would get better treatment then others due to its lack of a diverse sample population. As previously referred, it would only be able to show evidence to support counties with similar populations to itself and it would struggle to provide evidence in other states and counties as the diversity varies around the country. Support for the generalization of the conclusions of these studies is very low as it would only apply to a very small group. They state themselves that the results may differ from rural counties in different states. A further limitation was the issue that for some cases they could not access their criminal background. Therefore, they were unable to take the factor of whether some may have a criminal history which would then affect the outcome. The resulting sentence could then be different because of this and would then have to be considered when looking at the results of this study. For example, the reason why in some of the cases women look like their sentence is just as long or harsh as their male counterparts is because they have a criminal history. If this was then it may be that women in this case may have only gotten similar judgements due to having a criminal history. Although, it may be unlikely that enough women had criminal histories that affected their sentence length to then affect the results and conclusion of this study, we cannot rule it out due there being no proof against this idea.

5. Other Factors

So far, the focus has been on how certain theories help explain the differences that may be seen during the sentencing phase of the criminal justice system. Various other factors have been mentioned when looking at the theories and how they may moderate and interact with gender and the theories surrounding differences in sentencing in relation to gender. However, this chapter will look more specifically at studies surrounding factors and how they may have an influence on the sentencing process. Four factors, legal and extra-legal, shall be looked at within this section, however there are many more factors that have been looked at in various research and are can be said to have some sort of effect. Each factor will look at how they interact with gender and sentencing, looking at whether they have a significant impact on how defendants are sentenced.

Racial Factor

Within this section the race of the defendant being sentenced will be looked at in reference to seeing if there are any differences to be seen between gender and race. There are substantial bodies of research that detail how race can affect how individuals may be sentenced, with white defendants often getting the more lenient sentence (Brennan & Spohn, 2008; Spohn, 2000). The focus for this however will be how race and gender can lead to differences in sentencing with a discussion on what those differences are and what they show about the sentencing system.

What is found through looking through various pieces of literature is that black women do not receive the same level of lenience from the court system as white women do (Koons-Witt et al., 2012; Brennan, 2006; Steffensmeier et al., 1993). Therefore, you can assume the leniency that is supposed to apply to women when it comes to sentencing only applies to certain women, which supports the theory of selective chivalry. This shows that there may be some king of racial stereotype in causing this and allows them to fall out of the archetype image of women that need this protection because they believe they are have a low risk to society. However, there are also studies that contend this theory that black females are treated less leniently then white females. Many of these studies still find differences in how people of different races are sentenced, however they find that the difference mostly occurs when it comes to black and white males as earlier mentioned (Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2006; Spohn & Spears, 1997). It can also be suggested that the area that is picked to base the study may affect the outcome and results of these studies. It is suggested by Zatz (2000) that studies based in the United States seem to see a pattern of where race appears to be a larger factor in the sentencing phase and these states where you see it are in the south of the country. Therefore, you may assume that the study may vary from area to area depending on how strong traditional gender roles and views on women are valued. For example, the Koons-Witt et, al (2012) study is based in South Carolina which is in the south of the country. They mention how conservative views on women are held within the state and the results showed that black women and men appear to be on the receiving end of less lenient sentences. A lot of studies also seem to only consider black and white sentencing disparities. There are studies however, that show Hispanic defendants can often face even harsher punishment then both black and white defendants (Brennan & Spohn, 2008). Therefore, although race does seem to have a definite effect in relation to men on a general basis, it is less certain in its effect when women are the defendant. A future study could look at the effects of gender and race and compare them between various states or countries in order to determine whether there is any connection between the factors.

The factor of age has not yet been discussed in this review though it is often included as control within most literature. Most of these studies often focus on the age of male defendants rather than across the gender divide. This maybe perhaps due to it having more of an influence over male sentencing then female leading to a lack of need to test how the factor may influence sentencing of women.

Steffensmeier et al. (1998) hypothesised this when looking at how a range of different factors interact when sentencing. They found that younger males are often sentenced more harshly than older individuals. They also found that as the defendant got older, the race and gender differences diminished. This may be because they are deemed too old to be deemed as much of a threat to the general public. This was then further built upon by Spohn and Holleran (2000) who narrowed down the age in which an individual was most likely to be punished harshly. It also must be borne in mind that they looked at which ethnic groups were mostly likely to receive harsher punishment as well as the age range in which those groups would likely receive this punishment. They identified that black and Hispanic male defendants between the ages of 21 and 29 while being unemployed were most likely to receive the harshest punishments out of the different groups. Therefore, it must be noted that age can show various patterns, when interacting with other factors, that can lead to various other avenues of research and groups that can be focused on that lead to much groups being identified for further examination.

Crime Severity Factor

How serious an offence is may seem like a more obvious indicator into how a defendant may be sentenced with the idea that the more serious the crime, the harsher the sentence. However, this may be a key factor to explain the why there is a lot more males serving out more severe sentences. According to literature women are a lot less likely to commit serious crimes and violent crimes (Belkanp, 2007; Rodriguez et al., 2006). Non-violent crimes, as previously discussed, like fraud and theft are seen as crimes that traditionally women commit. However, this may result in women who commit violent crimes being affected by the views that are brought up in the theories above.

This is possibly the most key feature that can lessen the disparity between sentencing leniency. It is shown in research that a lot of the disparity disappears when it comes to violent crimes (Rodriguez el al., 2006; Boritch, 1992). This is because under the selective chivalry theory, this would fall out of its purview as it is crime that outside of the gender role expectations (Koons-Witt et al., 2012). They, therefore, lose the leniency that they would get under that paradigm as well as being judged as doubly deviant because of that breaking of the gender norms. Warren et al. (2011) suggest that as the seriousness of the offence increases the less discretion the judge then has when giving a sentence. This would then lead to this factor outweighing other key extra-legal factors, such as gender, because the seriousness of the crime has more influence over the sentence than any possible influence these extra-legal factors could possibly have on the outcome of the sentencing. This does mean that when the crime is less severe, the extra-legal factors can seem to have some measure of effect. Rodriguez et al. (2006) can support this view as they saw differences when it came to property crime in the way in which leniency was shown in favour of women when it came to sentence them.

Criminal History Factor

Criminal history is factor that was discussed in one of the studies that was focused on earlier in this review. The results for that study suggested, in the case of narcotics cases at least, that women do tend to get more lenient sentences if they have a lack of criminal history in comparison to males with a lack of criminal history (Tillyer et al., 2015). This can be further backed by Spohn (2000) and Koons-Witt et al. (2012) in relation to chance of being incarcerated.

From the various pieces of literature that have reviewed (Tillyer et al., 2015; Spohn, 2000; Koons-Witt et al., 2012; Daly & Tonry, 1997), there is a large amount that suggest that criminal history is very useful factor to use when predicting how a defendant may be sentenced. Daly and Tonry (1997) suggest that when judges are deciding on how to sentence an individual, when they have some discretion on how sentence a defendant, they look at criminal history as means of predicting future behaviour. They suggest that they use it as a means of testing how much they respect the law. A large criminal history would suggest a lack of respect and give the impression that they have no reservations about breaking the law. If the judges have doubt that that the defendant will not commit another crime, then they will be a lot less likely to give sentence that will be lenient. They may have a lack of belief that the offender would learn from committing their crime and that it would expose the wider public to harm. All these different issues stemming from a larger criminal record would leave a law official less inclined to be lenient to what in their view may be a veteran offender.

6. Conclusion and Discussion

In terms of volume of research in the area of sentencing disparities between genders, there is large amount, as shown above. However, there are a few interesting areas of future research that could be partaken in to further understanding with more specific factors. For example, an underlying factor in the United States may be what region the sentencing is taking place in (Zatz, 2000; Myers and Talarico, 1986). As mentioned earlier certain states seem to have conservative views regarding gender roles as well as Zatz (2000) mentioning that race effects can generally be seen to be stronger. A more recent investigation into the differences that can be seen across a variety of states would be an interesting area. As a detailed comparison between states that have historically been seen either conservative or liberal in their views would be able to give an idea how much of an effect the historical views of the state they are based in, is having. More studies in this area conducted outside of the United States would also be interesting. There is a very large body of work existing in this this area in the United States and not as many in other countries. Therefore, more studies done in other parts of the world may show if cultural differences still allow the ideas of the above theories to have a basis there. As well as how much the other extra-legal and legal factors have in relation to sentencing. This is a large limitation within this review as the most popular studies in this area are mostly conducted in the United States, making it harder to generalize it on continental or worldwide basis due to lack of a large body of research in other countries. Also due to there being so many different extra-legal factors that exist and could influence the sentencing process, more studies at looking into precisely how much each factor may influence a sentencing procedure. The current studies that have been conducted use databases that only give so much information on different factors. Therefore, a future study on the subject should try to address this issue which can be done by a range of measures. One such way could be creating a database that is more qualitive in its approach and includes more extra-legal factors with more information on the offender and their offences. This can allow the analysis of more than on factors, in order to establish their influence, they may have on decision, on the same sentencing cases. More research into race and gender sentencing outcomes may also be an avenue of further research as although there is research in this area a lot of them only investigate the black and white race comparison. This approach risks missing out on how other ethnic groups experience the sentencing process and if there can be witnessed differences in how they are treated in that phase of the justice system

Based from the evidence shown in the studies above and the results given. It can be suggested that Selective Chivalry and the Evil Woman/Double Deviance theories have some relevance in showing how sentencing decisions are made. Gender does appear to be a factor when determining how an offender is sentenced. It can be shown that a large body of work, in which I reviewed, shows a pattern that supports the idea that women are shown more leniency when it comes to sentencing. Yet are judged more harshly sometimes then men when other factors contribute that could break the traditional gender roles and traditional gender stereotypes such as committing violent crime, as opposed to non-violent crime. However, they also show that other factors may need to be taken into consideration in order for it to have a significant effect. Further research into how extra-legal may affect sentencing, due to the sheer number of factors that there is, and how they may be assisting the gender disparity when it comes to sentencing outcomes. Overall, the literature reviewed does generally point to the idea that gender does play a role in sentencing outcomes, but also that other factors are also considered in order to give sentence and not just gender. Chivalry, Selective Chivalry and Evil Woman/Double Deviance theories all cannot be discounted in having elements of the ideas within them being relevant to sentencing within the United States justice system.

