Chivalry and Honor Violence

This chapter discusses the practice of “honor violence,” or violence related to personal and familial honor. It stresses that the term “honor violence” was chosen intentionally to encompass without distinction the violence inherent in vendettas, feuds, and other private enmities, while also highlighting the centrality of honor as a catalyst of that violence. Indeed, members of the Florentine chivalric elite treated honor as central to their very identities. Chivalry encouraged these men to utilize violence, often with reckless abandon, to assert, defend, or vindicate their personal and familial honor. The chapter argues that the consequences of this extreme violence were often devastating not only for the lineages and individuals involved, but also for the city itself. This chapter then investigates how chivalric honor violence was different enough in degree, motivation, and intention to be different in kind from the violence used by the Florentine civic elite. This difference stems mainly from the contrasting ideologies of each group, the civic ideology of the popolo and chivalry, that shaped their respective understanding and use of violence.