Chese yow a wyf, in short tyme atte leeste,
Born of the gentilleste and of the meeste
Of al this land, so that it oghte seme
Honour to God and yow, as we kan deeme.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Clerk’s Tale. It is no surprise that Walter’s nobles want him to choose a wife born from the ranks of the nobility and the greatest in the land. It will do honor to God and to him, they advise.