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Chivalry Thesis - Gender and Crime

Last updated 30 Nov 2022

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The concept of chivalry thesis as an explanation of why crime statistics show men commit many more criminal acts than women is explained in this video.

Gender (Crime)
Crime and Deviance
Chivalry Thesis

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Crime & Deviance

The chivalry thesis claims that women will be treated more leniently for committing certain crimes, generally shoplifting is often associated more with females than males, but the statistics suggest that males commit many more acts of theft than women, an

Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the value of ‘chivalry thesis ‘in understanding differences in crime. gfg

Pollak (1950) was of the opinion that police and magistrates tended to be more ‘chivalrous’ and ‘lenient’ towards female offenders, resulting in sentence disparities, and as a result, criminal statistics underestimate the amount of female offending. (Item A).

Pollak (1961) argued that men – namely in this case police officers, magistrates and judges, are socialised to be protective towards women and thus are less likely to chare or prosecute them, and are also treated more leniently in court. Pollak goes further to argue that women are accustomed to deceiving men, for example in faking orgasms during sex, or lying in a relationship to gain material wealth. This skill in deceit mean that their crimes, such as poisoning and infanticide, are less easily uncovered (item A) leading to women being underrepresented in criminal statistics.

The chivalry thesis claims that women will be treated more leniently for committing certain crimes, generally shoplifting is often associated more with females than males, but the statistics suggest that males commit many more acts of theft than women, and this may be because females are let off with a warning rather than a conviction. This could be because the statistics of crime are so male dominated, a police officer may not think convicting a woman of petty theft is worth it, when there may be, in his opinion, a man selling drugs elsewhere, it may not be worth it in his view. Similarly, men are more likely to be convicted of theft because the criminal justice system seemingly victimises males over females, while it is probably more likely that males are more likely to commit crime than females, the gap between the crime rates between gender may not be as large as first assumed. It is also possible that female occurrences of shoplifting, as Pollak argues, never even come to the attention of the authorities, again because more often than not they are not reported.

Farrington and Morris (1983) which involved a study of ‘sentencing’ in Magistrates courts. They discovered in 1979, 6.6% of men, but only 2% of women found guilty of indictable offences were imprisoned. Although men received more severe sentences than women, the research found the differences disappeared when the severity of offences was taken into account. Although personal opinions of the judges, witness reports or specific details of the crimes in question may have played a role, this does show that to an extent women are more likely to be let off for an offence.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Hilary Allen (1989) based upon an examination criminal statistics of 1987, showed apparent leniency towards female offenders. For example, of people found guilty of indictable motoring offences, 73% of women, but only 54% of men were given fines, this difference resulting in more men being given prison sentences. Although these findings may not show the severity of the specific offences. Campbell through self report studies in 1976, of urban schoolgirls, compared to 16 year old males, these sources showed that 1.33 offences were committed by males for every 1.0 for females, this hugely contrasted to 1976 official figures on convictions, which showed 8.95 convictions for every female 1.0. This shows how official statistics can be greatly misleading, that although males may convict more crime, the gulf between the amount of offences shown by statistics, and popular opinion, is not as wide as it seems.

Although these studies do give evidence towards the chivalry thesis, the bulk of research does not give this indication. Steven box 1981, reviewed data from self report studies in UK and USA, and concluded that ‘the weight of evidence on women committing serious offences does not give clear support to the view that they receive differential and more favourable treatment from members of the public, police or judges’. Although it has to always be remembered that in a self report study, the validity and reliability relies upon the respondent’s ability and willingness to tell the truth, which is not always apparent.

To counter this, Buckle and Farrington carried out an observational study on shoplifting in a British department store in England 1981, found that only 1.4 % of the 361 females observed shoplifted, whereas 2.8% of the 361 males did. Although far too small of a sample to conclude anything categorically, it does provide evidence against the chivalry thesis.

A rather different, feminist view is that women are treated far more harshly by the criminal justice system than men, which often is the case in rape trials. Carol Smart argues that such trials ‘celebrate notions of male sexual need and female sexual capriciousness. ‘ The feminist view is often of the opinion that women are labelled as being dressed provocatively, being drunk when the rape occurred, or often the male in the case argues she did not object at the time of the incident, and by these happenings the male is let off. A similar feminist opinion is found in the case of domestic violence, in a study on domestic violence by Dobash and Dobash, it was found that police officers were ‘very unlikely to make an arrest when the offender has used violence against his wife. ‘(1979). this has spurred feminist campaigners to urge police officers to take cases of domestic violence more seriously.

Pollak’s full chivalry thesis is in short, slightly sexist as it states that ‘women are particularly adept at hiding their crimes, this is attributed to female biology ‘. Because of his inadequate analysis the theory has been subject to a heavy and fierce amount of criticism. Frances Hiedensohn 1985 slated the theory greatly, stating that is was based on analysis that had very little evidence and many unsupported assumptions, she regarded it as being based upon an unsubstantiated stereotypical image of women. In conclusion, although some parts of Pollak’s chivalry thesis, namely the parts saying women are naturally more likely to conceal crime are quite unsupported and base, studies associated with the theory have hinted that women are often in some cases treated more leniently by the criminal justice system. Although the extent of this cannot really be measured, statistics would have us believe that the gap between male and female criminality is huge, but upon closer investigation this is not the case. Reasons for this may be that criminology and sociology is largely dominated by males that the research is done on males by males, leading to an underrepresentation on female crime, or that perhaps female crimes are comparatively seen as trivial and are not deemed worthy of research. Whichever way it is looked it, there is a case for the argument that females are often not treated as harshly as males upon committing crime, but of course the opposite argument could be valid also.

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Overall this is a really strong essay. The content never drifts from the focus of the question, there is a good even debate on both sides of the discussion and the use of the item has been applied well. The studies applied are also very effective and support the evidence throughout. At times there is opportunity to apply key terms such as iceberg theory or the hidden figure of crime.

The chivalry thesis claims that women will be treated more leniently for committing certain crimes, generally shoplifting is often associated more with females than males, but the statistics suggest that males commit many more acts of theft than women, an

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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy pp 725–734 Cite as

Chivalry, Renaissance Concept of

Elizabeth Ashcroft Terry-Roisin 2 , 3
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First Online: 28 October 2022

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Broadly speaking, chivalry or chivalric culture was a set of values cultivated by Europe’s military elite from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. These values differed in time and in place and interacted with other cultural values, such as those of the European Renaissance movement. Chivalric values often greatly contrasted with reality and were not embraced or acted upon by all warriors, knights, or nobility. While there was no “chivalric code” that all knights ascribed to, it is possible to identify several core chivalric ideals which appear in numerous types of sources over time. These were loyalty to one’s lord, skillful fighting on horseback (prowess), and generosity to one’s men (largesse). These ideals appear somewhat consistently starting in the twelfth century in both proscriptive literature for real knights and imaginative literature and chivalric romance. European chivalric culture was transformed by tensions between courtliness and prowess and between history and legend, as well as by the rise of the early modern state and the construction of its new armies and bureaucracies. Periodization for the end of chivalry helps to shape scholarly understanding of the nature of the European Renaissance and of the early modern period itself.

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Terry-Roisin, E.A. (2022). Chivalry, Renaissance Concept of. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_846

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The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare

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26 Chivalry and the English Gentleman

Richard Cust is Professor of History at the University of Birmingham. He has published extensively on late Tudor and early Stuart politics and elite culture, most recently Charles I and the Aristocracy, 1625-1642 (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Published: 07 July 2016
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This chapter engages with issues relating to the place of chivalry within the new forms of gentility which were emerging in late Tudor and early Stuart England. It traces a process of ‘revichalrization’ back to the 1570s and 1580s, as contemporary commentators sought to reconnect the military profession with the virtues of courage, honesty, and service to one’s country. This found expression in the revival of the tilt and the heavily romanticized approach to battle of soldiers such as Sir Philip Sidney and Lord Herbert of Cherbury. This style of soldiering was largely confined to the upper levels of the gentry and nobility. But the norms and values associated with it exercised a powerful influence on the gentry more widely, encouraging the duelling, equestrianism and martial display, which continued to be feature prominently in the mix of virtues which constituted the ideal gentleman.

Sometime after his arrival in the Netherlands in 1587 Sir William Drury had his portrait pained by the Dutch artist Daniel van der Queecborne (see Figure 26.1 ). * The setting shows the two martial arenas in which he operated: the tournament where he was a regular jouster at the accession day tilts of the 1580s; and the Low Countries war of 1585–1604 where he served briefly as the governor of Bergen-op-Zoom. He is clad in the elaborate patterned Greenwich field armour which became fashionable amongst the English elite in the 1580s and 1590s, in this case tinted with the Drury’s heraldic colours of dark green and gold and sporting the Stafford knot which was the emblem of his wife’s family. But perhaps the most intriguing element is the little Italian word framed against the shadowed sun: ‘ sconsolato ’—disconsolate or afflicted. What does this refer to? Why was Drury ‘disconsolate’?

Malcolm Smuts and Ellen Chirelstein suggest that this refers to two things: firstly, his disappointment at not being able to get his considerable debts to the Crown pardoned by Elizabeth, in spite of regular pleas to Burghley; and secondly, his sense of humiliation after his dismissal from the governorship of Bergen, at Elizabeth’s behest, because he was regarded as too inexperienced. Given the explicitly martial setting, it would seem that it is the latter that is being accentuated in this portrait. In an anguished letter to Walsingham in May 1588, Drury begged to be reinstated. He described the appointment as meaning more to him than ‘any worldly riches’ and described how, if he was denied,

I shall consume my life with intolerable grief and be drawn to leave it with everlasting shame, not to show my face neither here nor elsewhere where I am known.

Sir William Drury (1550–1590), by Daniel van der Queecborne (Yale Center for British Art: B 1973.1.15. I am grateful to the Yale Center for British Art for permission to reproduce this image.)

