In the Early Middle Ages (500 – 1000 AD) in Europe, there were two ways a man could become a knight.
The first was if fought bravely in a battle/war and the king/commander were happy.
The second was by becoming an apprentice to a knight (starting age 7, one had to stay with a knight to learn manners, bravery, horsemanship, and fighting, etc., and then prove himself).
In either case, the honour’s recipient—in a ceremony—bent on one knee and bowed the head.
And the King/Queen or the Commander touched the recipient briefly on each shoulder with the Knighting sword.
Once you were a knight, certain things were expected of you, one being chivalry—the combination of qualities such as courage, honour, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak.
Now, knights—with their role model personalities— mostly stayed in castles.
These castles also housed other men and women (very few).
Chivalrous men with beautiful women (mostly married women) under the same roof stoked the imagination of the littérateursWriter of literary works of the time.
And this gave birth to a fictional concept of “courtly love,” The term itself was rarely used in medieval literature of any European language, but the concept came from the era.
Courtly love dominated European literature around the 11th and 12th centuries.
It was presented as an experience that was illicit (because most women were married) but uplifting (discipline, unconditional service to the lady).
And it was centred around knights setting out on adventures and performing deeds for their ladies.
Initially, this fiction was created for the entertainment of the nobility, but gradually it attracted a larger audience.
“Loving nobly” became popular, and then, several works of art featured a knight kneeling before the lady in devotion and respect.
While the modern practice of kneeling is said to have started because of courtly love and related artworks, no conclusive links have yet been established between the two.
This theory rules, therefore, because of the absence of any other theory.
