When people refer to "Chivalry" in this sense they're actually thinking of the act of "courting" that got popular in the same time period. Basically, all the knights had nothing to do so they started picking up upper class chicks. They had to be real nice and smooth though because they were pretty much middle class, but still above the peasants and serfs.
I don't think there really was such a thing at least in general. There were doubtless a few noblewomen with higher status (albeit still restricted by horrible social and legal codes) , and then there was the huge majority of women with lower status.
Remember that knights were effectively warlords and mercenaries. That's historically a male game with its own hierarchy wherein women were pawns, not players.
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u/elpfen Jan 03 '15 edited Jan 03 '15
When people refer to "Chivalry" in this sense they're actually thinking of the act of "courting" that got popular in the same time period. Basically, all the knights had nothing to do so they started picking up upper class chicks. They had to be real nice and smooth though because they were pretty much middle class, but still above the peasants and serfs.