If it was not possible for him to be reinstated, he declared his resolve ‘to quit the place with credit to myself and honour to my nation; or otherwise to make a good testimony thereof by leaving my carcase in the dykes.’ 1

Drury was as good as his word. Elizabeth remained adamant that he be replaced, but he hung on through the summer and autumn and organized the defence of Bergen with considerable distinction when Parma attacked in September 1588.

The following year he attempted to secure the governorship of Ostend, in place of Sir John Conway. But Conway resisted, and this came to nothing. Drury was left to pursue the vindication of his honour with increasing recklessness. He returned briefly to England, but was soon back in France, taking on the captaincy of 1,000 men in the service of Henry IV. Finally, in January 1590, he died as a result of a duel with Sir John Borough, over who should ‘concede place of precedency’ to the other. 2

On my reading, then, it seems likely that this portrait represents a semi-public attestation of Drury’s determination to redeem his slighted honour and regain royal favour. Like one of the tournament impresa of the period, it combined a motto with heraldic devices to advertise his commitment to undertake a noble enterprise and restore his reputation in the eyes of the world. With this we are ushered into the chivalric world of knight errantry and vows to perform heroic deeds, familiar from epic romances, the chronicles of Froissart and Holinshed, and Shakespeare’s history plays. 3 The engagement with this by a Suffolk country gentleman-turned-soldier raises all sorts of interesting questions about the place of chivalry in the new forms of gentility which were emerging in the late Tudor and early Stuart period. In many respects Drury followed the conventional trajectory of the gentleman-courtier and county governor, marrying one of Elizabeth’s ladies of the bedchamber and becoming a justice of the peace and, in 1584, knight of the shire for Suffolk. But from early manhood he also appears to have aspired to a heroic role, reflected in his enthusiastic participation in the early Accession Day Tilts—as the Red Knight in the famous assault on the Fortress of Perfect Beautie in 1581—and the massive statue of Hercules, club in hand, that he erected at the entrance of his house at Hawstead Place prior to Elizabeth’s visit in 1578. How far did other gentry in a similar position share such martial aspirations? And how far did the chivalric ideal that the display of courage on the battlefield was the supreme vindication of noble honour continue to be relevant to the English upper classes?

Historians of chivalry have come up with contradictory verdicts. At one end of the spectrum there are scholars such as Sydney Anglo and Lawrence Stone who see chivalry as having little relevance once the armoured mounted warrior ceased to dominate the battlefield and the Crown took control of the instruments of violence. Anglo insists that by the end of the sixteenth century ‘the old-fashioned warrior knight had disappeared as a distinct and recognisable species’. He was replaced by the humanist-trained courtier or gentleman who now regarded the knightly skills of riding, fencing, and jousting as ‘social accomplishments’ rather than a preparation for war or an essential expression of honour and manhood. In the same vein, Stone has argued that the English elite were undergoing a process of demilitarization. They were becoming progressively less familiar with the weapons, training, and feats of arms which had played such a notable role in their chivalric past, and valued more for their civility rather than their valour. 4

At the other end of the spectrum, scholars like Maurice Keen and John Adamson argue that chivalry is best understood as a cluster of ideals and values which celebrated martial virtue and courage. As such, it continued to play a central role in the aristocratic honour codes of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Keen argues that ‘the forces that in the medieval past had given it life were still at work, but the outward aspects in which they found expression were changing’. The ‘essential constituents—loyalty, generosity, and courage—were not much altered’, but there was an ‘alteration in its appearance’ with an increased emphasis on service to the state, a readiness to adapt to new styles of warfare and a new stress on courtliness. Adamson sees chivalry as very much alive and well in the reign of Charles I. It was drawing on an ‘inherited language of the past’, but introducing ‘new priorities’ and ‘divergent elements and forms’ as the political nation adapted to the rapidly changing circumstances of foreign war in the 1620s, peace in the 1630s, and then civil war in the 1640s. 5

Between these two poles historians such as John Hale, Keith Thomas, A. B. Ferguson, Richard McCoy, and Marc Girouard acknowledge that traditional forms of chivalry had declined, but argue that it enjoyed a revival in this period, what Ferguson calls an ‘Indian Summer’. This was particularly evident in its influence on the literary and architectural imagination. The chivalric romances of Sidney and Spenser were complemented by the revival of a gothic style in architecture evident in sham-castles such as Bolsover in Derbyshire and Lulworth in Dorset. The influence of this revival was also felt, as Hale and Thomas emphasize, in the more theatrical aspects of contemporary warfare which persisted in spite of the growing professionalism of armed forces. Personal challenges and the individual pursuit of honour were still very much to the fore, and growing significance was attached to the duel as a demonstration of courage. 6

The Elizabethan Chivalric Revival

Whatever the reality of the transformation in traditional notions of chivalry, it is evident that the 1570s and 1580s marked a watershed in contemporary perceptions. As Paul Hammer and Rory Rapple have demonstrated, twenty years of military underachievement and worries about the nation’s lack of preparedness to face the threat from Spain led to a good deal of soul searching, and a spate of writing on the need to promote and defend the ‘military profession’. Thomas Churchyard set the tone in his Generall Reahearsall of warres as he looked back wistfully to a golden age under Henry VIII:

All chivalry was cherished, soldiers made [much] of, and manhood so much in esteeme that he was thought happy and most valiant that sought credit by the exercise of arms and discipline of war [and] he was counted nobody that have not been known to be at some valiant enterprise for the advancement of his country.

In contrast, in his own day, he believed that young men were far more interested in pursuing careers at court or in the law. Knights had become, as Barnaby Rich put it, ‘battalus’ and more ‘practised in the carpet trade’ than defending their country. The occupation of soldiering was also routinely denigrated as the pursuit of the endlessly-quarrelsome disturbers of the public peace. This was particularly evident in over fifty years of humanist criticism which depicted chivalry and the martial ethos as the morality of violent and ungodly wastrels. 7

Writers like Churchyard, Rich, Geoffrey Gates, Barnaby Gouge, and George Whetstone responded to these perceptions with a concerted campaign to revive the prestige of the military profession. They sought to reconnect it with the virtues of courage, manliness, honesty, and service to their country. Gates, in his Defence of Militarie Profession , reminded his readers, in the same vein as Machiavelli in The Prince , that whilst ‘good laws’ and lawyers fulfilled the important function of maintaining justice in the state, ultimately this was only made possible through the efforts of soldiers in preserving its security. England in the 1570s and 80s had particular need of such young men who, in the words of Gabriel Harvey were ready to ‘throw away bloodless books and writings that serve no useful purpose’ and recognize that ‘now is the time for them to sharpen the spear and to handle great engines of war’. Gates summed up the basic message by reminding his readers that

We are the sonnes of those our fathers whose strength and courage neither Scots, French nor Spanyards were able to resist … Old English valiancy is not so extinguished in the English nation, neither through long securitie and corrupt idleness, but it is soon stirred up to a double force when it hath acquainted itself with exercise in the field.

By way of example, he instanced the ‘high courage and valiantnes’ of those English regiments who had recently been fighting the Spanish in Brabant. 8

One of the most striking manifestations of this campaign to revive the prestige of soldiering was a heightened awareness of the tension between robe and é pée , or what in the English context were usually called ‘swordsmen’ and ‘gownmen’ (or ‘penmen’). Recognition of a tension between these two roles can be traced back at least as far as Henry VIII’s reign; but, as Rapple has demonstrated, it was the military apologists of the 1570s and 1580s who did most to draw out the contrast. Churchyard’s General Rehearsall , for example, insisted that there was a ‘certain deadly dissension between the sword and the pen’, as a result of which ‘the sword being disgraced by a bold blot of a scurvy quill, lies in a broken rusty scabbard.’ The sense that ‘swordsmen’ were being disvalued by the blandishments of the ‘gownmen’ was particularly pronounced in the circle round the Earl of Essex during the 1590s. The earl repeatedly presented himself to the world as the high-minded and selfless man of action who refused to be confined by the ‘rigour and quirks’ of the lawyers and ‘gownmen’. He was in the habit of retorting to Sir Francis Bacon, whenever the latter advised him against ‘seeking greatness’ through military achievements that ‘my opinion came not from my mind but from my robe’. 9

In England the distinction between robe and épée was never articulated as thoroughly or as forthrightly as in France where the contrast between the two categories of nobleman became a major theme of literary debate and the distinction had important implications for matters of precedence. However, it was still a familiar component of cultural and political discourse, with a prevailing sense of a divide between an ancient nobility, grounded in military service to the state and displaying the virtues of courage, honesty, manliness, and loyalty, and newly risen ‘gownmen’, who in the eyes of the advocates of the ‘sword’ represented the antithesis of all these things. One of the clearest expressions of this was provided by Sir Robert Naunton’s Fragmenta Reglia which looked back on Elizabeth’s reign from the vantage point of the 1630s. Naunton divided Elizabeth’s nobles into ‘militia’ and ‘togati’ and generally made comparisons in favour of ‘swordsmen’ as the more honest and active servants of their country. Thus he recalled that Drury’s patron, Lord Willoughby, ‘one of the queen’s finest swordsmen’, ‘could not brook the obsequiousness and assiduity of the court … [and] it was his saying (and it did him no good) that he was none of the reptilia, intimating that he would not creep and crouch’. 10

The main effects of this prolonged championing of the role of the soldier were twofold. Firstly, it accelerated the professionalization of England’s land forces. The Crown followed the advice of Rich and others to establish a cadre of veteran soldiers—like the garrison troops already on long-term service at Berwick. This was a slow process which involved drawing on the experience of English officers and volunteers who had been fighting in the France and the Low Countries; but by the end of the 1580s, under commanders such as Lord Willoughby and Sir Francis Vere, the forces in the service of the Dutch were showing signs of progress. Increasing use was also made of military contractors; and, under the newly created lord lieutenancy, machinery was established for the regular conscription of troops from the counties. These developments accelerated the transformation of England’s armed forces from an agglomeration of indentured retinues, fighting under their individual lords and captains, to a ‘national’ army. Increasingly the country’s forces were recruited for the service of the monarch and state, commanded, trained, and disciplined by professional officers, and provided with uniforms, wages, and regular employment. However, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century this process was far from complete. 11

The second consequence of this championing of the soldier—often at odds with the moves towards professionalization—was to help to launch what can best be described as a process of ‘rechivalrization’. Members of the elite set out, very self-consciously, to re-constitute the ‘old English valiancy’ lauded by Gates. In the process, they recreated a version of chivalry and soldiering which often had more to do with the images and ideals presented in chronicles and romances than the actual practices of the battle-hardened, and highly pragmatic, captains who fought alongside Edward III and Henry V.

