In a lot movies about kings, queens and Knights you sometimes hear them recite old codes of honour. For example in the movie "Dragon heart" they talk about being "Knights of the old code" and recite a pledge about being sworn to valour and protecting the week. Has anything like this ever actually existed in the real world? Or is this the fantasy version of Knights that movies have created.
You might be interested in some previous threads on Medieval chivalry and the ethics of knights:
Summaries and Relevant Literature
During the Medieval Ages, were there differences in codes of chivalry between England and France (or other countries that followed the same system)? - 3 comments, over 1 month old.
Commenters here talk about an example of a Chivalric code from the Late Medieval French literature.
Medieval Rules of Warfare. - 3 comments, over 7 months old.
A user here neatly summarizes how some Medieval codes of honor worked.
Was 'Chivalry' created by renaissance playwrights? I have been reading a lot of translated manuscripts regarding HEMA, and the 'rules' are not alike. - 11 comments, over 2 years old.
Most of the commenters talk about concepts of chivalry across various times in Western Europe and only a few address the genesis of the modern image of knightly chivalry.
German concepts of Knighthood, honor, and Chivalry - 4 comments, over 5 months old.
This thread is full of recommendations for academic literature on the subject.
wikipedia says that Bushido is analogous to chivalry. do you think that's a reasonable comparison? - 9 comments, over 6 months old.
Commenters here go into the evolution of Bushido from the Late Tokugawa Shogunate onwards with debate on how European chivalric may have (or not) influenced Bushido's later development in Meiji Japan with copious sources references throughout the whole of the thread.
In Depth Analysis
Is there an official or an unofficial ethic code of war? If so what does is include? - 10 comments, over 10 months old.
A flaired user does an detailed analysis of the laws of war, the evolution of chivalry, and the relationship between Christian morality and warrior ethics in the High and Late Middle Ages with a massive list of sources referenced.
How did knights treat commoners? - 6 comments, over 10 months old.
Flaired users detail the limits of chivalry as it was applied in High and Late Medieval France and England.
High-Late Medieval Code of Chivalry? What was it exactly? - 4 comments, over 1 month old.
A flaired commenter dives deep into the historiography surrounding chivalry and shows difficult it is to fit various Medieval interpretations of chivalry and knighthood together.
I'm a low born knight who has just accidentally killed a baron/count/duke/prince in a tournament. What happens to me? - 25 comments, over 10 month old.
Flaired users here describe both the variability of conduct across Medieval Europe as well as the limits that surviving evidence imposes on the ability to form a picture of lower level interactions and behavior throughout much of the Middle Ages.
How ethical were the knights of the late Middle Ages by our modern standards? - 12 comments, over 7 months old.
Flaired users in this thread discuss in detail both the evolution of historiography and popular imagination surrounding chivalry as well as provide an extensive look at how various concepts of chivalry interacted with other Medieval values and pressures with many, many citations throughout.