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The Round Table

King Arthur, having expelled the Saxons out of England, conquered Norway, Scotland, and thi greatest part of France (where at Paris he was crowned); and, returning home, lived in so great renown, that many Princes and Knights came from all parts to his court, to give proof of their valour in the exercise of arms. Upon this he erected a fraternity of Knights, which consisted of four-andtwenty, of whom he was the chief: and for the avoiding of controversies about precedency, he caused a Round Table to be made, from whence they were denominated Knights of the Round Table. The said table, according to tradition, hangs up in the castle at Winchester, where they used to meet, and the time of their meeting was at Whitsuntide.

The number of knights whom the table will seat varies; it might seat twelve or fifty or a hundred and fifty; Though, most writers say that the Round Table could seat 150 knights, the number can vary, depending on whose works you were reading. In Perlesvaus (Le Haut Livre du Graal) and Li chevaliers as deus espees (The Knight of Two Swords), there were 366 knights. Nowhere, save in Layamon, do we find a practically unlimited power of accommodation. It is also to be noted that whereas, in the pseudo-chronicles, it is the common table of Arthur's court, designed in the interests of peace and unity, in the romances it is a sign of superiority, only the best and most valiant knights being adjudged worthy of a scat at the Round Table. In fact, it has become the equivalent of an order of knighthood, the members of which form a brotherhood bound by oath to succour each other at need and to refrain from fighting among themselves.

None were admitted but those who made sufficient proofs of their valour and dexterity in arms. They were to be always well armed for horse or foot; they were to protect and defend widows, maidens, and children, relieve the distressed, maintain the Christian faith, contribute to the church, to protect pilgrims, advance honour, and suppress vice. To bury soldiers that wanted sepulchres, to ransom captives, deliver prisoners, and administer to the cure of wounded soldiers, hurt in the service of their country. To record all noble enterprises, that the fame thereof may ever live to their honour and the renown of the noble Order.

That upon any complaint made to the King of injury or oppression, one of these Knights, whom the King should appoint, was to revenge the same. If any Foreign Knight came to court, with desire to shew his prowess, some one of these Knights was to be ready in arms to answer him. If any lady, gentlewoman, or other oppressed or injured person, did present a petition declaring the same, whether the injury was done here or beyond sea, he or she should be graciously heard, and, without delay, one or more Knights should be sent to take revenge. Every Knight, for the advancement of chivalry, should be ready to inform and instruct young lords and gentlemen in the exercises of arms. According to Guillim, there was no robe or habit prescribed unto these Knights; nor could he find with what ceremony they were made, neither what officers did belong unto the said Order, except a Register to record their noble enterprises.

In the days when the Arthurian romances were coming into existence, violence, cruelty, and luxury were rampant, and the story bears many traces of them; but the greatness of these evils called forth some great virtues to counter them, and the story bears traces of these also and strives gallantly to be true to its ideals, though when primitive notions, more especially the old belief in magic, crop up in it, it sometimes stumbles. Despite such stumblings, it is penetrated to its very core by the special virtues of days in which men were content to live dangerously (dangerously for themselves, not merely dangerously as against others), carrying their lives in their hands and willing to lay them down lightly rather than break the rules of the game or be faithless to word or friend.

A wandering knight challenges a great lord in a trial of skill, to be fought out to death or exhaustion, beneath the walls of the lord's castle. The wandering knight wins the day, and the lord becomes his vassal, takes him into his castle, feasts him, appoints a guard for his protection, and, when the victor bids him report himself at Arthur's court, comes on the appointed day attended by all his retinue. That the lord's men should interfere in the fight, or the lord himself break his promise, was unthinkable to these romancers; and on this simple basis of gallantry and good faith there was built up a code full of fine courtesies, such as those which forbade a great jouster to interfere with a lesser one on a day when he was outdoing himself, or a fresh knight to challenge one already tired with many victories.

The determination to live dangerously brought a strange and evil convention into the relations between knights and their ladies. A good knight held himself at the service of every woman who asked his help - to rescue a woman he must needs leave even his own brother in jeopardy - but he also owed a special service to the lady whose badge, if she so graced him, he wore, whose presence spurred him to excel himself, and whose pre-eminence over the ladies of other knights he maintained at the risk of his life. This lady might not be his own wife, if he had one, and she might quite properly be some one else's wife, her knight's homage be approved by her husband as a tribute to her worth, and the whole relation be treated as part of the great game of chivalry. But if it passed beyond a game and the husband hated to see his wife caring, more for another man than for himself, then it became dangerous, and because it was dangerous, although every one knew it was wrong, it made a story more exciting, and all the writers of these Arthurian romances chose this exciting subject as a literary fashion. With one exception every knight who yielded to this sin is shown as paying for it with his life. The one exception is Sir Launcelot, and him we see maimed and marred by thus setting his love where he should not, and atoning for it, as much as a man may atone for wrecking the lives of others, by bitter repentance.