One of the main focal points of this revival was the Accession Day Tilt which was reinvigorated by Sir Henry Lee, the queen’s champion, during the 1570s. These were spectacles which owed rather more to the drama of the theatre than any training for actual combat. Participants spent huge sums to equip themselves with the armour, accoutrements, and impresa which would ensure a suitably ostentatious entry into the tiltyard. Knights issued elaborately contrived challenges deploying the language of knight errantry and Arthurian legend. While the danger and violence of the original tournaments was largely eliminated with the use of blunted swords and rebated lances, and—following the death of Henry II of France at a joust in 1559—the abandonment of the old scoring system which rewarded blows to the head and the unseating of the rider. However, these occasions still retained their glamour as the quintessential contemporary arena for displaying manliness and courage. The Gloucestershire gentleman, William Higford, recalled in the 1650s how, as a star-struck youth, he had witnessed the transformation of the otherwise unremarkable country gentleman, Sir James Scudamore, into a figure of heroic proportions. He had seen him enter the tiltyard

in a handsome equipage, all in complete armour, embellished with plumes, his beaver close, mounted upon a very high bounding horse (I have seen the shoes of his horse glister above the heads of all the people), and when he came to the encounter or shock brake as many speares as the rest.

All this was witnessed by ‘her Majesty Q. Elizabeth with a train of ladies, like the stars in the firmament, and the whole court looking on with very gracious aspect’. This transformation is also attested in a magnificent 1590s portrait of Scudamore in jousting armour and his appearance in Spencer’s Faerie Queene as Sir Scudamore, ‘the gentle knight’, the pattern of chivalry. 12

The impact of this highly romanticized version of chivalry on the ways in which the English elite fought wars during the 1580s and 1590s, and indeed the early seventeenth century, was profound. Alongside the increasing professionalism of the armed forces there remained many of the features of the great age of English chivalry in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Significant contingents of English armies, particularly in the cavalry regiments, were still recruited by personal summons. Leicester raised most of the cavalry who accompanied him to the Netherlands in 1585 through retinues led by his friends and clients. Their armour and equipment was often also reminiscent of a bygone age. Noblemen and knights in the 1580s and 90s still went into battle—like Sir William Drury—clad in personalized, brightly coloured suits of armour, much of it produced by the royal workshops at Greenwich. One French observer was astonished to see Essex’s knights on the Rouen campaign ‘armed and costumed like the antique figures shown on old tapestries, with coats of mail and iron helmets’. But this reaction is understandable if one examines the remarkable ‘Almain Armourer’s Album’, the collection of contemporary drawings of suits of Greenwich armour produced for leading knights and noblemen. 13

The approach to combat was also intensely individualistic. Contemporary accounts of battles often treated them like sporting events, in which what mattered was not so much the strategic outcome as that the leading combatants acquitted themselves bravely and worthily. Typical of these were the letters that the Earl of Leicester wrote to Burghley and Walsingham after the battle of Zutphen in September 1586. He focused on the heroic deeds of the likes of Lord North, Sir Henry Unton, Sir William Hatton, and Sir Philip Sidney, and concluded that the main significance of the battle was that ‘this hath flesh’t [i.e. inured to blood] our young noblemen and gentlemen, and surely they have won her Majestie this day as much honour as ever so few men did their prince.’ The behaviour of combatants was also focused primarily on winning the honour and renown to which Leicester referred. Famously, it was at Zutphen that Sir Philip Sidney met his end, after a typically reckless gesture. Seeing his commander, Sir William Pelham, rushing off to battle before he had time to put on his full armour, Sidney was determined not be outdone in a display of daring. He therefore abandoned his cuisses (or leg-guards) and thereby exposed himself to the mortal wound in his thigh. On his deathbed, Sidney bequeathed his ‘best sword’ to the Earl of Essex and thereafter Essex did everything in his power to take on the chivalric mantle laid down by his distinguished cousin. He engaged in a series of highly theatrical displays of personal courage which, according to his verse biographer, Robert Pricket, demonstrated ‘how infinitely a romantic spirit of knight errantry surpassed all other passions in his breast’. Typical of these was his widely reported action on the Portugal expedition of 1589. As English forces withdrew, he advanced on the besieged city of Lisbon, rammed his lance into its gate, then demanded ‘alowde if any Spaniard mewed therin durst adventure forth in favour of his mistress to breake a staffe with him’. Going into battle, for the elite of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, had many of the resonances of conflict in the great age of chivalry. The notion that such modes of behaviour had fallen out of fashion as warfare became more a matter of sieges and skirmishes does not stand up to close scrutiny. 14 Indeed if anything the chivalric gestures had become more exaggerated as the actions of participants were shaped by heavily romanticized notions of what warfare should be like.

Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the Chivalric Lifestyle

Courage in combat was only part of the performance associated with traditional ideals of knighthood. What of the significance of the wider repertoire of chivalric values, such as courtesy, loyalty, and the crucial quality of franchise , which described the free will and independent spirit of the true knight? One of the best ways of gaining an insight into the impact these had on the lifestyle of contemporaries is through exploring the career and values of Sir Edward Herbert, later Lord Herbert of Cherbury—or at least the version of his life that he presented in his autobiography.

Herbert wrote this between 1643 and 1645, when he was over sixty and in failing health. In spite of being a vigorous supporter of the king in the early 1640s, he had retreated from public affairs to his ancestral seat at Montgomery Castle. He probably felt uncomfortable about this, particularly as both his son and grandson were in arms for Charles. It is therefore likely, as Christine Jackson suggests, that the autobiography was conceived, at least in part, out of a desire ‘to emphasise the physical prowess and courage he had displayed in his youth’ and the reputation that he had gained for this. 15

Two events in his early life were formative. One of these was receiving a knighthood at the hands of the king in July 1603. He was not simply dubbed in the manner of most knights, but experienced the full ceremony of being made a knight of the bath. This required him to bathe to cleanse his sins; to keep a nocturnal vigil to contemplate his commitment to Christ; and finally to take a solemn oath in which he swore never to tolerate injustice, especially against gentlewomen, and what he described as ‘many other points not unlike the romances of knights errands’. He also related with obvious pride how, as part of the ceremony, the Earl of Shrewsbury had put on his right spur and vouched for him as ‘a good knight’. All this made a powerful impression. He insisted that the quarrels and duels into which he later threw himself with such apparent relish were a direct consequence of ‘how strictly I held myself to my oath of knighthood’. 16

The second formative event was his encounter with the world of French chivalry. Whilst in Paris on a European tour in 1608 he was adopted by the duc de Montmorency, Constable of France, and accorded the signal honour of being made keeper of his château at Mello. There he hunted, honed his riding skills, and experienced at first hand the punctilious and theatrical honour code of the young French nobleman. He learned, he tells us, that in France duelling was regarded as the ultimate assertion of masculine prowess and that a member of the noblesse d’épée was scarcely deemed worthy of the name until he had killed an opponent in ‘private combat’. This was brought home to Herbert when he revisited the court at Paris and observed at first hand the awe in which the Chevalier de Balagny was held, particularly by the ladies of the court, because of his reputation as ‘one of the gallantest men in the world in having killed eight or nine men in single fight’. 17 For Sir Edward, who was nothing if not a ladies’ man, the lure of such a reputation was irresistible.

He met up with Balagny again in 1610 when he volunteered to fight under Henry IV and Maurice of Nassau at the siege of Julich. In a display of reckless bravado, Balagny challenged him to be the first to lead the attack on the town. The two men leapt across the ramparts and advanced towards the enemy under heavy fire, each daring the other to be the last to turn back, a dare that Herbert claimed he won as Balagny scuttled back to the cover of his trenches in a crouching run, whilst he followed ‘leisurely and upright’. This was the first of a whole series of acts of impulsive daring, which included numerous duels, often fought on the flimsiest of pretexts. On another occasion when he was fighting under Prince Maurice against the Spanish in 1614, a Spanish cavalier challenged him to fight, again ‘for the sake of his mistress’. The Spanish general, the Marquis de Spinola, put a stop to this combat, but then invited Herbert to dinner, where they chatted amicably about campaigns past. When Spinola asked him ‘of what died Sir Francis Vere’, Herbert replied, one soldier to another, that it was because he had no more wars to fight, to which Spinola responded that ‘it is enough to kill a general’. Before his departure, in the spirit of the internationalism that had always been a pronounced feature of chivalry, Sir Edward pledged that if Spinola ever led a crusade against the infidel he would ‘adventure to be the first man that would die in the quarrel’. These exploits earned him a reputation not only in England, but also amongst the international brotherhood of the martial nobility, as one of the foremost cavaliers of his day. 18

The autobiography was, of course, very much a work of self-fashioning in which Herbert sought to present an image of himself which fitted with the tropes, ideals, and role models of contemporary notions of chivalry. However, there is enough evidence—in the admiring comments of contemporaries and the repeated interventions by the Privy Council to prevent his duels—to suggest that he did indeed behave very much in the manner that he depicted. Arguably, he came as close as any of his contemporaries to living up to the Elizabethanized version of chivalric knighthood.

