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[Read about the causes of war in the context of Chivalric Viewpoints.]
Women would seem to have a lot to answer for when it comes to the causes of combat. The face of Helen of Troy launched a thousand ships to battle, whilst Astrophel fights to impress his lady rather than for patriotic reasons:-
Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance
Guided so well that I obtain'd the prize,
Both by the judgment of the English eyes
And of some sent from that sweet enemy France;
Horsemen my skill in horsemanship advance,
Town folks my strength; a daintier judge applies
His praise to sleight which from good use doth rise;
Some lucky wits impute it but to chance;
Others, because of both sides I do take
My blood from them who did excel in this,
Think Nature me a man of arms did make.
How far they shot awry! The true cause is,
Stella look'd on, and from her heav'nly face
Sent forth the beams which made so fair my race.Astrophel and Stella XLI by Sir Philip Sidney
However, the idea that fighting for the cause of woman was a legitimate pursuit was consistently challenged by writers. For example, Chaucer satirised the conventions of courtly love in the 'Knight's Tale', pointing out the irony of two knightly men fighting to the death to either win the love (or lose their own life) of a lady who is unimpressed and hates combat. In fact, the romantic causes of fighting are often used to obscure the real political (and generally masculine) causes of war, such as revenge:-
As soon as our leader had finished, a chief of a stature superior to the common race of men, and of a most determined look, jumped into the middle of the assembly, and, taking up the belt, cried out in their language--"Let us march, my brethren, with the young men of our great father! Let us dig up the hatchet of war, and revenge the bones of our countrymen; they lie unburied, and cry to us for vengeance! We will not be deaf to their cries--we will shake off all delays--we will approve ourselves worthy of our ancestors--we will drink the blood of our enemies, and spread a feast of carnage for the fowls of the air and the wild beasts of the forest!" This resolution was approved by the whole nation, who consented to the war with a ferocious joy. The assembly was then dissolved, and the chiefs prepared for their intended march according to the customs of their country.
The history of Sandford and Merton by Thomas Day. Chapter 16.
Various political and moral motives combined and multiplied to lead to the American Civil War:-
About the time that our story begins a terrible war had been raging for nearly three years among the nation who inhabit the United States. The great cause of this war was the question whether the people living in the Southern and warmer States, where cotton, and tobacco, and sugar were cultivated, should buy and sell negroes to do their work, or should be compelled by the people dwelling in the Northern States to set their slaves free. It was a very difficult question to settle; and at length the Southerners determined to make a separate country and nation of their own, quite independent of the other. But the people of the North would not permit them to do this; and so North and South went to war, and fought fiercely for a time against each other, perhaps with the greater anger and bitterness because they were so closely related to each other. A few months before they were living as we live in England-- buying and selling, making railways from place to place, visiting one another, worshipping God after the same manner, and dwelling in peace and brotherhood throughout the whole land. Then there suddenly broke out this terrible civil war, which had been smouldering for a long time like a slow fire hidden among embers; and from one end to another of the United States the people were filled with bitter anger against their brothers, and began to look upon them as enemies.
Both in the North and South great armies were raised to fight their battles; and many men who had been living peacefully at home were called upon to leave their families and lands, and go out to the war as soldiers for their country. Among these men in the Northern army there was a Captain Bakewell, whose home was a small farmhouse upon the shores of Lake Huron, where he had lived for many years in quietness and safety, almost from the time when he had emigrated from England in his youth. Not long after the outbreak of the war he had been obliged to leave his farm and his two children in the care of his wife; parting from them all with much anxiety and sorrow, though he went out with a willing heart; for he was a brave and hardy man, and he thought the cause of the war a just one.
The children of Cloverley by Hesba Stretton. Chapter 1.
Historians have argued that more wars have been fought for religion, than over any other reason. This may be slightly simplistic, in that religion is often the excuse for pursuing war for political ends, rather than the root cause. However, religion can also be a solution, a cause of peace as well as combat. The ninth chronicle of Brother Cadfael, Dead man's ransom by Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) is set against the backdrop of the civil war between King Stephen of England and "Empress" Maude:-
On that day, which was the seventh of February of the year of our Lord 1141, they had offered special prayers at every office, not for the victory of one party or the defeat of another in the battlefields of the north, but for better counsel, for reconciliation, for the sparing of blood-letting and the respect of life between men of the same country...
Dead man's ransom by Ellis Peters. Chapter 1.
[Read about the causes of war in the context of Chivalric Viewpoints.]
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21 August 2004
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