Editing Lancelot (section)

==Cyclical prose tradition==

===Birth and childhood===
{{Further|Lady of the Lake}}

[[File:The Lady Nymue beareth away Launcelot into the Lakes.png|thumb|left|upright|[[Howard Pyle]]'s illustration for ''[[The Story of the Champions of the Round Table]]'' (1905): "The Lady Nymue beareth away Launcelot into the Lakes."|alt=]]

In his backstory, as told in the Vulgate Cycle, Lancelot is born "in the borderland between [[Gaul]] and [[Brittany]]" as '''Galahad''' (originally written ''Galaad'' or ''Galaaz'', not to be confused with his own son [[Galahad|of the same name]]), son of the [[Gallo-Roman culture|Gallo-Roman]] ruler [[King Ban]] of Bénoïc (English 'Benwick', corresponding to the eastern part of [[County of Anjou|Anjou]]). Ban's kingdom has just fallen to his enemy, [[Claudas|King Claudas]], and the mortally wounded king and his wife [[Elaine (legend)#Elaine of Benoic|Queen Élaine]] flee the destruction of their final stronghold of Trebe or Trébes (likely the historic Trèves Castle in today's [[Chênehutte-Trèves-Cunault]]), carrying the infant child with them. As Elaine tends to her dying husband, Lancelot is carried off by a fairy enchantress known as the [[Lady of the Lake]]; the surviving Elaine will later become a nun. In an alternate version as retold in the Italian ''[[La Tavola Ritonda]]'', Lancelot is born when the late Ban's wife Gostanza delivers him two months early and soon after also dies.

The Lady then raises the child in her magical realm. After three years<ref name=young>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTY44q6n0MgC&pg=PA33|title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. I|isbn=9781843842262|last1=Lacy|first1=Norris J.|year=2010|publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref> pass in human world, the child Lancelot grows up and matures much faster than he would naturally do, and it is from this upbringing that he earns the name ''du Lac''{{dash}}of the Lake. His double-cousins [[Sir Lionel|Lionel]] and [[Bors#Sir Bors the Younger|Bors the Younger]], sons of [[Bors#King Bors the Elder|King Bors]] of Gaul and Elaine's sister Evaine, are first taken by a knight of Claudas and later spirited away to the Lady of the Lake to become Lancelot's junior companions.<ref>Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (1995). ''Lancelot–Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, Volume 3 of 5''. New York: Garland.</ref> Lancelot's other notable surviving kinsmen often include [[Bleoberis|Bleoberis de Ganis]] and [[Hector de Maris]] among other and usually more distant relatives. Many of them will also join him at the Round Table, as do all of those mentioned above, as well as some of their sons, such as [[Elyan the White]], and Lancelot's own son, too. In the prose ''Lancelot'', the more or less minor [[Knights of the Round Table]] also mentioned as related to Lancelot in one way or another are Aban, Acantan the Agile, Banin, Blamor, Brandinor, Crinides the Black, Danubre the Brave, Gadran, Hebes the Famous, Lelas, Ocursus the Black, Pincados, Tanri, and more<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ufgmo5uY14C&pg=PA25|title=Lancelot-Grail: The post-Vulgate Quest for the Holy Grail & the post-Vulgate Death of Arthur|first=Norris J.|last=Lacy|date= 2010|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9781843842330 |via=Google Books}}</ref> (they are different and fewer in Malory).

An early part of the Vulgate ''Lancelot'' also describes in a great detail what made him (in a translation by [[Norris J. Lacy]]) "the most handsome lad in the land", noting the feminine qualities of his hands and neck and the just right amount of musculature. Diverging on Lancelot's personality, the narration then adds his proneness to berserk-like combat frenzy to his mental instability already prominent Chrétien's version (where Lancelot is notably relentless on his quest to rescue Guinevere, leaping into danger without thinking and ignoring wounds and pain):

{{quote block|His eyes were bright and smiling and full of delight as long as he was in a good mood, but when he was angry, they looked just like glowing coals and it seemed that drops of red blood stood out from his cheekbones. He would snort like an angry horse and clench and grind his teeth, and it seemed that the breath coming out of his mouth was all red; then he would shout like a trumpet in battle, and whatever he had his teeth in or was gripping in his hands he would pull to pieces. In short, when he was in a rage, he had no sense or awareness of anything else, and this became apparent on many an occasion.<ref name=young/>}}

