Romantic love, that mellifluous bloom which distracted the gardens of chivalry and still (in the view of some) corrupts the air of western civilization, first became a cultivated flower in the twelfth century. Until then it had been a despised and solitary weed.
Historians admit their inability to explain the sudden upsurge of this sentiment, the later development of which they so confidently trace, down eight centuries, from the warm airs of Languedoc to the warm airs of Hollywood. Perhaps because anybody's theory is as good as anyone else's, the subject has become a popular one with thesis-writers. One specialist has even discoursed on the significance of toothache in courtly love.
When the twelfth century came in, the insolence of women was becoming particularly marked, if observers like Guibert de Nogent are any guide. There was a falling off in modesty and an increase in levity, the symptoms being winking eyes, clacking tongues, wanton carriage and affected manners. Sleeves were growing wider, bodices tighter; shoes had exaggerated twisted beaks. Maidens, no longer strictly supervised by their mothers, sighed for suitors and measured their social success by the number of them. Fulminations like these, of course, can be found in almost any generation. But there is plenty of evidence that the high-born lady in the twelfth century was beginning to stretch her wings. Her lord, riding off to the Crusade or to some private war, left her as chatelaine, with power over page and serf, and with the traditional duties of teaching manners to well-born young men and extending hospitality to travellers. The rude male hand was lifted; power, intoxicating power, passed to his lady. Her pages flattered her. Her winking, wanton maidens looked to her to give them a good time. Even had there been no Crusades, the lull in feudal wars and the spread of the twelfth-century version of 'gracious living' would have assisted in themselves to raise the status of women. (In war women were occasionally an inspiration, mostly a handicap.)
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