The chivalric ideal coloured the whole notion of what it was to be a "gentleman", someone who
was loyal to King (or Queen) and country, who treated women with reverence, who preferred
death to dishonour and stood up for truth and fair play. These ideals continued into the 20th-
"He is one who has not merely braced his muscles and developed his endurance by the exercise
of some great sport, but has...learnt to control his anger, to be considerate to his fellow men...to
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bear aloft a cheerful countenance under disappointment, and never own himself defeated until
the last breath is out of his body."
In 1908 when Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts Movement he recommended scouts
to read Ivanhoe.
War time propaganda has also pretended that war was a glorious adventure.
Discuss the use of the chivalric ideal in modern times. How many more wars shall we have to
fight to prove this a fiction?
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