===King Arthur's court===
{{Further|Knights of the Round Table}}

[[File:Tales of the Round table; based on the tales in the Book of romance (1908) (14580337558).jpg|thumb|upright|An illustration for ''Tales of the Round Table'' (1908), abridged from ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' by Andrew Lang: "Sir Lancelot did not stop, and the archers shot his horse with many arrows, but he jumped from its back and ran past them deeper into the wood."]]

Initially known only as the nameless White Knight (''Chevalier Blanc''), clad in silver steel on a white horse,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FY3P_DUGTyAC&pg=PA56 |title=Arthurian Literature XXV |date=2008 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=9781843841715 |language=en}}</ref> the young Lancelot (claiming to be 18 years old, although it is later revealed that he is really only 15<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oV967qQ0qiEC&pg=PA52 |title=The Lancelot-Grail Cycle: Text and Transformations |isbn=9780292786400 |last1=Kibler |first1=William W. |date=2010|publisher=University of Texas Press }}</ref>) arrives in Arthur's kingdom of [[Logres]] with the Lady of the Lake to be knighted by the king at her behest. The Lady equips him a powerful magic ring able to dispel any enchantment (as does his anonymous fairy foster mother also does in Chrétien's version; later parts of the Vulgate ''Lancelot'' instead [[retcon]] this as given to him by Guinevere<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQSkzRstpJYC&pg=PA148 |title = Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. III |isbn = 9781843842354 |last1 = Lacy |first1 = Norris J. |year = 2010|publisher = Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>). She also provides Lancelot with other enchanted items with various magical abilities, including a lance, a sword, a tent, and a mirror. The Lady, or her damsels, continue to aid him throughout the Vulgate ''Lancelot''. He later assumes the name of his grandfather, King Lancelot, upon discovering his identity.<ref>{{cite web |title=Highlights in the Story |website=www.lancelot-project.pitt.edu |url=https://www.lancelot-project.pitt.edu/LG-web/TheStory-Summary.htm |access-date=2019-06-09}}</ref>  

Lancelot is eventually convinced<ref name=arts/> to become a member of King Arthur's elite order of the [[Round Table]] after freeing the Arthur's nephew [[Gawain]] from captivity in the Dolorous Tower episode. He then becomes one of Arthur's closes and most trusted friends, and his greatest knight. As such, he plays a decisive role in the war against the [[Saxons]] in [[Lothian]] (Scotland), when he again rescues Gawain as well as Arthur himself from Castle Saxon Rock and captures the Saxon witch-princess Camille. Single-handedly, he saves Arthur's kingdom from conquest by the half-giant [[Galehaut]] and convinces the latter to join Arthur.

Expanding on the account from the [[Alliterative Morte Arthure|Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'']], Malory also has his Lancelot act as one of the chief leaders in Arthur's Roman War, including personally saving the wounded [[Bedivere]] during the final battle against [[Lucius Tiberius|Emperor Lucius]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lumiansky |first1=R. M.|date= 2019 |title=Malory's Originality: A critical study of ''le Morte Darthur'' |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=9781421433110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BK9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT70}}</ref> Since much of ''Le Morte'' was not composed chronologically, the Roman episode actually takes place within Malory's Book II, prior to Book III that relates Lancelot's youth.

===Guinevere and knight-errantry===
{{Further|Guinevere}}

[[File:Edmund blair leighton accolade.jpg|thumb|left|''Accolade'' (also known as ''Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot''<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3C_hGEGdqcIC&pg=PA668 | title=A Bibliography of Modern Arthuriana (1500–2000) | isbn=978-1-84384-068-8 | last1=Howey | first1=Ann F. | last2=Reimer | first2=Stephen Ray | date=2006 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>) by [[Edmund Blair Leighton]] (1901)]]

