Second son of King Lot (of either Lothian or Orkney) and Arthur's sister Morgause.
Loved by Morgan le Fay, accidentally killed in a duel with King Arthur. Some of the more notable knights include the following: Others state higher numbers, as with 366 in both Perlesvaus and the Chevaliers as deus espees. Some sources state much smaller numbers, such as 13 in the Didot Perceval, 50 in the Prose Merlin (the prose expansion Vulgate Merlin has 250), and 60 in the count by Jean d'Outremeuse. In many versions there are over 100 members, as with 140 according to Thomas Malory (150 in Caxton's version) and Hartmann von Aue. Most commonly, there are between 100 and 300 seats at the table, often with one seat usually permanently empty (300 was also chosen by Edward III of England when he decided to create his own Order of the Round Table at Windsor Castle in 1344 ).
The figure may range from a dozen to as many as 1,600, the latter claimed by Layamon. The number of the Knights of the Round Table (including King Arthur) and their names vary greatly between the versions published by different writers.
Piety: The Knights of the Round Table about to Depart in Quest of the Holy Grail by William Dyce (1849) Some of these romances retell the story of the Knights of the Old Table, led by Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon, whilst other tales focus on the members of the 'Grail Table' these were the followers of ancient Christian Joseph of Arimathea, with his Grail Table later serving as the inspiration for Uther and Arthur's subsequent Round Tables. In the same tradition, Guinevere is featured with her own personal order of young warriors and knights, known as the Queen's Knights. Other well-known members include the holy knight Galahad, replacing Percival as the achiever of the Grail, and Arthur's traitorous son Mordred.īy the end of Arthurian prose cycles (including the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur), the knights split up into groups of warring factions following the revelation of Lancelot's adultery with King Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere. Many knights appear recurrently, such as Gawain, Lancelot, Percival and Tristan, with each of them featuring as a protagonist or eponymous hero in various works of chivalric romance. Several of the most notable knights, including Bedivere, Gawain, Kay and Yvain, are based on older characters associated with Arthur in the Welsh version of the myth. Their ranks often include Arthur's close and distant relatives such as Agravain and Gaheris, as well as his reconciled enemies and those he defeated in battle, including Galehaut and Lot. The various stories in the cycle present an assortment of knights from all over Great Britain and abroad, some of whom are even from outside of Europe.
The Round Table at which they meet is a symbol of the equality of its members, who range from sovereign royals to minor nobles. First appearing in literature in the mid-12th century, the Knights are an order dedicated to ensuring the peace of Arthur's kingdom following an early warring period, entrusted in later years to undergo a mystical quest for the Holy Grail. The Knights of the Round Table ( Welsh: Marchogion y Ford Gron, Cornish: Marghekyon an Moos Krenn, Breton: Marc'hegien an Daol Grenn) are the knights of the fellowship of King Arthur in the literary cycle of the Matter of Britain. King Arthur and his knights in a 14th-century Italian manuscript of the Vulgate Cycle's Quest for the Holy Grail