Courtly love (cortezia) was a concept of nobility and chivalry expressing love, admiration, and “love's service.” Chivalry, or the “code of chivalry,” was an informal, varying code of conduct developed between 1170 and 1220. It was designed to govern the medieval institution of knighthood. A knight’s and a lady’s behavior were governed by chivalrous social codes. This relationship was based on the premise of the feudal relationship between a knight and his love. The knight serves his courtly “lady” (domna or midons), who was customarily a married woman, with the same obedience and loyalty which he owed to his lord. The lady is in complete control of the adulterous relationship, while the knight owes her obedience and submission. Absolute obedience and unswerving loyalty were critical. Customarily, she seemed remote and haughty, imperious and difficult to please. She expected to be served and wooed, at great length. To incur the displeasure of one’s lady was to be cast into the void, beyond all light, warmth, and possibility of life. However, physical consummation of love was not obligatory. (And the long-standing scholarly debate continues as to whether or not this love was actually consummated.) The importance of courtly love was the prolonged and exalting experience of being “in love.” The knight’s love for his lady influenced him to be a better servant, to be worthy of her love and to win her favor. In its essential nature, courtly love, or fin’ amor(s), was the expression of the knightly worship of a refining ideal embodied in the person of the beloved. Only a truly noble nature could generate and nurture such a love; only a woman of nobility of spirit was a worthy object. Thus, courtly love, although by definition an “illicit love,” was an ennobling force whether the relationship was consummated or not and even whether or not the lady knew about the knight’s love or love him in return.

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The courtly love and the ideals of chivalry influenced literature through expression in lyric poetry and romance narratives (either of verse or prose), especially the Arthurian romances of the Grail-quest cycle. (Other  chivalric romances  influenced included the “Matter of Rome,” the “Matter of France,” “Matter of Britain,” and “Tristan Isolde.”) This  medieval romance literature  tells stories (which contain supernatural elements; magical figures and enchanted forests and vales) about noble knights embarking on dangerous missions while engaging with alluring women along the way. These stories present the idea of courtly love in a way that demonstrate the knight's devotion to an unapproachable lady, who ennobles and elevates his character through quests in which he must surmount a series of ordeals in order to win her heart. This was known as “the knighthood of love.”