Chivalry and Gentility

The question is how many other English gentleman of this period shared the sorts of experiences that Herbert recounted? How often did this culture of martial knighthood impinge on the life of country squire? The first point to stress here is that the sort of lifestyle and behaviour depicted by Herbert was most commonly associated with soldiering, with the military life of campaigns and sieges. In this respect their experience was very varied. Amongst the aristocracy, for whom soldiering was still seen as the most honourable service one could perform for one’s country, the proportion was relatively high. Recent scholarship has demonstrated that the widely accepted idea of a demilitarization of the peerage in this period, promoted by Lawrence Stone and others, is a fallacy. In fact, as Roger Manning’s work has shown, the proportion of the peerage with at least some experience of life on campaign was steadily increasing—from 40 per cent in 1585, to 45 per cent in 1605, to 65 per cent in 1635. Admittedly, this experience could involve relatively brief visits to the European front, supplemented by appearances in the court’s tournament calendar. Typical of this was the ‘military career’ of Lord Howard de Walden who was a regular jouster and served as a volunteer at Julich in 1610 before returning to England to become a courtier and privy councillor. However, as Herbert’s reminiscences of his attempts to fight a duel with Howard in 1610 indicate, even this brief experience of military life engendered a close acquaintance with the chivalric code. 19

Amongst knights, esquires, and gentlemen the proportion who had this sort of experience was much smaller. This can be illustrated by looking at the relatively well documented service of the gentry of Warwickshire. The county was at the heart of Leicester’s territorial holdings, and because of this provided as many as twenty-one of the knights and gentlemen who accompanied him to the Low Countries in 1585. These included several young men who headed the leading knightly families of the county, such as Sir John Harrington, Sir Henry Goodere, Sir George Digby, Sir Thomas Baskerville, and Sir John Conway. But of these only Baskerville and Conway became regular soldiers, and during the early seventeenth century only the Conways amongst the local gentry pursued military careers. However, this did not mean that these were the only gentry to engage closely with a martial culture. Sir William Compton, later Earl of Northampton, was a regular tournament jouster under Elizabeth, and as Lord President of the Council of the Marches in James’s reign was hailed by the military writer Edward Davies for his ‘zeal for the Military discipline.’ And another Warwickshire gentleman, Sir Thomas Lucy, accompanied Herbert on his early adventures and continued to admire his feats of chivalric prowess. 20

Lucy and the young offspring of knightly families who accompanied Leicester were good examples of a habit amongst the upper ranks of the gentry of encouraging their sons to experience life on campaign, often as an adjunct to the foreign tour. The notion of these young gentlemen ‘fetching their knighthood’ by serving in the wars was still seen as highly commendable in this period. This was what inspired the ‘gentleman voluntaryes’ who served Essex at Rouen and Cadiz, and in Ireland—often with tangible rewards; and William Webb in his ‘Survey of Cheshire’ in the 1620s, reflected on how such ‘brave atchievements’ in their youth had enhanced the local reputation of gentry such as Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, Sir Urian Leigh, and Sir John Savage. 21 As a rule of thumb, it was the more elevated gentry, in social terms, who were most likely to have experienced life on campaign. But the proportion with a first-hand knowledge of war in this period was generally small.

The impact of this can be illustrated from another angle by looking at the upbringing of the sons of the gentry. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this had a pronounced martial dimension. From the reading of chivalric romances and the brawls and mock battles of their schooldays, to the fencing and riding lessons and study of fortification provided by noble academies, they were prepared for a life of soldiering. Doubtless many boys and young men lapped this up. Margaret Lucas, later Duchess of Newcastle, recalled that her three brothers, although tutored like her in reading, writing, music, and dancing, would spend all their time when they got together in ‘fencing, wrestling, shooting and such like exercises … and very seldom or never dance, or play on music’, saying it was too effeminate for masculine spirits. 22 However, this did not generally translate into military experience. Two of the Lucas boys later became distinguished soldiers, but this was very much the exception. The expectation was that most would settle down to a life of running their estates and serving as local magistrates.

An interesting perspective on this is provided by the advices to sons which became such a common genre amongst the gentry in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These generally combined conventional aphoristic wisdom with a distillation of personal experience to furnish their young charges with advice on how to negotiate the various situations and challenges that they were likely to encounter. It is of some significance, then, that among more than twenty of these surviving advices only two reflected on the experience of soldiering. One was provided by William Higford, the admirer of Sir James Scudamore, who advised his grandson to think carefully before taking up the profession of arms and, in particular, to consider whether he had the physical endurance and moral commitment to pursue it. He envisaged soldiering in relatively idealistic terms as still carrying with it the heavy responsibilities implicit in the chivalric code. Remember, he told his grandson, once ‘you enter into war you must either go on like a man of honour or die in the bed of honour.’ The other was presented by the naval commander Sir William Monson who took a much more jaundiced view. Whilst reminding his son always to ‘love soldiers for your country’s sake’, he nonetheless advised him ‘to shun the practice of it’ because it was such a dangerous and under-appreciated occupation. 23 For most gentry, however, the military life was simply beyond the range of experiences that they could envisage for their offspring. What they talked about instead were the very different roles of head of a household, landlord, and local magistrate.

But this did not mean that the average gentleman was cut off from chivalric traditions and lifestyle. Exposure to a martial culture in their upbringing, and its enduring associations with masculinity and honour, left their mark. At a very obvious level, most funeral monuments still depicted knights and even mere gentlemen as armoured warriors. The most remarkable instance of this was, perhaps, Lord Burghley, the quintessential member of the robe nobility, who none the less appears on his monument on Stamford church in full armour. As Giles Worsley has pointed out, the reasoning behind this choice of commemorative style was doubtless similar to that which had led him to commission a spurious pedigree stretching back into the mists of time—in which his Cecil ancestor is shown as a knight fighting on horseback—and to choose a self-consciously gothic style for the gatehouse and great hall of his mansion at Burghley. Such stylistic choices were redolent of ancient nobility and ancestral achievement. Many gentry also went out of their way to advertise similar associations with the chivalric past. The Astley family of Astley castle in Warwickshire commissioned a large painting, which appears to date from the late Tudor period, showing the single combats fought by John de Astley in the 1430s and 1440s, for which he was made a knight of the garter. In the same vein, the martial achievements of one of the Leigh family of Cheshire at the battle of Crecy—which were chronicled in the first edition of Holinshed in 1577—encouraged Sir Peter Leigh of Lyme to seek an augmentation to his coat of arms showing a mailed arm grasping the pennant of St George. Another Cheshire gentleman, Sir Thomas Delves, added four martial statues, commemorating the ‘four esquires’ from Cheshire (Delves of Doddington, Dutton of Dutton, Foulshurst of Crewe, and Hawkestone of Wrinehill) who had served under the Black Prince at Poitiers, when he rebuilt Doddington Hall in the early Stuart period. And, perhaps, the most potent means of advertising a family’s achievements in the great age of chivalry was the new genre of county histories and choreographies. William Burton captured the general tone of this coverage in his account of the Appleby family in his Description of Leicestershire : ‘though many of note have descended out of this house, yet most eminent was that renowned soldier, Sir Edward Appleby’, who had distinguished himself at Crecy. Thereafter he picked out amongst the ancestors of his generation of county families those who were most distinguished as soldiers, like his own forbears James de Burton who had accompanied Richard I on crusade and James Burton, standard bearer in the army of Henry VI in France. 24

Association with the culture of chivalry in this way, of course, played an important role in validating a family’s claim to ancient lineage and honour. But it also set before the present generation the examples of masculine courage and virtue which it was believed would inspire them to display the spirit, fearlessness and independence of mind expected of a gentleman. Most of the gentry might not have anticipated war as an occupation; but in other respects they were still regularly drawn into a close association with the values, ideals, and aspirations of the Elizabethanized version of chivalry. There are three aspects of this, in particular, which played important roles in the social and cultural lives of the late Elizabethan and early Stuart gentry.

The first of these was involvement in the militia. The Elizabethan and early Stuart militia has not generally received a good press from historians; but there is plenty of evidence that it did much to awaken and channel the martial impulses of the local gentleman. During the early seventeenth century there developed an increasingly lively military culture focused around the artillery companies and military tattoos which supplemented the regular training of the county militias. There was also a good deal of competition to serve as deputy lieutenants and trained band commander, which offered local gentry the opportunity to parade their martial credentials before their neighbours on training days. This was something they were keen to advertise more widely. John Northcote, the Devon-trained band captain, had himself portrayed on his funeral monument with his baton of command and field armour. Sir Gervase Clifton, the Nottinghamshire deputy lieutenant, had the parlour of his house decorated with paintings of the basic weapons manoeuvres of the day, drawn from contemporary manuals. Sir Walter Earle, the Dorset deputy lieutenant, anticipated Uncle Toby in Tristram Shandy . He had maps of the sieges of the Thirty Years War hung around the walls of his house at Charlborough, and models of these constructed in his back garden. 25

The gentry naturally gravitated towards the horse regiments where tradition and inclination dictated that they should play the leading role. Some formed voluntary companies which were trained above and beyond the normal militia service. John Viscount Scudamore, nephew of Sir James, was a particular enthusiast for this, forming a company of Herefordshire gentry which he trained himself rather than subject them to the social indignity of being trained by a muster master who was a commoner. His address to his would-be recruits was a classic statement of the relevance of chivalric ideals in the contemporary military arena. He first told a story of how Lord Burghley had addressed the young gentlemen at court as the Armada approached in 1588. ‘Slapping his thigh’, according to Scudamore, Burghley had declared ‘if I had a sonne which would not presently put himself into the queenes navy to fight with this Spanish fleete I should bee glad to see him hang’d at the court gate’, whereupon there was a stampede of ‘brave young gallants’ to join the navy. Scudamore then applied this to the gentry’s obligations to defend their country amidst the renewed threat of the late 1620s:

I will and I dare say that hee which is a gentleman and hath a lusty body doth degenerate from the virtue of his ancestours and is unworthy the name of a man if through feare, covet[ousness], pride or sloth, he refuseth to bestow time and paines to indue himselfe with a qualitie necessary to the preservation of country and posteritie in such estate of libertie as by his predecessors himself had the happiness to be left in. 26

Here, then, we have the heir of a knightly family at the heart of the Elizabethan chivalric tradition, who had never served on campaign himself, presenting service in the Herefordshire militia as the realization of the chivalric ideals of courage and manhood. This attitude was probably more common than historians have generally allowed.

