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Courtly Love, that defined the relationship between aristocratic lovers in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The Idea of courtly love developed among the higher classes of Europe during the late-1100s. The idea of courtly love was that a man passionately dev ....

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.... the Ars Amatoria (The Art of Loving) of the Roman poet Ovid. According to these conventions, a nobleman, usually a knight, in love with a married woman of equally high birth—or, often, higher rank—had to prove his devotion by heroic deeds and by amorous writings presented anonymously to his beloved. Once the lovers had pledged themselves to each other and consummated their passion, complete secrecy had to be maintained. Because most noble marriages in the Middle Ages were little more than business contracts, courtly love was a form of sanctioned adultery, sanctioned because it threatened neither the contract nor the religious sacrament of marria ....