The treatise is intended to explain the appropriate qualities for a knight, reform the behavior of the fighting classes, and defend the chivalric ethos against its critics, mainly in clerical circles.
Nevertheless, Charny emphasizes that such lords have greater demands upon their deportment because their fame ensures that any scandal associated with their names will produce more notoriety than with a lesser-known knight.
In a section full of repetitive parallelisms, Charny argues that the ancestors of contemporary rulers were chosen from among the people, not for a life of ease and corruption, but for service, nobility, and piety.
Thus, he advises that knights be temperate in their eating habits, seek hard lodgings rather than soft beds at night, and most importantly, avoid luxurious cloths.
In fact, he spends a lengthy section mocking at nobles who all but bared their private parts by wearing tight leggings under tunics that did not fully cover the offending areas.
[6] Although he shows a lack of interest when it comes to courtly love, Charny does not entirely ignore the role of women, analyzing their effect upon and reception of knightly conduct.
In fact, Charny argues that a noble lady should abandon any lover who fails in prowess, and that the unfortunate knight has no cause to resent this treatment, since it is his own fault.
Lastly, Charny emphasizes that women have no recourse to chivalry in order to achieve honor, arguing the necessity for them to adorn themselves with the jewels and fine clothes so inappropriate for men.
In discussing both the order of marriage and the monastic world, Charny follows his traditional formula of good-better-best when describing the relative worthiness of those entering into each state.
He claims that the trials associated with the knight's lifestyle outshine even the harshest penances imposed upon monks, thus making it of greater spiritual worth.
Thus, Charny concludes his book by pointing out that awareness of their own mortality forced knights, more than any other sector of society, to be prepared at any moment to meet their Creator.