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Courtly [[love]] is a [[tradition]] of lyric [[poetry]] that developed in Provence, southern [[France]], in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries and which spread throughout Western [[Europe]] in the Middle Ages. It embodies a [[whole]] [[philosophy]] of love and represents an elaborate [[code]] of [[behaviour]] which governs the relations between 'aristocratic' lovers, turning the more [[bodily]] and [[erotic]] aspects of love into a spiritual [[experience]] and the most elevated of passions. The courtly lover both idealizes and is idealized by his [[beloved]] and [[subjects]] himself entirely to her desires. However, there is an inherent [[impossibility]], an obstacle to the fulfilment of love, in the very [[structure]] of [[Courtly Love|courtly love]]. As it developed, courtly love often entailed the love between a single knight and a [[married]] [[woman]]. The most famous example of this in [[English]] [[literature]] is the love between Lancelot and Guinevere in King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. This love cannot be consummated in a [[physical]] [[sense]] and, if it is, disaster and [[death]] ensues. Courtly love therefore involves the agonies of unfulfilled love, but the lover remains [[true]] to his beloved, manifesting his honour and steadfastness in an unswerving adherence to the code of behaviour.