Love service is a ritualized form of male love-devotion toward women, especially noble women, that was popularized in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
.
History
The practice of love service appeared first in
Medieval Europe
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
and was modeled on a combination of
feudalistic class distinctions,
courtly love
Courtly love ( ; ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies b ...
tenets, and gendered aspects of the
chivalric class code regarding respectful treatment of women.
Love service had certain resemblances with
vassalage
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerai ...
, especially the concept of obedience. According to Sandra R. Alfonsi the entire concept of love-service was patterned after the vassal’s oath to serve his lord with loyalty, tenacity, and courage. These same virtues were demanded of the male supplicant. Like the
liegeman vis-a-vis his sovereign, the male approached his lady with fear and respect, submitted obediently to her and awaited a
fief
A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...
or in this case an honor of reception as did the vassal.
The vocabulary of love service borrowed some terminology from the vocabulary of
feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
indicative of the ties between a man to his lord. Examples are ''servitium'' (service), ''dominus'' (denoting the feudal Lord, or Lady), ''homo ligius'' (addressing the Lord's
liegeman or 'my man'), ''homage'' (duty toward Lord), and ''honor'' (honoring gestures). The men were sometimes referred to as
domnei or donnoi, meaning an attitude of chivalrous devotion of a knight to his Lady based in servitude and duty.
[Sandra R Alfonsi, ''Masculine Submission in Troubadour Lyric (American University Studies)'', Peter Lang Publishing, 1986]
References
{{reflist
Love
Medieval society