The Lancelot Dilemma in Malory’s Morte Darthur: How Can the Greatest Knight in the World Have Sex with the Queen?

Eric Lacey

Sir Thomas Malory’s Lancelot was a ‘trew knyght’[1] because he was exemplary in all facets of his character. [2] Indeed, Malory was so eager to emphasize this, that Lancelot is referred to as a ‘trew’ knight four times within the first seven leaves of the Winchester manuscript (the manuscript thought to be closest to Malory’s original), three occurrences of which come from the knight himself in the repetition of “as I am trew knyght” (and this is continued throughout the Le Morte Darthur).[3] In each case, the statement “as I am trew knyght” is not made in arrogance, but rather made when swearing to fulfill a just purpose; a fitting oath for a noble endeavour. By putting these words into the mouth of his favourite knight, and then having him fulfill his vows, Malory holds him up to be a ‘trew knyght’ by example of his deed. Lancelot is a brave and ‘trew’ warrior admired not only by Malory, but by the audience of Le Morte Darthur who see the promises and their fulfillment in progress. This is not to say, by any means, that the narrative is unbiased –in a later chapter entitled ‘Slander and Strife’, we find a bias that “no modern author could get away with”: [4]

So sir Launcelot departed and toke hys swerde undir hys arme, and so he walked in hys mantel, that noble knyght, and put hymselff in grete jouparté.

(XX.3)[5]

Malory also specifically creates the episode of ‘The Healing of Sir Urry’ in order to emphasize the greatness of his favourite knight[6]. The structure of the story is, in the words of one critic, “totally illogical”[7], and Lancelot, who due to his high rank at the Round Table should be one of the first to try and heal Sir Urry, is delayed till last, so as to enhance the dramatic healing and irrefutably demonstrate him as being of the caliber stipulated in the curse’s cure:

…[Sir Urry] shulde never be hole untyll the beste knyght in the worlde had serched hys woundis.

(XIX:10)[8]

Nor can we neglect the various battles in which Lancelot demonstrates his feat of arms, in chapters that Malory rather unimaginatively entitles ‘The Great Tournament’ and ‘A Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lake’. Malory is also eager to ensure that Lancelot is admirable by feat of character and dedicates an entire chapter to his humility; ‘The Knight of The Cart’ describes how he rides in a dwarf drawn vehicle and suffers the humiliating laughter of all witnesses as he races to save his queen. As Beverly Kennedy succinctly and rigorously demonstrates, throughout the entirety of Malory’s Morte Darthur Lancelot epitomizes the qualities of both the battle-hardened ‘True Knight’[9] and the courtly and personable ‘Worshipful Knight’.[10]

There is just one tiny problem amidst this however. How can Lancelot be a ‘trew knyght’ when he is having sex with his king’s wife? In both the Christian and the Heroic codes this would be deemed, to say the least, undesirable and inappropriate; Christian marriage is monogamous by nature and Roman and Germanic law only permitted married men to partake in extra-marital relations with women who were not “another man’s property rights – that is, his wife”. [11] From the Christian perspective, he should not be violating the sanctity of marriage; from the Heroic, the trust and relationship between himself and his lord. The problem is compounded when we recall that not only Lancelot is not just any ‘trew knyght’ – he is the greatest in the world, as the healing of Sir Urry unequivocally demonstrates – but that by English law, his adulterous relationship amounts to treason.[12] How can one so celebrated for his excellence in knighthood, indeed, for his nobility and righteousness, be reconciled with this adultery – and with this treason?

Nobility in general is perhaps the most firmly stressed quality in the entire Morte Darthur, and Hyonjin Kim remarks on the frequency of the word’s appearance. [13] Lancelot and the other knights are descended from royalty not only to raise their social status, but also to make all the knights equals.[14] However, Malory consistently depicts Lancelot as being nobler than his peers. When Gawain is lying on his deathbed, in spite of his vehemence against Lancelot for the slaying of his brother, he concedes:

…for had that noble knyght, sir Launcelot, ben with you, as he was and wolde have ben, thys unhappy warre had never ben begunne; for he, thorow hys noble knyghthode and hys noble bloode, hylde all youre cankyrde enemyes in subjeccion and daungere. And now… ye shall mysse sir Launcelot.

