Geoffroi de Charny wrote Le Livre de Chevalerie, a major fourteenth-century treatise on the ideals and duties of knighthood.
Charny was a French knight and military commander who served King John II of France. His book, often translated as The Book of Chivalry, discusses honor, courage, loyalty, military reputation, and the conduct expected of a knight. It is especially valuable because it presents chivalry through the voice of an experienced warrior rather than only through romance literature.
Charny also helped establish the Order of the Star, founded by John II in 1351. He died at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 while carrying the royal oriflamme, a sacred French war standard. His death connected his written ideals with the danger and prestige of battlefield service.
His work does not describe a perfectly consistent moral code followed by every knight. Instead, it reveals the tensions between Christian morality, aristocratic honor, military success, and the pursuit of reputation in late medieval France.