These courts were said to be held under the presidency of some great lady of the district, assisted by a council of ladies and knights.
One of the questions submitted to the Court of the Comtesse de Champagne was: "Can true love exist between two persons who are married?"
And the Countess, aided by her councillors, pronounced as follows:--
"Therefore, having examined the said arguments by the aid of sound science, we proceed hereby to enact that love cannot extend his laws over husband and wife, since the gifts of love are voluntary, and husband and wife are the servants of duty. Also between the married can there be in our opinion no jealousy, since between them there can be no love.... This is our decision, formed with much deliberation and with the approval of many dames; and we decree that it be held firm and inviolable."
This decree proved a serious stumbling-block to one betrothed lady who had promised a cavalier that if ever she should find herself at liberty, she would accept his devotion. "Presently she married the lover to whom she was plighted, whereupon the second knight resumed his suit, conceiving--according to the ideas of the day--that the lady was now fully at liberty. She, however, could not be persuaded against the evidence of her feelings, ... and the matter was referred to the queen, Eleanor, wife of Henry II. of England. Her award could not run counter to that of the Countess of Champagne, who has pronounced that love cannot exist between husband and wife. It is our decree, therefore, that the dame aforesaid keep faith with her cavalier."
The only means of evading this decree was for the lady to declare that henceforth she intended to abandon love altogether, but if she did that she was obliged to make up her mind to endure social ostracism, for then "she was sure to be shunned by the gay ladies and gentlemen who then formed the vast majority of the fashionable world." We are not told what the lady decided to do in this most trying dilemma.
Altogether the state of society under the sway of the Courts of Love--or of the sentiment they represent--seems like that of some strange fairy-tale. Nothing could have been more fantastic or romantic; but however ridiculous they may seem to the critical mind, there was always a strain that one can only call noble running through it all. It might be dangerous, impracticable, subversive, "immoral," if one will, but it was never paltry or base.