The second area of activity which was closely linked to the militia was the new vogue for equestrianism. As the emphasis in cavalry warfare had shifted from the heavy cavalry charging home with full armour and lance to the more complex manoeuvres of the lightly armoured harquebusier, with sword and pistol, so there was much more of an emphasis on mobility, versatility, and horse-handling. This was reflected in the changing repertoire of the tournament where the traditional joust was being replaced by the more skilled exercises of running at the ring and running at the quintain. By the early seventeenth century, young members of the upper classes, following the example of Princes Henry and Charles, were developing the horse-handling skills of the manège , a form of dressage invented by the French and Italian riding masters of the day. Out of this there emerged a number of provincial gentry riding academies, like the one set up by the Earl of Northampton at Ludlow when he was Lord President of the Council of the Marches in 1618. He hoped in time that this would provide an example which would be taken up throughout the kingdom and enable the English gentry to compete with the gentlemen of France ‘[who] much excel us in that faculty … which is a necessary part of every gentleman’s breeding’. The most famous of these academies were the riding schools established by Sir William Cavendish, later Earl of Newcastle, at Welbeck and Bolsover. Having learned his equestrian skills in the Royal Mews alongside the royal princes, under the instruction of Monsieur de St Antoine, he became the most renowned English horseman of his day. It was this that earned him the privilege of being made tutor to the young Prince Charles in 1638 after the king had been treated to displays of his equestrian skill in visits to Welbeck in the 1630s; and Newcastle went on write the most celebrated English work of the seventeenth century on the art of manège, The New Method or Invention to Dress Horses which involved teaching the techniques of dressage that he demonstrated at Bolsover. The contrived and fastidious forms of manège appear to be a far cry from the muscular charges of knights on horseback that one associates with chivalry. But to contemporaries it conveyed very different associations: of man commanding nature and training himself for contemporary warfare. So, for example, the ability to rear up into the levade was regarded as an essential way for cavalry to intimidate foot soldiers; and the co-ordinated sidestepping of the dressage was recommended by Sir Edward Herbert as a valuable manoeuvre to give the rider the upper hand in a cavalry melee. Horsemanship had always been at the heart of the training of the chivalric knight. 27 It continued to be regarded as an essential skill for the seventeenth-century gentleman whilst retaining its masculine and martial connotations.

The third aspect of gentry experience which has particular chivalric resonances was the duel. One of the central themes of Markku Peltonen’s illuminating book The Duel in Early Modern England is that it was emphatically not a throwback to England’s chivalric past, or an expression of the ‘rites of knighthood’, as historians such as Mervyn James and Richard McCoy have argued. Peltonen sees it rather as a product of the new Italianate courtesy literature which emphasized that the slightest impoliteness or affront, whether intended or not, constituted an injury to one’s good name. If allowed to pass unavenged it would leave a permanent stain on a man’s honour. Peltonen also demonstrates how much the etiquette of the duel owed to the prescriptions laid down in the courtesy literature. From determining the ‘point of honour’ which demanded such a riposte, to the manner of ‘giving the lie’ and issuing a suitably disdainful challenge, as well as the conduct of the duel itself, these authors established precise rules and protocols which were mercilessly mocked in Touchstone’s exposition of the seven degrees of ‘the lie’ in As You Like It . 28

Peltononen is making an important point here. However, it is also the case that the rhetorics and conventions which framed the practice of duelling drew extensively on the language of chivalry. This is very evident in the case of Sir Edward Herbert. Most of his challenges and duels looked to the imperatives outlined in his oath of knighthood. Some involved vindicating the truthfulness of his word once pledged. Others were all about defending the virtue of a young lady, or making good the claim that he had a worthier mistress than his opponent. Others, still, were about proclaiming loyalty to his lord, like the occasion on which he challenged a group of Italians who had insulted James I in an inn in Brussels on the grounds that he would ‘be unworthy to live if I suffered those words to be spoken of the king my master’. But perhaps the most evident connection was the constantly reiterated need to demonstrate his courage and manhood, with all the swagger and performance that was characteristic of the chivalric lifestyle. 29

Most gentry, of course, were not exposed to the hyper-masculine world of encampment and campaign that Herbert inhabited. But many of the same tensions were experienced in more mundane settings, particularly by young gentleman drawn to the royal court or attending the universities or Inns of Court. The godly Simonds D’Ewes tells us in the diary that he kept whilst a student at the Middle Temple that when he received a challenge from a fellow student he felt that ‘my honour, credit, reputation and all lay at the stake if I answered it not’. In this sense it was just as imperative for him to demonstrate his courage as it was for Herbert—and he spent an anxious night or two until his opponent backed off. 30 The fact that someone like D’Ewes—who was certainly not a natural duellist—could be drawn into this culture is also an indication of its pervasiveness.

Duelling was a regular feature of the lives of the gentry, more so than has generally been acknowledged by historians. Lawrence Stone has argued that after reaching a peak in the 1610s, the practice was effectively curbed by a combination of Privy Council intervention and the work of the law courts. But the more closely one looks into the evidence, the more apparent it is that this is an over-optimistic assessment. The volume of duelling in England never reached the levels it attained in France, where it was said that in the first decade of the seventeenth century the king granted 6,000 pardons for killing noblemen in duels. The association between masculine prowess and killing an opponent in single combat that Herbert observed in France was rarely so explicit in an English context. Moreover, in many situations litigation was regarded as a legitimate substitute for duelling when it came to vindicating one’s honour. Nonetheless, it was enough of a problem for Charles to launch a concerted campaign to put a stop to it just as his father had done. And the royal drives to achieve this through Star Chamber and the Court of Chivalry reveal that it was far from being just a metropolitan phenomenon. Provincial gentry were regularly cited as fighting duels, sometimes with fatal consequences. 31

The relevance of duelling to the lives of young gentlemen was highlighted in advices to sons. Many of these discoursed at length on the need to avoid quarrels and recognize that ‘true fortitude and courage’ lay in subduing the passions which might lead one into a confrontation. It was, according to Higford, all about ‘the conquest of yourself’, subjugating your ‘affections and appetites to the government of reason’, overcoming ‘all fear’, and, above all, displaying the virtues of patience and moderation. At the same time, however, these gentlemen recognized that in the real world such high-minded sentiments were not always practicable. In the best-selling conduct book of the 1630s, The English Gentleman , Richard Brathwait insisted that an insult to one’s ‘good name, being indeed the choicest and sweetest perfume’, must not be allowed to pass without some ‘labour to wipe off the staine’. In such circumstances it was appropriate for ‘generous spirits’ to act promptly and forcefully, because in ‘actions of this nature the only meanes to gain opinion is to come off bravely in the beginning’. This meant that, in spite of the general recognition that duelling offended against ideals of virtue and godliness, and was in direct contravention of the king’s commands, duels fought to protect one’s good name could be regarded as permissible. Higford stressed that ‘to defend yourself in a just cause … and to do it with judgement and resolution will marvellously redound to your honour and safety’. Seeking out quarrels, or aggressively inciting violence could not be construed as legitimate; but fighting a duel in defence of one’s honour and reputation was. Indeed, a failure to respond forcefully when the situation required could be interpreted as displaying a want of the ‘spirit and courage’ expected of a gentleman. 32

All this suggests that it is somewhat artificial to try to draw distinctions between the influence of courtesy literature and the legacy of chivalry when it comes to duelling. Both had an impact—and, of course, the courtesy literature was constantly drawing on the chivalric code, as Castiglione demonstrated when he famously urged the young courtier that the best way to cultivate favour was to accomplish some notable feat on the battlefield, preferably when the prince was watching. 33

Martial honour was embedded in what are often seen as contradictory notions of civility, and this is another indication that the language and culture of chivalry—or at least the romanticized Elizabethan version of it—continued to play a much more important role in the life of the English gentleman than has generally been allowed. Its influence was particularly pervasive among the relatively small minority of gentry who became soldiers and experienced life on campaign. But for the majority who did not its values still played a significant part in shaping their often multifarious roles and aspirations.

A final example brings into focus some of these connections. It is the career of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote in Warwickshire, who has generally been regarded as the epitome of the godly magistrate. In his youth, Lucy was a close friend of Sir Edward Herbert, acting as his second in some of his duels and getting involved in several quarrels on his own account. When the two men returned from the continent in 1609 they had their portraits painted as fashionable young gallants, in a style being made popular at the time by Prince Henry. But thereafter their paths diverged. Herbert returned to the battlefields of Europe, whilst Lucy took over the running of his estates from his deceased father, and reinvented himself as the classic ‘public man’. He kept in touch with Herbert and continued to admire his feats of courage and swordsmanship. But it was not until after his death that this side of his experience was restated publicly, in the monument set up to him in the early 1640s by his wife Alice. He is clad in the full-length jousting armour of the day, and alongside an inscription celebrating his virtues as a benevolent patriarch, county governor, and MP are two friezes. One illustrates his library and his love of learning; the other celebrates his equestrian skills and his mastery of the great horse. 34 Lucy, then, was represented as the personification of the seemingly contradictory mix of values and attributes that one can often discern in the early Stuart gentleman: on the one hand a model of godliness, civility, and service to his country; on the other the epitome of a version of manhood which accentuated martial endeavour and equestrian skill. It was a mix in which chivalry continued to play a signicant part.

I am very grateful to Malcolm Smuts and Neil Younger for their comments on this chapter.

E. Chirelstein , ‘Emblem and Reckless Presence; the Drury portrait at Yale’, in Albion’s Classicism , ed. Lucy Gent (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 291–7, 302 : R. Malcolm Smuts , Culture and Power in England (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999), 13 ; Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Holland and Flanders, 1588 , vol. 21, pt 4 (1931), 422–3.

The House of Commons, 1558–1603 , ed. P. W. Hasler , 3 vols (London: HMSO, 1981), 2.58–9 ; Arthur Campling , The History of the Drury Family in the Counties of Suffolk and Norfolk from the Conquest (London: Mitchell, Hughes, and Clarke, 1937), 51–4 .

As Malcolm Smuts has pointed out, Shakespeare’s history plays with an English setting frequently elaborate on the theme of chivalric honour, with characters such as Hotspur and Falstaff in 1 Henry IV offering very different interpretations of the whole notion: Smuts, Culture and Power , 15–16.

‘Introduction’, in Chivalry in the Renaissance , ed. Sydney Anglo (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1990), xi–xiv ; Lawrence Stone , The Crisis of the Aristocracy 1558–1642 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), 265–6 .

M. Keen , Chivalry (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984), 238–53 ; J. S. A. Adamson , ‘Chivalry and Political Culture’, in Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England , ed. Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994), 161–5 .