Almost immediately upon his arrival, Lancelot and the young Queen Guinevere fall in love through a strange magical connection between them, and one of his adventures in the prose cycles involves saving her from abduction by Arthur's enemy [[Maleagant]]. The exact timing and sequence of events vary from one source to another, and some details are found only in certain sources. The Maleagant episode actually marked the end of the original, non-cyclic version of the Prose ''Lancelot'' (before the later much longer versions), telling of only of the hero's childhood and early youth.<ref>{{cite book |first=Luke |last=Sunderland |date=2010 |section=Metaphor, metonymy and morality: The Vulgate cycle |title=Old French Narrative Cycles: Heroism between Ethics and Morality |pages=63–100 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=9781846158063 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/old-french-narrative-cycles/metaphor-metonymy-and-morality-the-vulgate-cycle/FBA7A495C066A0B0BA32F159F9A5ED16}}</ref> In the Prose ''Lancelot'', he is actually knighted by Guinevere instead of by Arthur.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v40auRW-8C4C&pg=PA63 | title=The Knight Without the Sword: A Social Landscape of Malorian Chivalry | isbn=978-0-85991-603-5 | last1=Kim | first1=Hyonjin | date=2000 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>

In Malory's abridged telling in ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', Lancelot's knighting is performed by the King, and both Lancelot's rescue of the Queen from Meleagant and the physical consummation of their relationship is postponed for years. As described by Malory, after having broken through the iron bars of her prison chamber with his bare hands, "''Sir Launcelot wente to bedde with the Quene and toke no force of his hurte honed, but toke his plesaunce and hys lyknge untyll hit was the dawning of the day.''"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Archibald |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Edwards |first2=Anthony Stockwell Garfield |date=1997 |title=A Companion to Malory |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=9780859915205 |language=en |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oqUDKCX7bzYC&pg=PA22}}</ref> This transgression takes place late in Malory's  telling, following Lancelot's failure in the [[Grail Quest]]. Nevertheless, just as in Malory's "French book" source, his Lancelot too devotes himself to the service of Guinevere early on in his tale. Several (far from all) of Lancelot's initial [[knight-errant]] style adventures from the Vulgate Cycle did make their way into Malory's compilation. These episodes range defeating the mighty villain Turquine who had been holding several of Arthur's knights prisoner, to slaying a duo of giant knights (in the Vulgate, the locals then declare Lancelot their lord and try to make him stay with them<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bQxHyxm3pIC&pg=PA76|title=Malory's Library: The Sources of the Morte Darthur|first=Ralph C.|last=Norris|date=27 April 2008|publisher=DS Brewer|via=Google Books}}</ref>). He also emerges victorious from a number of tournaments, among them once when fighting on behalf of Maleagant's father [[King Bagdemagus]].

Lancelot dedicates his deeds to his lady Guinevere, acting in her name as her knight. At one point, he goes mad when he is led to believe that Guinevere doubts his love until he is found and healed by the Lady of the Lake.<ref>{{cite web |title=La légende du roi Arthur |website=BnF – expositions.bnf.fr |language=fr |url=http://expositions.bnf.fr/arthur/grand/fr_114_352.htm |access-date=7 October 2018}}</ref> Another instance of Lancelot temporarily losing his mind occurs during his brief imprisonment by Camille, after which he is cured by the Lady of the Lake as well. The motif of his recurring fits of madness (especially "in presence of sexually charged women"<ref>{{cite journal |author=Plummer, John F. |year=1996 |title=Frenzy and females: Subject formation in opposition to the other in the prose ''Lancelot'' |journal=Arthuriana |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=45–51 |doi = 10.1353/art.1996.0027 |jstor = 27869221 |s2cid = 161934474}}</ref>) and suicidal tendencies (usually relating to the false or real news of the death of either Gawain or Galehaut) return often throughout the Vulgate and sometimes in other versions as well. He also may harbor a darker, more violent side that is usually suppressed by the [[chivalric code]] but can become easily unleashed during the moments of action.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Jesmok, Janet |year=2007 |title=The double life of Malory's Lancelot du Lac |journal=Arthuriana |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=81–92 |doi = 10.1353/art.2007.0042 |jstor = 27870873 |s2cid = 161443290}}</ref> Nevertheless, the Vulgate ''Lancelot'' notes that "for all the knights in the world he was the one most unwilling to hurt any lady or maiden."<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQSkzRstpJYC&pg=PA138 | title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. III | isbn=9781843842354 | last1=Lacy | first1=Norris J. | year=2010 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer }}</ref>