(XXI:2)[15]

Not only is Lancelot referred to by the adjective ‘noble’ no less than three times in four lines, but he emphasizes Lancelot’s loyalty to his king and his prowess in battle: he will be missed by the king because he is such a valuable and mighty knight. To give Lancelot even more credit, Malory has Gawain write a letter to him under the authority of ‘the Freynshe booke’ (an invented source Malory invokes to refer to a multitude of French texts to give his anecdotes an authoritative air. I should clarify that Gawain’s letter is indeed found in the French Vulgate sources – though nowhere near as obsequious as here):[16]

Unto the, sir Launcelot, floure of all noble knyghtes that I ever harde of or saw by me dayes, I, sir Gawayne, kynge Lottis sonne of Orkeney, and systirs sonne onto the noble kynge Arthur, sende the gretynge…com over the see in all the goodly haste that ye may, wyth youre noble knyghtes, and recow that nobly kynge that made the knyght…

(XXI:2)[17]

As can be seen by the above quotation, Lancelot’s retinue and King Arthur are referred to as ‘noble’, however, in terms of sheer frequency, Lancelot trumps them both. “The repetition of the keyword noble”, Kim remarks, “contributes in each case to the enhancement, rather than the reduction, of the emotional intensity of the scene”.[18] The use of such a keyword, in what is one of the most memorable scenes in the entire Morte Darthur, is testimony both to the importance of the quality itself, and of its presence in Lancelot. As if the above is not praise-worthy enough, Gawain refers to his slayer two more times with words of praise; firstly he is acknowledged as having dealt Gawain his death blow: “for of a more nobelar man myght I nat be slayne”, [19] which, when we bear in mind the important part Gawain played in Arthur’s battle against the Romans earlier in the Morte Darthur and Gawain’s own reputation for strength in arms, is a mighty compliment indeed. Secondly, and conclusively, Gawain signs off with: “therefore I requyre the, moste famous knyght of the worlde, that thou wolte se my tumbe.”[20] Not only is Lancelot unequivocally designated the “moste famous knyght of the worlde” by a most worthy peer, but his strangely religious nature is appealed to here. This “strangely religious nature” is attested to in the divine properties of his son Galahad and his miraculous healing of Sir Urry, which he undertakes in a most humble manner by invocating God ‘secretely unto hymselff’:

“Now, Blyssed Fadir and Son and Holy Goste, I beseche The of Thy mercy that my symple worshyp and honesté be saved, and Thou Blyssed Tryeté, Thou mayste yeff me power to hele thys syke knyght by the grete vertu of The, but, Good Lorde, never of myself”

(XIX:12)[21]

We see here an admirable humility, which Lancelot has demonstrated before, towards the beginning of the Grail Quest:

“I make unto you a remembraunce that ye shall nat wene frome hensforthe that ye be the best knyght of the worlde”.

“As towchyng unto that,’ seyde sir Launcelot, ‘I know well I was never none of the beste.”

“Yes,” seyde the damesell, “that were ye, and ar yet, of ony synfull man of the worlde…”

(XII:5)[22]

Terrence McCarthy informs us that “Lancelot’s modest admission of inferiority and the maid’s disagreement are Malory’s own addition to the scene”. [23] The reasons for depicting Lancelot modestly are obvious: we already know that he is the greatest knight in the world, just as we are already more than aware of his combat abilities, his greatness in the eyes of his peers and his nobility- a humble demeanor on top of this only serves to depict Lancelot as a more admirable character. Indeed, modesty endows Lancelot with a trait found commonly in courtly knights, keeping in line with Malory’s characterization of him as embodying all the greatest knightly qualities. Kennedy concludes in Knighthood in the Morte Darthur that Lancelot encompasses three distinct types of knight; heroic knighthood, [24] as shown by his prowess in battle and interaction with Gawain in the last book of Le Morte Darthur, courtly knighthood, [25] shown through his humility and piety, and finally ‘true knighthood’, [26] as is evidenced by Malory’s blatant narrative statements.

So are we to expect, then, that Lancelot’s virtues compensate for his adultery, or elevate him above such a level? To assume either of these would be to drastically simplify the situation; we must also take into account the nature of the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere. In light of this, it is of primary importance to remember what Malory says in a rare moment of commentary on the problematic relationship:

For, as the Freynshhe booke seyth, the quene and sir Launcelot were togydirs. And whether they were abed other at other maner of disportis, me lyste nat thereof make no mencion, for love that tyme was nat as love ys nowadayes.

