The language and rituals of chivalry permeated almost every aspect of medieval aristocratic society. They had their most obvious impact in knightly attitudes to war. As much as the attractions of booty, it was the ethos of chivalry and the expectations which it aroused which spurred knights to follow kings and lords on campaigns afar. The influence of chivalry manifested itself in physical form in a fondness for the architecture of war. The fairy-tale castles of romance were reproduced in fairy-tale castles in stone, such as Sir Edward Dallingridge's Bodiam. The architectural language of turreted battlements was reproduced in castles, manor houses, colleges, even hospitals.

In churches and abbeys the language of chivalry found expression in the rich displays of heraldry in stained glass windows and on tombs and painted walls. Maurice Keen has drawn attention to the armorials which adorned the walls of the Teutonic knights’ castles in Prussia. In England displays of heraldry were found in the windows of such abbeys as Byland, Warter and Newburgh and in such parish churches as Norbury and Etchingham. Generally, these schemes celebrated lineage and the ties of kinship and marriage. Sometimes, however, as on the brass of Sir Hugh Hastings (d. 1347) at Elsing (Norfolk), they honoured the ties of companionship forged in war.

One of the grandest schemes of painted decoration is found on the walls of Trotton church in Sussex. On the two side walls of the nave is a series of paintings, today much faded, showing members of the Camoys family, lords of the manor, in a variety of poses, in some cases kneeling, in others standing fully armed. Covering the west wall is a simplified Last Judgement scheme, and paintings of religious character probably once decorated the chancel. On the long expanses of the nave wall, however, the tone of the painted decoration was overwhelmingly secular. More than that, it was overwhelmingly chivalric.

Conservation work carried out on the paintings in the late 1980s has allowed us to form a more precise idea of their character. On the north wall, immediately opposite the main entrance, is a series of four monumental figures identifiable as members of the Camoys family from the coats of arms on their jupons, or on a chief gules, three roundels argent (Plate 5).