Arthur B. Ferguson , The Indian Summer of English Chivalry (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1960) ; Richard C. McCoy , Rites of Knighthood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989) ; Marc Girouard , Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983), chap. 6 ; J. R. Hale , War and Society in Renaissance Europe 1450–1620 (London: William Collins Sons & Co., 1985), 30–1, 37–8 ; Keith Thomas , The Ends of Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 51–6, 59–62 .

Paul E. J. Hammer , Elizabeth’s Wars (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 87–104 ; Paul E. J. Hammer , ‘War’, in The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed’s Chronicles , ed. Paulina Kewes , Ian W. Archer , and Felicity Heal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 443, 454–6 ; Rory Rapple , Martial Power and Elizabethan Political Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), chaps 1 and 2 ; Rory Rapple , ‘Military Culture’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Culture in Early Modern England , ed. A. Hadfield , M. Dimock , and A. Shinn (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), 343–9 ; Thomas Churchyard , A generall rehearsal of warres called Churchyards choice (London, 1579), sig. Ai ; Barnaby Rich , Allarme to England, foreshadowing what perils are procured where the people live without regard of martial law (London, 1578) , Giiii, Hi–ii. The ‘carpet knight’ became an increasingly familiar ‘type’ in this period, frequently contrasted with the ‘true’, warrior knight. This was echoed in Hotspur’s attack on the ‘perfumed’ courtier in 1 Henry IV , 1.3.28–69. I am grateful to Malcolm Smuts for this reference.

Geoffrey Gates , The defence of militarie profession (London, 1579), 9–12, 56–61 .

Rapple, Martial Power , 73–85; Churchyard, generall rehearsall , Miii, v; M. E. James , ‘At a Crossroads of the Political Culture: The Essex revolt, 1601’, in M. E. James , Society, Politics and Culture: Studies in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 428–30 ; J. Spedding (ed.), The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon , ed. J. Spedding et al., 7 vols (London: Longman, 1861–74), 3.145 . I am grateful to Alex Gajda for this reference. It is worth emphasizing that the Earl of Essex greatly admired writers and scholars: Alexandra Gajda , The Earl of Essex and Late Elizabethan Political Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), especially chap. 6 .

R. Mettam , ‘Definitions of Nobility in Seventeenth Century France’, in Language, History and Class , ed. Penelope Corfield (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), 80–90 ; Roger B. Manning , Swordsmen: The Martial Ethos in Three Kingdoms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 28–9 ; Sir Robert Naunton , Fragmenta Regalia , ed. J. S. Cerovski (Washington: Folger Books, 1985), 48, 52, 55, 61–2 .

Hammer, Elizabeth’s Wars , 102–4, 113–14, 173–4; Simon L. Adams , Leicester and the Court (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), 176–83 ; Neil A. Younger , War and Politics in the Elizabethan Counties (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), chap. 4 ; The Chivalric Ethos and the Development of Military Professionalism , ed. David J. B. Trim (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 3–30 .

Alan Young , Tudor and Jacobean Tournaments (London: George Philip, 1987), 36–42, 70–3, 142 ; McCoy, Rites of Knighthood , 21–7; Harleian Miscellany , ed. T. Park , 10 vols (London, 1808–13), 9.595 ; Ian Atherton , Ambition and Failure in Stuart England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999), 34–5 .

Adams, Leicester and the Court , 184–9, 242–3; Anthony Esler , The Aspiring Mind of the Elizabethan Younger Generation (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1966), 93; < http://www.collections.vam.ac.uk/item01069333/the-almain-armourers-albumthe-armour-design-jacob-halder/ > (accessed 8 November 2013 ; A. Borg , Arms and Armour in Britain (London: HMSO, 1979), 18, 27 .

Correspondence of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leycester, During his Government of the Lowe Countries in 1585 and 1586 , ed. J. Bruce (Camden Soc. 27, 1844), 415–17 ; G. Bertie , Five Generations of a Loyal House (London, 1845), 112–13 ; Esler, Aspiring Mind , 94; The Prose Works of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke , ed. J. Gouws (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 76–7 ; Paul E. J. Hammer , The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 51–4 ; McCoy, Rites of Knighthood , 80.

The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury , ed. J. M. Shuttleworth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976) ; C. Jackson , ‘Memory and the Construction and Experience of Elite Masculinity in the Seventeenth-Century Autobiography of Lord Herbert of Cherbury’, Gender & History 25 (2013): 124 . On Herbert’s support for the king 1640–42, see Richard P. Cust , Charles I and the Aristocracy, 1625–1642 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 194, 206, 207 ; D. A. Pallin , ‘Edward, first Baron Herbert of Cherbury (1582?–1648), ODNB .

Shuttleworth, Life of Herbert , 37–8, 43–4.

Ibid. , 45, 50 .

Ibid. , 53–4, 57–9, 73–4, 76–7, 80–3.

Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy , 265–6; James, English Politics and the Concept of Honour , 87–9; Manning, Swordsmen , 17–18, 49–50; Victor Stater , ‘Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, 1584–1640’, ODNB ; Shuttleworth, Life of Herbert , 34–7, 59.

Adams, Leicester and the Court , 348–9; Edward Davies , Military directions or the Art of Trayning (London, 1618) , dedication to Northampton; A. Fairfax-Lucy , Charlecote and the Lucys (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958), 124–5 ; Richard P. Cust , Sir Thomas Lucy, c. 1584–1640’, ODNB .

Paul E. J. Hammer, ‘“Base Rogues” and “Gentlemen of Quality”: The Earl of Essex and his Irish Knights in 1599’ (I am very grateful to Paul Hammer for allowing me to read a version of this article prior to publication); G. Ormerod , The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester , 3 vols (London: George Routledge & Sons, 2nd edn, 1882), 2.590, 3.545–6 .

Thomas, Ends of Life , 44–62; Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, The Life of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle , ed. C. H. Firth (London: Routledge 1906), 157–9 .

Harleian Miscellany , ix.596–7; The Naval Tracts of Sir William Monson , ed. M. Oppenheim ([London]: Naval Records Society, 22, 1902), 103–5 .

Giles Worsley , ‘The Origins of the Gothic Revival: A Reappraisal’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Societ y, 6th ser., 3 (1993): 106–7 ; W. Dugdale , Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), 69–77 ; T. Woodcock and J. M. Robinson , The Oxford Guide to Heraldry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 70 ; W. Burton , The Description of Leicestershire (1622), 12, 174 . Philip de Figueiredo and J. Treuherz , Cheshire Country Houses (Chichester: Phillimore, 1988), 72 (the statues which survive at Doddington can be dated from the style of the armour).

Roger B. Manning , An Apprenticeship in Arms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), chap. 6 ; Barbara Donagan , War in England 1642–1649 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 54–9 ; Felicity Heal and Clive Holmes , The Gentry of England and Wales 1500–1700 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994), 173 ; Nikolaus Pevsner , The Buildings of Nottinghamshire (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1951), 51 ; Christopher Duffy , Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Modern World 1494–1660 (London: Routledge, 1979), 145–6 .

Folger Shakespeare Library, Vb.2(24). I am grateful to Ian Atherton for supplying me with a copy of this document. He discusses the speech more fully in Ambition and Failure , 36–7.

Edward Davies, The Art of War and England’s Traynings (1619), ‘to the reader’; Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 10th Report IV, Killmorey MSS (London: HMSO, 1885), 366–7 ; L. Worsley , V. Harting , and M. Keblusek , ‘Horsemanship’, in Royalist Refugees , ed. Ben van Benenden and Nora de Poorter (Antwerp: Rubenshuis and Rubenianum, 2006), 37–41 .

Markku Peltonen , The Duel in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), chap. 1 ; As You Like It , 5.4.35–105.

Shuttleworth, Life of Herbert , 14, 41–4, 57–9, 70–2, 86–7, 91–2.

The Diary of Sir Simond’s D’Ewes (1622–1624) , ed. E. Bourcier (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, V, 1975), 169 .

Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy , 246–50; Cust, Charles I and the Aristocracy , 96–104.

Harleian Miscellany , 9.596; Brathwait, English Gentleman , 208–9. See also the gentry conduct books cited in Alexandra Shepard , Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 140–1 .

Rapple, ‘Military Culture’ , 341.

J. Lees-Milne , ‘Two Portraits at Charlecote Park by William Larkin’, Burlington Magazine 94 (1952): 352–6 ; Richard P. Cust , ‘William Dugdale and the Honour Politics of Early Stuart Warwickshire’, in William Dugdale: Historian, 1605–1686 , ed. Christopher Dyer and Catherine Richardson (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2009), 92–5 .

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Join get revising, already a member, the chivalry thesis.

Crime and deviance
Created by: Liap123
Created on: 12-02-20 11:25
The idea that women are less likely to be prosecuted for their offences is known as the chivalry thesis
This argues that the criminal justice system (CJS) is more lenient to women, because it's agents (eg, police officers, judges, juries etc.) are men, who are socialised to act 'chivalrously' (courteous) towards women
Argues that men have a protective attitude towards women, so they are unwilling to arrest, charge, prosecute or convict them
Their crimes are less likely to end up in the official statistics, giving an invalid picture that under-represents female crime
Self-report studies suggest that female offenders are treated more leniently
Found young males were 2.33 times more likely than females to admit to having committed an offence in the previous year- whereas the official statistics show males four times more likely to offend
Compared with men, women are also more likely to be cautioned rather than prosecuted
Study of over 3,000 defendants found that women were about one third less likely to be jailed for similar cases
Official statistics show that females are more likely to receive a fine and less likely to be sent to prison
Found that women were not sentences more leniently for comparable offences
Box's (1981) however, review of self-report studies concludes that women who commit serious offences are not treated more favourably than men
Witnessed twice as many male shoplifting- despite the fact that the number of male and female offenders in the official statistics are roughly equal
Suggests that women shoplifters are more likely to be prosecuted
Self-report studies show that males commit more offences. The more serious the offence, the greater the gender gap
Many male crimes do not get reported (eg, ****). Crimes of the more powerful (mainly committed by males) are also under-reported

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“The Chivalry Project” Remakes Chivalry for the 21st Century

Chelsea Chenelle | July 9, 2014 | 1 min read

Inspired by medieval manuscripts, a new virtual rulebook collects contemporary do’s and don’ts to paint a collective portrait of what chivalry means to us today

Is chivalry dead? Should it be?