(XX:3)[27]

Unlike a previous citation in this essay, and indeed unlike most of its occurrences in Le Morte Darthur, Malory’s reference to ‘the Freynshhe booke’ in this case is not an appeal for authority, but rather an excuse for the compromising situation his favorite character now finds himself in. As Eugene Vinaver points out in a footnote at this point in his edition of the Morte Darthur, Malory follows neither the French nor Le Morte Arthur in explicitly stating that the two lovers go to bed together[28] – instead he avoids elaboration and famously says “love that tyme was nat as love ys nowadayes”, immediately dismissing and distancing the lovers from any notions of love a contemporary audience may undesirably apply. However, to have left the explanation at this would have been both inartistic and unsatisfactory, and thankfully, a closer reading of the text yields some potentially fruitful explanations. The notions of different kinds of love, in addition to Lancelot’s perfect knightliness, give the reader another lead into which they can investigate the problematic relationship.

The best place perhaps to begin these considerations is at the end. Guinevere, taking ‘grete penaunce… uppon her[self]’ (XXI:7)[29], ordains herself into a nunnery in order to repent for the wrong-doings of her adultery in a Christian context. It is through this demonstration of commitment to her husband post-mortem[30] that Lancelot, heart-broken, takes to wearing religious vestments too and embraces priesthood. Likewise, as Cherewatuk also notes, when Lancelot, according to her wishes, buries her next to King Arthur (XXI:11-12),[31] “her atonement severs the adulterous triangle even as… Lancelot still shows his commitment to it”. [32] As committed as he may be to it, it takes two to commit adultery; and thus when she repents for it and severs the triangle, she truly does atone for it. Lancelot, whilst emotionally inclined to Guinevere still, has by her passing, truly been released from the sinful nature of their love. Although arguably there was nothing sinful about it from the very moment Arthur died, through the actions of Guinevere they fittingly redeem themselves for the illicit affair during his lifetime. Viewed in this way, their love takes on a religious nature that one could see, if they pried hard enough, in the way it was previously “ennobled by constance and patience”[33] –mostly, it must be added, by that of Lancelot. His expression of his love towards her in a typically courtly manner and his constant defence of her stand testimony to this. [34] This constancy on Lancelot’s behalf is emphasized by the increased blame upon Guinevere in each occasion he comes to her aid in the final book of Le Morte Darthur. These instances are: 1) against Mador’s false accusation of Guinevere committing murder in ‘The Poisoned Apple’, 2) against Mellyagaunce’s somewhat justified, though personally motivated accusation of her treason in ‘The Knight of the Cart’ (it should be noted that Mellyagaunce himself is in love with Guinevere) and 3) Arthur’s (very justified) accusation of her treason following the exposure of her infidelity.

This unfailing loyalty towards Guinevere is perhaps the most ennobling aspect of their love, noted by Kim as exemplifying Malory’s ideal of ‘vertuouse love’, [35] but this loyalty does not stem from their love alone. The basis for Lancelot’s loyalty towards his Queen may be found at the very beginning of their history, during Lancelot’s knighting:

“My Lorde,’ seyde sir Launcelot, ‘wytte you well y ought of ryght ever [to be] in youre quarrell and in my ladyes the quenys quarrell to do batayle, for ye are the man that gaff me the hygh Order of Knyghthode, and that day my lady, youre quene, ded me worshyp. And ellis had I bene shamed, for that same day that ye made me knyght, thorow my hastynes I loste my swerde, and my lady, youre quene, founde hit, and lapped hit in her trayne, and gave me the swerde whan I had nede thereto; and ells had I bene shamed amonge all knyghtes. And therefore, my lorde Arthure, I promysed her at that day ever to be her knyght in ryght othir in wronge.”

E B Leighton's Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot

(XVIII:7)[36]

Lancelot is respectful and decorous in his speech towards his lord; he acknowledges and emphasizes through repetition the hierarchy of the King and the knight, and is careful to couple any reference to Guinevere being his lady with a reference to her being Arthur’s queen. The latter however is not just done diplomatically – Lancelot is emphasizing the dual basis of his loyalty: ‘ye are the man that gaff me the hygh Order of Knyghthode, and… youre quene ded my worshyp’. Just as he is indebted to Arthur for initiating him into the Round Table, so he is indebted to Guinevere for saving him from being shamed in the initiation ceremony[37]. Indeed, one could say that it is Guinevere who gets Lancelot knighted – without his sword the ritual which would lead to his ordination into the knighthood could not commence.[38] I emphasize that this is not to say, however, that Lancelot is not loyal towards his king. Through both deed and word Lancelot proclaims his dedication to the king – we can see one instance in ‘The Healing of Sir Urry’, when Lancelot is beseeched by his lord to attempt to heal the wounded knight: “My lorde Arthure, I must do youre commaundemente, which is sore ayenste my harte” (XIX:12). [39] Likewise we see Lancelot’s unflinching loyalty towards his lord in refusing to fight against him, or let his retinue fight against him, even when pursued in ‘The Siege of Benwick’:

“…therefore I pray you, sirres, as ye love me, be ruled at thys tyme as I woll have you. For I woll allwayes fle that noble kynge that made me knyght: and whan I may no farther, I muste nedis deffende me.”

(XX:20)[40]

Nothing short of necessity would push Lancelot to fight against his lord, even in such hard-pressed circumstances. Returning to the matter of Guinevere however, one could see the love between Lancelot and herself in two different lights; firstly as an extension of the love a knight should have towards his lord in a comitatus (‘war-band’) in view of the origins of his loyalty towards her, secondly, as a spiritual love that allows the two of them to embrace Christianity and repent for the sinful path which, antithetically, lead them there.

Even if it could be irrefutably concluded that the love between Lancelot and Guinevere is morally admirable, it still does not account for why they should be allowed to have sex, especially since Lancelot’s duty is not just to his queen, but (primarily) to his lord King Arthur. The answer to this may lie in the actual reasoning behind the view that a relationship of this nature is treason. In the Treason Statute of 1352 the primary concern was interference with the bloodline of the throne; [41] and this is not a problem in Malory’s world of the Morte Darthur for the simple reason of Guinevere’s infertility. Whilst it is a far from popular view both contemporarily (seeing as Guinevere in The Alliterative Morte Arthur has a son with Mordred), [42] and in modern scholarship, I find more than enough proof in a handful of critics and close readings of Le Morte Darthur to support it. Immediate suspicion should be roused from the fact that Guinevere bears children for neither Arthur nor Lancelot. Both have children by other women; Arthur has, quite notably, his future slayer Mordred, and Lancelot has Galahad by Elaine of Corbin – thereby dispelling any possibility of their sterility. Elaine of Corbin, in the eyes of Cherewatuk, [43] provides further evidence for Guinevere’s barrenness by taking a sly shot at the queen: “for he hadde my maydynhde and by hym I have borne a fayre sonne,” (XI:9). [44] Similarly, when Guinevere asks Galahad about his parentage, it is difficult not to see jealousy behind the queen’s clearly awkward enquiry:

So aftir thys the quene com unto sir Galahad and asked hym of whens he was and of what contrey. Than he tolde hir of whens he was. “And sonne unto sir Launcelot?” she seyde. As to that he seyde nother yee nother yay…

Than sir Galahad was a lityll ashamed and seyde,,

“Madame, sithyn ye know in sertayne, wheredore do ye aske hit me?”

(XIII:12-14)[45]

However, it is her infertility that works in favour of justifying the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere – because of the lack of concern of a contaminated bloodline. As cited above, the Treason Statute of 1352 was concerned with the presence of illegitimate heirs – markedly ironic when we consider that during the crusade led against Lancelot towards the end of Le Morte Darthur, Arthur’s own bastard son Mordred gathers an army with which to seize the throne; Arthur himself brings about his own downfall through the very reason for which Lancelot and Guinevere are guilty of treason. On this political note, it is worth noting that the marriage between Arthur and Guinevere has been seen as purely political, notably by Cherewatuk, as Guinevere hails from a family of no small importance – and her dowry is the Round Table. The evidence points towards the table and the knights who sit around it as being more important to Arthur, for as we hear him lament later in Le Morte Darthur:

“…and much more I am soryar for my good knyghtes losse than for the losse of my fayre quene; for quenys I myght have inow, but such a felyship of good knyghtes shall never be togydirs in no company.”

(XX:9)[46]

If, as this suggests, the Round Table and the fellowship of knights are of primary importance to Arthur, then Guinevere fulfills the purpose of their union by marriage by providing the Round Table – in which case the love between Lancelot and Guinevere is emotionally justified. That is not to say that Arthur is not emotionally inclined towards his wife – we see a headstrong Arthur earlier in Le Morte Darthur desiring her hand in marriage in spite of Merlin’s protest:

“I love Gwenyvere, the kynges doughtir of Lodegrean, of the londe of Camelerde, the whyche holdyth in his house the Table Rounde that ye told me he had hit of my fadir Uther…”

But M[e]rlyon warned the kyng covertly that Gwenyver was nat holsom for hym to take to wyff. For he warned hym that Launcelot scholde love hir, and sche hym agayne…

(III:1)[47]

Arthur, aware of the fact that Guinevere and Lancelot will fall in love, pursues the marriage because he covets the Round Table – it is a political marriage for a political gain. Does this mean with her political role fulfilled, she can go on to fulfill the personal? This seems to be the implication here.

That the marriage is acknowledged for its political purposes would explain why a blind eye is turned on the Lancelot-Guinevere affair. Arthur is aware from the very beginning of Book III of Le Morte Darthur, but ignores the intimate relations between his wife and his best knight in order to maintain the fellowship of the Round Table. When viewed in this way, it is even advantageous for Arthur to have his wife intimately involved with his best knight – as Cherewatuk writes, she is able to “arm and disarm her husband’s best knight… Guinevere is able to tie the strength [of Lancelot] to the crown.”[48] In fact, the only times when the relationship between the two of them is not overlooked is when there is an ulterior motive towards Guinevere on the prosecutor’s behalf. Mellyagaunce is himself in love with Guinevere, and Aggravayne is jealous of Lancelot’s access to Guinevere. [49]

In fact, in the grand scheme of Le Morte Darthur, the blame seems to lie squarely on Guinevere’s shoulders. Her faults of jealousy, possessiveness, and pride have led many critics to find Malory placing the blame for both the moral collapse of the knights of the Round Table and the disintegration of her relationship with Lancelot. [50] She falls into the role of the temptress, leaving Lancelot with little blame – the precise details of which cannot be dealt with sufficiently here. Malory does, however, grant Guinevere the opportunity, which she seizes, of redeeming herself when she joins the nuns’ convent. This is obviously Malory putting Guinevere in a favourable light – something he has actually been playing towards throughout the entire Morte Darthur – as unlike the Alliterative Morte Arthur, she is not mother of a child with Mordred, for example.

What conclusion can one draw from this? Obviously that Malory tries to provide a host of reasons to render the illicit relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere permissible, but does he solve the dilemma of Lancelot? The affair in itself suggests something about the characters involved – in that not only does it give us insight into their inner machinations, but it helps us assemble an accurate approximation of their priorities. King Arthur is more concerned about the Round Table and the knights that populate it rather than his wife, Guinevere is haughty and demanding of Lancelot, and the famous knight himself is fully committed to her in all the ways that he can be, but his misdeeds are still difficult to justify. Are we to see Lancelot as more human for his flaws? We can see easily that Malory intends for Lancelot to be a role-model of ‘knyghthode’ in his excellence in all things knightly, but what about the more mundane, quotidian, even human, aspect of his character?

The answer may lie in Lancelot’s religious redemption – and in its parallels with the generic Saint’s life ending. By offering a religious solution to Lancelot’s sinful ways, he becomes a role model not just as a knight, but as a human being. Just as ‘love that tyme was nat as love ys nowadayes’, and that ‘felyship of good knyghtes shall never be togydirs in no company’, the audience is not expected, or encouraged, to follow in the knightly footsteps of these characters; as their deeds are celebrated for their passing in a more heroic time and place. However, Malory offers religious repentance as a noble practice which the contemporary audience could take as exemplary: Gawain, Lancelot and Guinevere all follow this course of action, and all repent of the more problematic actions they committed during the collapse of King Arthur’s court. The dilemma of Lancelot, in short, is solved in a method exemplary of how all the problems of the contemporary imperfect man were to be solved – through embracing faith and repenting.

Bibliography

Primary Texts

Vinaver, E., ed., Malory Complete Works (Oxford: OUP, 1971)

Secondary Texts

Cherewatuk, K., Arthurian Studies LXVII: Marriage, Adultery and Inheritance in Malory’s Morte Darthur (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2006)

Crofts, T.H., Arthurian Studies LXVI: Malory’s Contemporary Audience (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2006)

Hodges, K., Forging Chivalric Communities in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2005)

Kennedy, B., Knighthood in the Morte Darthur (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1985)

Kim, H., Arthurian Studies XLV: The Knight without the Sword (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000)

Loomis, R.S., The Development of Arthurian Romance (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1963)

McCarthy, T., Arthurian Studies XX: Reading the Morte Darthur (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1988)

Putter, A., and Gilbert, J., ed., The Spirit of Medieval English Popular Romance (Harlow:

Pearson Education Ltd., 2000)

Whetter, K.S., and Radulescu, R.L., ed., Re-viewing Le Morte Darthur (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005)

- - Tolhurst, F., ‘Why Every Knight needs his Lady: Re-viewing questions of Genre and Cohesion in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur’

Whitaker, M., Arthur’s Kingdom of Adventure (Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 1984)