courtly love

courtly love, in the later Middle Ages, a highly conventionalized code that prescribed the behaviour of ladies and their lovers. It also provided the theme of an extensive courtly medieval literature that began with the troubadour poetry of Aquitaine and Provence in southern France toward the end of the 11th century. The term amour courtois—translated into English as “courtly love”—came into wide use during the late 19th century through the work of the French philologist...