Our modern notion of Valentine’s Day began to take form in the Middle Ages as “courtly love” became fashionable. The first valentine greeting cards were exchanged in Victorian England. Today St.

‘Hat honour’ has not entirely disappeared – though the ritual of ‘making a leg’ has done. Thus, men may still remove their ...

Indeed, the rituals of courtly love were used to break Anne. The tight circle of poets and musicians and noblemen paying her obeisance was portrayed by her enemies as a ring of romantic assignations.

This, Ms Gristwood argues, is a shame, for it is impossible to understand the Tudors—not to mention Dante, Chaucer and the rituals of modern romance—without considering Renaissance-era love ...

Sarah Gristwood’s book is animated by a bold idea: that the conventions of courtly love, a literary conceit influenced by the legend of King Arthur and embedded in medieval balladry, shaped the ...