Richard W. Kaeuper
Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Rochester and author of Medieval Chivalry. His scholarship is used for historical context about the relationship between knighthood, warfare, religion, and social ideals.
About this independent program
You may enjoy a quiz result and still wonder who chose the questions or whether the score proves anything. We made Chivalry Test as an independent educational project, not a scientific character test. The historians and institutions cited below provide historical context; they do not write for or endorse this site.
Editorial identity and role
Chivalry Test is maintained as an independent educational project rather than as a personal brand. Its editorial role is to explain historical ideas about chivalry, adapt selected ethical themes into an accessible reflection exercise, document the sources used, and correct errors when readers report them. The project does not present the historians, museums, authors, or institutions listed on this page as employees, founders, reviewers, or endorsers.
Where the five-virtue idea comes from
The best-known medieval five-virtue passage appears in the anonymous fourteenth-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. When the poem explains the pentangle on Gawain’s shield, it names fraunchyse (generosity or noble conduct), felawschyp (fellowship), clannes (purity or chastity), cortaysye (courtesy), and pité (compassion or pity). Because the poem is anonymous, modern scholarship refers to its author as the Gawain-poet or Pearl-poet; we do not claim that person as the creator of this website.
The current Chivalry Test pillars—Courtesy, Respect, Integrity, Generosity, and Accountability—are a modern editorial adaptation published under the Chivalry Test name. They are not a recovered medieval rulebook and should not be confused with Gawain’s original five-virtue list. The adaptation was chosen to make reflection on everyday conduct clearer, more inclusive, and more practical for modern readers.
For comparison, see the translated pentangle passage, the Lancaster University discussion, and a readable overview from The Eagle and Child.
Historical sources consulted
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline explains the development of medieval knights, feudal obligations, tournaments, heraldry, and courteous knightly behavior.
Geoffroi de Charny
The fourteenth-century knight’s Book of Chivalry is a primary medieval source. We use it to distinguish historical martial ideals from our modern everyday interpretation.
How the quiz works
Each attempt draws 20 situations from the question pool: four for each of our five modern themes. The questions and response options are shuffled, but a question stays in its assigned theme. If you reset or return later, the site tries to show questions you have not seen in this browser until the pool is exhausted.
Each answer has an editorial value from 1 to 4. We add the 20 values and divide by the maximum possible 80 points for the overall percentage; each four-question theme uses 16 as its maximum. A few options are scored by context rather than their position in the list: protecting your own budget or keeping a prior responsibility need not count against you. These values reflect our interpretation, not a scientifically validated measure or a verdict on your character.
The result uses five descriptive bands: 90–100%, 75–89%, 60–74%, 45–59%, or 0–44%. They are reflection labels, not professional ratings.
The results also identify the lowest-scoring pillar and offer a practical reflection prompt. If two pillars have the same lowest percentage, the first one encountered by the scoring process is shown. The score describes responses in this single session; it is not a permanent label of a person’s character.
This is an educational self-reflection activity. It has not been validated as a psychological instrument and should not be used for diagnosis, employment screening, academic grading, or professional decision-making.
Questions, corrections, and source suggestions can be sent through the contact page.