At one point, Lancelot (up to then still going as just the White Knight) conquers and wins for himself a castle in Britain, known as [[Joyous Gard]] (a former Dolorous Gard), where he learns his real name and heritage, taking the name of his illustrious ancestor Lancelot as his own. With the help of King Arthur, Lancelot then defeats Claudas (and his allied Romans in the Vulgate) and recovers his father's kingdom. However, he again decides to remain at Camelot, along with his cousins Bors and Lionel and his illegitimate half-brother Hector de Maris (Ector).

===Guinevere's rivals and Galehaut===
{{Further|Galehaut|Elaine of Astolat|Morgan le Fay}}

[[File:Sidney Paget - Lancillotto ed Elena.jpg|thumb|[[Sidney Paget]]'s painting of Elaine of Astolat with the injured Lancelot in her care]]

Lancelot becomes one of the most famous Knights of the Round Table, even attested as the best knight in the world in Malory's own episode of Sir Urry of Hungary, as well as an object of desire by many ladies, beginning with the gigantic Lady of Malehaut when he is her captive early on in the Vulgate ''Lancelot''. An evil sorceress named [[Hellawes (sorceress)|Hellawes]] wants him for herself so obsessively that, failing in having him either dead or alive in Malory's [[chapel perilous]] episode, she soon herself dies from sorrow. Similarly, [[Elaine of Astolat]] (Vulgate's ''Demoiselle d'Escalot'', in modern times better known as "[[the Lady of Shalott]]"), also dies of heartbreak due to her [[unrequited love]] of Lancelot. On his side, Lancelot falls in a mutual but purely [[platonic love]] with an avowed virgin maiden, whom Malory calls Amable (unnamed in the Vulgate).

Lancelot, incognito as the [[Black Knight (Arthurian legend)|Black Knight]]<ref name=":1">{{cite book |author=Bruce, ___ |title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary |page=200}}</ref> (on another occasion he disguises himself as the [[Red Knight]] as well),<ref name=":1"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lacy |first=Norris J |title=Lancelot-Grail 10: Chapter Summaries for the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles and Index of Proper Names |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2010 |isbn=9781843842521 |pages=40}}</ref> plays decisive role in the war against the powerful foreign invader, Prince Galehaut (Galahaut). Galehaut is poised to become the victor and conquer Arthur's kingdom, but he is taken by Lancelot's amazing battlefield performance and offers him a boon in return for the privilege of one night's company in the bivouac. Lancelot accepts and uses his boon to demand that Galehaut surrender peacefully to Arthur. Galehaut then becomes Lancelot's self-proclaimed vassal and the king's ally, later joining the Round Table after Lancelot finally does.<ref name=arts/>

The exact nature of Galehaut's passion for Lancelot is a subject of debate among modern scholars, with some interpreting it as intimate friendship and others as love similar to that between Lancelot and Guinevere.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Todd W. |last1=Reeser |first2=Lewis Carl |last2=Seifert |year= 2008 |title=Entre Hommes: French and francophone masculinities in culture and theory |publisher=Associated University Presse |isbn=9780874130249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x2zd2JyROkAC&pg=PA53 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Galehaut is obsessed with having Lancelot all for himself. Publicly submissive to Lancelot by his own choice, he is constantly acting very possessive of him regarding both Guinevere and Arthur, so much that Gawain comments that Galehaut is more jealous of Lancelot than any knight is of his lady.<ref name=arts>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DtXMstWzw5QC&pg=PA115|title=The Arts of Friendship: The Idealization of Friendship in Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature|first=Reginald|last=Hyatte|date=27 April 1994|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-10018-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref> At first, Lancelot goes to live with Galehaut in his home country of Sorelois. Guinevere joins them there after Lancelot saves her from the bewitched Arthur during the "[[Gwenhwyfach|false Guinevere]]" episode.<ref>{{cite web |title=Will the real Guinevere please stand up? |date=2017-12-17 |website=Medievalists.net |language=en-US |url=http://www.medievalists.net/2017/12/will-real-guinevere-please-stand/ |access-date=2019-06-08}}</ref> After that, Arthur invites Galahaut to join the Round Table. Galahaut is also the one who convinces Guinevere that she may return Lancelot's affection.<ref name=arts/> In the [[Prose Tristan|Prose ''Tristan'']] and its adaptations, including the account within the post-Vulgate ''Queste'', Lancelot himself harbors in his castle the fugitive lovers [[Tristan]] and [[Iseult]] as they flee from the vengeful King [[Mark of Cornwall]].

