'The Knight's Tale'
The knight tells one of these tales. It's the first tale that all the pilgrims tell. It's super long. To my mind, it's one of the more boring, but it is significant because it's the first one, so we're going to go over what happens.
We've got two cousins. Their names are Arcite and Palamon. They're nephews of the Duke of Thebes, and they end up getting captured by the Duke of Athens. They're in jail, but luckily - or maybe unluckily - they have a window in their cell. So, Palamon, one day, is looking out the window, and he sees a beautiful woman, Emily, with whom he falls immediately in love, from looking at a distance.
'That thurgh a window, thikke of many a barre
Of iron greet, and square as any sparre,
He cast his eye upon Emelya,
And therwithal he bleynte, and creyde 'A!'
So, love at first sight, basically. He catches a glimpse of Emily (Emelya) and cries out. He's totally into her. Not that smart, he wakes his cousin up and says, 'Come take a look at this. She's great!' Of course, he falls in love with her, too.
'That, if that Palamon was wounded sore,
Arcite is hurt as moche as he, or moore.'
Arcite's even more in love with this girl. They get all mad at each other because they are fighting over the same woman, but it doesn't last that long because an old friend of Arcite's turns up and is negotiating his release from prison. The Duke of Athens says, 'You can leave, just don't ever come back to my country. I just don't want you here anymore.'
So, he's free now, but he can't pursue Emily because he's not allowed back in Athens. Palamon is still in jail, but at least he can still see her through the window. They're both unhappy for various reasons.
What ensues is years of moaning, disguising themselves and trying to get back so they can see Emily again. So, finally, they're both free - Palamon's escaped. They're both free, and they're both disguised. They run into each other, and they decide that they're going to fight to the death over Emily. They're interrupted by the Duke of Athens, who's like, 'What are these dudes doing?' One of them is supposed to be in jail. One is supposed to be gone. This is the worst. He wants to kill them. He's super upset.
His wife intervenes and says, 'You know what, let's have a compromise. Let's give them each 100 knights, and they'll have a battle over this, like a real proper battle, and we can watch.' So, they do that, and Arcite's eventually declared the winner, but then an earthquake happens. It knocks him off his horse, and he dies. So, Palamon gets to marry Emily, and they mourn Arcite.
Win? I guess. It's a way to get out of having to actually choose one or the other. It still lets Arcite win, so it's kind of fair to him. That's our first example of a chivalric romance. You can see it does involve a woman, but the vast majority of it is battling for things, adventuring, disguising and escaping - all of these things that knights are good at and what they do.