Focusing on chivalry as an ideology, this study examines the ideas that influence behaviour in chivalric society. Specifically, it explores representations of chivalric violence in two seminal works of Arthurian literature. Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth-century romance, Le Morte Darthur, illustrates prowess’s centrality to chivalry through a shift in chivalric culture in which prowess defines chivalric value both before and after the shift. Initially, Balin proves unable to distinguish between brutality and justice, two opposing modes of chivalric violence. Yet, due to his prowess, Balin is still portrayed as Arthur’s greatest knight, demonstrating that chivalry needs to change. Balin’s tale depicts the transition away from a conception of chivalry in which power equates to moral rightness towards one in which power is used to protect moral rightness. Malory’s Lancelot then reveals that even after this shift prowess remains chivalry’s defining virtue and power still dictates morality. Chivalry’s violence is not therefore diminished by this transition but redirected towards the maintenance of control. Predicating its authority on displays of force, chivalry generates intracommunal violence, causing internal conflict and division. Thus this latter form of chivalry perpetuates the very violence it claims to suppress. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s twentieth-century novel, The Mists of Avalon, demonstrates chivalry’s influence on Gwenhwyfar as she is denied access to prowess and violence. Without access to prowess, Gwenhwyfar identifies with her roles as daughter, wife, housekeeper, and potential mother, all of which enable the men around her to pursue their violence. Ultimately, chivalry forces those with access to prowess into continuous violence in order to maintain its authority; meanwhile, those without access to prowess are forced into social roles that enable the perpetuation of violence. Consequently, Arthur’s chivalric community inevitably self-destructs, regardless of the rendition.