preux chevalier

plural preux chevaliers

1. A valiant knight; any gallant gentleman.

   '[…]a piece of duty which, as a preux chevalier, you must immediately perform.'

   1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

   2 more examples

   "I do not know any one who better realises my idea of a preux chevalier than Mr. Lorraine," replied Lady Mandeville. "He is so very handsome, to begin with; and there is a romantic tone about him, which, to its original merits of fine taste and elevated feelings, adds also that of being very uncommon."

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 100

   Perhaps Saxon was secretly comforted by the conviction that only a preux chevalier would be worthy of Miss Colonna, and that the preux chevalier was certainly not forthcoming.

   1865, Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards, Half a million of money