Inspired by the new manuscripts exhibition Chivalry in the Middle Ages , the newly launched website TheChivalryProject.org offers a guidebook to chivalry in 2014—written entirely by you.

Created by L.A. artist Becca Lofchie, the Chivalry Project seeks to uncover what chivalry means in our digital age. What social rules of today overlap with the rules of “knights in shining armor”? What about medieval chivalry seems wrong to us today? What can we learn from it?

What Is Chivalry?

Chivalry was the code of conduct that governed the religious, moral, and civic behavior of noblemen in medieval Europe. In the Middle Ages, demonstrations of chivalry included “swearing military oaths to a lord, undertaking feats of heroism, making declarations of undying love, and displaying good manners and taste in dress,” in the words of Melanie Sympson, curator of Chivalry in the Middle Ages .

Using manuscripts from the Getty Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition illustrates the notion of chivalry among the elite during its heyday.

While much has changed since the time of medieval lords and ladies, the term chivalry is still used today—but often in a vastly different context. The Chivalry Project aims to explore the many different ways chivalry manifests itself today.

Remake the Rules

You can add your voice to the Chivalry Project in two ways: digitally and in person at the Getty Center.

To make your mark on history digitally, visit The Chivalry Project online, where you can share your own rule of 21 st -century chivalry for everyone to see. Write a rule you love—or one you love to hate. Browse through the submissions to the digital “rulebook,” which will grow over the course of the summer. The site will also host a growing compendium of medieval chivalrous rules, illustrated by manuscripts on view in the exhibition.

If you’re in Los Angeles, visit the Getty Center to see the manuscripts and participate in a free Chivalry Project workshop led by Becca. Participants of all ages are invited to illustrate their contemporary rule in the style of a medieval manuscript. The pages will be scanned on-site (so you can take your original home) and added to the digital Chivalry Project archive. Here’s a list of all workshop dates .

No matter how you choose to participate, be sure to check back in October, when we’ll report back on emerging themes in this collective “book.”

The exhibition—and submissions to the digital rulebook—close November 30.

artist-based programs
exhibitions
free events
illuminated manuscripts
J. Paul Getty Museum
Manuscripts and Books
Middle Ages

About The Author

Chelsea chenelle.

I'm the Multicultural Undergraduate Intern for summer 2014 in the Getty's Web Group. Born and raised in San Diego, I came to L.A. to attend Loyola Marymount University, where I am pursuing a degree in art history and work as the managing editor at the Los Angeles Loyolan . I still haven't decided what came first—my love of art or my love of history.

Comments on this post are now closed.

Great idea!!! In fact, the revival and understanding of chivalry is such a good idea, that we here at Chivalry Today (www.chivalrytoday.com) have been embarked on this quest for more than 10 years. I hope Iris readers will check out our interview with the Getty’s curator of manuscripts, Dr. Beth Morrison, on our podcast page – as well as more than 300 articles about chivalry in history and the modern world by many of today’s top authors and experts.

The Dancer Who Turned Everyday Life into Art

Question of the week: how have you been called to charity.

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Chivalry thesis
What is the chivalry thesis?
chivalry
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Define chivalry thesis
Gender and Crime

VIDEO

Chivalry Thesis
Chivalry • what is CHIVALRY definition
1.Introduction of Research & Research Philosophy in Education
Defenestration, noun. See attached for definition
Differences Between Thesis Abstract and Research Article Abstract
Unlocking Academic Writing: How to Identify a Thesis Statement

COMMENTS

Chivalry Thesis
Chivalry Thesis. When trying to explain crime statistics showing that men commit many more criminal acts than women, some sociologists suggest that these statistics do not reflect reality; rather that mostly-male law enforcement officers tend to attempt to protect women from the criminal justice system out of gentlemanliness.
Gender Differences in Crime
The Chivalry Thesis: Examining Gender Differences in Crime. In 1950, sociologist Edmund Pollak coined the concept of the chivalry thesis —state that as most criminal justice agents like magistrates and judges and police officers are mainly men, they are also socialised to act in a chivalrous way towards women. While there is some evidence to support this thesis, a closer look at the research ...
Gender Bias and Punishment
The chivalry thesis - chivalry means treating others, especially women with courtesy, sympathy and respect. The chivalry theory states that women are treated more leniently than men by the criminal justice system. Male chivalry means that the police are less likely to charge women, and the courts will tend to give women a lighter sentence ...
Gender Differences and Sentencing: A Critical Literature Review
Chivalry, Selective Chivalry, and Paternalism Theory. This is an idea that was put forward by Otto Pollak (1950) to suggest that women within the criminal justice system are treated much more leniently than men due to the idea of chivalry towards women. Later Paternalism would be identified as something that frequently follows the chivalry aspect.
PDF The Chivalry Hypothesis & Filicide: Are There Categorical ...
is known as the typicality thesis of the chivalry hypothesis. The female not only gets punished for committing a violent offense, but for failing to behave as a woman is expected (Farnworth & Teske, 1995). Differential discretion predicts that chivalry is used disproportionately during the beginning stages of criminal proceedings.
system was first noted by Thomas (1907) in his book, Sex and ...
women. And this view is closely related to the notion of chivalry. Propositions of this sort typically explain female crime in moralistic as well as sexist terms. This view of the nature of woman's criminality generally includes the thesis that Little systematic evidence is available on the nature of female offenders as instigators of criminal ...
Statistics on Gender and Crime
The chivalry thesis also seems outdated. First, the number of female workers in the criminal justice system is increasing, although judges are still overwhelmingly male. Furthermore, the response to female deviance is often to see them as doubly deviant - i.e. deviating against society's norms and gender norms &dash; rather than to respond in ...
revision notes with evaluative points
Feminist perspective of crime - revision notes with evaluative points. Gender and the criminal Justice System. An alternative approach is looking into how the criminal Justice system (CJS) treats women is known as the chivalry thesis. The chivalry thesis says that women are treated more leniently than men by the CJS, such as treating women ...
Chivalry Thesis
The concept of chivalry thesis as an explanation of why crime statistics show men commit many more criminal acts than women is explained in this video. Gender and Crime - Chivalry Thesis | A Level Sociology. Sociology. Reference.
Gender and Crime
The concept of chivalry thesis as an explanation of why crime statistics show men commit many more criminal acts than women is explained in this video.#aqaso...
Chivalry in the Courtroom
Abstract. The concept of chivalry encompasses a number of thoughts and social practices that regard women and girls as inherently in need of help and protection. As applied to the courts, chivalry is often used to explain disparities in processing decisions, where women and girls are treated with more lenience than men and boys.
What is the chivalry thesis?
In this video I will be looking at arguments against the chivalry thesis, the double standards as well as real life examples. This is an AQA Sociology A-Lev...
Chivalry and the Moderating Effect of Ambivalent Sexism ...
chivalry theory suggest that only women who meet a certain set of social criteria will benefit from preferential treatment (e.g., Crew 1991; Farnworth & Teske 1995; Johnson & Scheuble 1991). The chivalry effect can be thought of as a form of exchange in which society grants female offenders more lenient treatment in return
The chivalry thesis claims that women will be treated more leniently
Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the value of 'chivalry thesis 'in understanding differences in crime. gfg. Pollak (1950) was of the opinion that police and magistrates tended to be more 'chivalrous' and 'lenient' towards female offenders, resulting in sentence disparities, and as a result, criminal statistics underestimate the amount of female offending.
PDF Gender in Crime News: A Case Study Test of the Chivalry Hypothesis
The chivalry hypothesis posits that female criminals receive more lenient treatment in the criminal justice system and in news coverage of their crimes than their male counterparts. The study ...
(PDF) Chivalry and the Moderating Effect of Ambivalent Sexism
Chivalry theories argue that such leniency is the result of paternalistic, benevolent attitudes toward women, in particular toward those who fulfill stereotypical female roles.
Review of the Literature and Lineage of Chivalric Ideals
One of the ideals in the longue durée of European societies was that of the chivalric code . Knights were to uphold a code of chivalry that championed honor, loyalty, and service to others regardless of rank or social position. Knighthood was earned, not given; and the high respect accorded to knights was likewise earned at regular intervals ...
Chivalry, Renaissance Concept of
Broadly speaking, chivalry or chivalric culture was a set of values cultivated by Europe's military elite from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. These values differed in time and in place and interacted with other cultural values, such as those of the European Renaissance movement. Chivalric values often greatly contrasted with reality ...
Chivalry and the English Gentleman
Abstract. This chapter engages with issues relating to the place of chivalry within the new forms of gentility which were emerging in late Tudor and early Stuart England. It traces a process of 'revichalrization' back to the 1570s and 1580s, as contemporary commentators sought to reconnect the military profession with the virtues of courage ...
Chapter 7 InQuizitive: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime
For each of the following examples, name the gender theory discrepancy (chivalry thesis, femininity norms, socialization, or control theory) that best matches the circumstances. A young woman suspected of prostitution is arrested and given a longer prison sentence than a young male prostitute arrested under similar circumstances.
The Chivalry Thesis
The Chivalry Thesis. What is it? The idea that women are less likely to be prosecuted for their offences is known as the chivalry thesis; This argues that the criminal justice system (CJS) is more lenient to women, because it's agents (eg, police officers, judges, juries etc.) are men, who are socialised to act 'chivalrously' (courteous) towards women
"The Chivalry Project" Remakes Chivalry for the 21st Century
Remake the Rules. You can add your voice to the Chivalry Project in two ways: digitally and in person at the Getty Center. To make your mark on history digitally, visit The Chivalry Project online, where you can share your own rule of 21 st -century chivalry for everyone to see. Write a rule you love—or one you love to hate.
Chivalry
chivalry, the knightly class of feudal times. The primary sense of the term in Europe in the Middle Ages is " knights ," or "fully armed and mounted fighting men.". Thence the term came to mean the gallantry and honour expected of knights. Later the word came to be used in its general sense of "courtesy.".