[[File:Sir Launcelot lay asleep under the apple tree.png|thumb|left|Morgan, Sebile and two other witch-queens find Lancelot sleeping in [[William Henry Margetson]]'s illustration for ''Legends of King Arthur and His Knights'', abridged from ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' by Janet MacDonald Clark (1914)|alt=]]

Faithful to Queen Guinevere, he refuses the forceful advances of Queen [[Morgan le Fay]], Arthur's enchantress sister. Morgan constantly attempts to seduce Lancelot, whom she at once lustfully loves and hates with the same great intensity. She even kidnaps him repeatedly, once with her coven of fellow magical queens including [[Sebile]]. On one occasion (as told in the prose ''Lancelot''), Morgan agrees to temporarily release Lancelot to save Gawain, on the condition that Lancelot will return to her immediately afterwards; she then sets him free under the further condition that he not spend any time with either Guinevere or Galehaut for a year. This condition causes Lancelot to go half mad, and Galehaut to fall sick out of longing for him. Galehaut eventually dies of anguish, after he receives a false rumour of Lancelot's suicide.

===Elaine, Galahad and the Grail===
{{Further|Elaine of Corbenic|Galahad|Holy Grail}}

[[File:Seduction of Lancelot.jpg|thumb|Seduction of Lancelot in the ''Livre de Lancelot du Lac'' (c. 1401–1425)|alt=]]

Princess [[Elaine of Corbenic]], daughter of the [[Fisher King]], also falls in love with him but is more successful than the others. With the help of magic, Lady Elaine tricks Lancelot into believing that she is Guinevere, and thus makes him sleep with her by deception.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mike Ashley|first=Michael Ashley|title=The Mammoth Book of King Arthur|year=2005|page=582|publisher=Running Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ni119Nfo_QEC&pg=PA582|isbn=978-0-7867-1566-4}}</ref> The ensuing pregnancy results in the birth of his son [[Galahad]], whom Elaine will send off to grow up without a father. Galahad later emerges as the [[Merlin]]-prophesied Good Knight, destined for great deeds, who will find the Holy Grail.

But Guinevere learns of their affair, and becomes furious when she finds that Elaine has made Lancelot sleep with her by magic trickery for a second time and in Guinevere's own castle. She blames Lancelot and banishes him from Camelot. Broken by her reaction, Lancelot goes mad again. He flees and vanishes, wandering the wilderness for (either two or five) years. During this time, he is searched for by the remorseful Guinevere and the others. Eventually, he arrives back at [[Corbenic]], where he is recognised by Elaine. Lancelot, shown the Holy Grail through a veil, is cured of his madness, and then chooses to live with her on a remote isle, where he is known incognito as the Wicked Knight (''Chevalier Malfait'', the French form also used by Malory). After ten years pass, Lancelot is finally found by Perceval and [[Sir Ector|Ector]], who meanwhile have been sent to look for him by Guinevere (the prose ''Lancelot'' narrates the adventures of them and various other knights in the Quest for Lancelot).

[[File:Adoubement de Galaad.png|thumb|Lancelot knighting his son Gilead ([[Galahad]]) accompanied by [[Sir Lionel|Lionel]] and Bohort ([[Bors]]) in the [[Vulgate Cycle]] (BNF fr. 343 ''Queste del Saint Graal'')]]

Upon his return to the court of Camelot, Lancelot takes part in the great Grail Quest. The quest is initiated by Lancelot's estranged son, the young teenage Galahad, having prevailed over his father in a duel during his own dramatic arrival at Camelot, among other acts that proved him as the most perfect knight. Following further adventures, during which he experiences defeat and humiliation, