Many authors of Arthurian material used the legend of King Arthur to serve their own personal purposes. For example, Chrétien uses Lancelot in “The Knight of the Cart” to show the tensions that were caused by the inability to concurrently abide by the rules of courtly love, chivalry, and Christianity. The author of The Death of King Arthur also uses the character of Lancelot to serve his own personal purposes, though his reasons are much different than those of Chrétien. While Chrétien created Lancelot, a character with many French characteristics, the author of Death carries these characteristics to incorporate a French hero into the Arthurian hero myths. Through both the actions of Lancelot in The Death of King Arthur and the book’s treatment of his death, Lancelot becomes the French hero of the Arthurian cannon.
The most obvious example of Lancelot as a French character is in his birthplace. Lancelot is the son of the King of Banoic — an imaginary place that is in Gaul (Appendix). In this way, Lancelot, though he is a part of Arthur’s court in Britain and very much attached to Camelot, remains a Frenchman throughout the story in both his birth and his rule, as he is also king of Banoic.
Lancelot is also very French in his characteristics. Throughout the story, Lancelot maintains his chivalrous behavior even when those around him are treating him poorly. For example, even though King Arthur accuses Lancelot of behaving treacherously with Gwenevere and attacks his party, when Lancelot has a chance to kill King Arthur, he refuses to do it and even helps Arthur back onto his horse (145). Furthermore, even after Gawain, in his desire for revenge against Lancelot, brings Arthur and his armies to Banoic to war against Lancelot, Lancelot refuses to kill Gawain when Gawain challenges him to a battle, saying “if I were the winner and ought to cut off his head, I should not kill him for all the world” (171). Lancelot’s desire to avoid fighting Gawain goes so far that Lancelot even offers to leave Banoic and “go into exile, barefoot and dressed as a penitent, without any companions, for a period of ten years” in order to appease Gawain’s desire for revenge and avoid injuring him in battle (175). Chivalry is an ideal that is very much French in origin, and, by refusing to turn against King Arthur and Gawain, Lancelot was upholding two rules from the code of chivalry: loyalty to King and loyalty to one’s friends. Moreover, the author of Death seems to make it seem as though Lancelot was in the right in acting the way he did toward Gawain. Gawain, on his death bed, says his “soul would be more at rest after [his] death” if he would have been able to “beg [Lancelot’s] forgiveness for having been so uncourtly to him” (193).
Another ideal that is very much French in origin is courtly love. Lancelot remains quite faithful to his courtly love affair with Gwenevere, even when more promising, and available, options are presented to him. The daughter of the vavasour of Escalot falls in love with Lancelot prior to the tournament at Winchester. This woman was apparently very attractive and desirable, as Gawain himself fell in love with her and pursued her love in return. However, when she offers her love to Lancelot, he refuses, saying that his heart was where he wanted it to be (55). Though Lancelot believes that it had been a long time since he had met a woman that deserved more to be loved than she did, he was unable to love her because he was following the courtly love rule that “a true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.”
When determining whether or not the author of Death was trying to raise the French Lancelot above the Britons who were traditional characters in the Arthurian cannon, it is important to compare Lancelot’s death with that of Gawain, the traditional British hero knight. When Gawain dies, King Arthur has a dream in which “Gawain came before him, more handsome than he had ever seen him, and a crowd of poor people following him.” These poor people speak to King Arthur, saying “we have secured the admission of your nephew Sir Gawain to the house of God because of his great generosity and charity toward us” (204). The description of Lancelot’s death, however, is much different than Gawain’s. After Lancelot dies, the archbishop that he was staying with has a dream that Lancelot was “in such a great company of angels… [who] were carrying to heaven the soul of Lancelot” (234). It is interesting that angels carried Lancelot to heaven while Gawain walked along with a crowd of poor people. Angels are symbolic of the almost divine treatment of Lancelot’s knighting abilities and chivalrous behavior throughout the book, as though he was sent to earth to fulfill a purpose of God who bestowed on him these characteristics. Furthermore, Gawain’s place in heaven was secured by the poor people — he was not allowed in on his own actions.
This divine treatment of Lancelot’s knighting abilities and his behavior to others is also interesting when considering how the author raises Lancelot above the British knights. In behavior, Lancelot is all-forgiving — a characteristic that he would share with Jesus. Lancelot not only forgives Gawain and King Arthur for declaring war on him, he also does not wish them any harm or hold any grudges against him. Additionally, Lancelot is known as the best knight of the round table. He defeats every knight that attacks him, even Gawain. In fact, even though he is fighting Gawain at noon, the time that Gawain has the most strength, Lancelot is able to defend himself and administer a blow to Gawain that would eventually cause his death. Lancelot’s Jesus-like behavior and almost supernatural knighting abilities could be another means of the author’s attempt to make this French knight the hero of the Arthurian cannon.
While there could be any number of reasons for the unknown author to make a French knight the hero of the Arthurian cannon, one possible reason could be that France, during the 13th century, was ruled by England. The Death of King Arthur was believed to be written sometime during the 13th century. At this time, “the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had previously been married to Louis VII of France, to Henry II of England yielded most of the western part of France to the British Crown” (French History Timeline). The governance of France by England may have persuaded the author to express a French discontentment of British rule in a way that Britain had done with the King Arthur stories to express their discontent with outside invasion of the island. By making Lancelot the hero of the Arthurian stories, the author was, in effect, using British tradition to make it appear that the French hero was above any of the British heroes. This could also be the case if the French, because of the British rule, were trying to appear as the better race because of their notions of chivalry.
The Death of King Arthur was a trilogy of books that followed Lancelot from his birth to his death. It is essentially a retelling of the stories of King Arthur with Lancelot, rather than the traditional British knights, as the central character. In fact, even though the book gets its title from King Arthur’s death, it does not end with there; instead, it ends with the death of Lancelot. And King Arthur’s death, though caused directly by Mordred’s actions, was indirectly caused by his refusal to ask for Lancelot’s help in fighting Mordred and his armies.
In conclusion, it is my belief that the author of The Death of King Arthur wrote this series as a means of taking over the British Arthurian cannon by retelling it with a French, rather than British, hero. Lancelot is the central character of this book — he is the most forgiving, the most chivalrous, and the mightiest knight. He cannot be defeated even by the best British knight, he remains faithful to his king, his friends, and his courtly love affair, and he is carried to heaven by angels. Not even King Arthur had such a divine departure from the earth.
References
Source: The Death of King Arthur.
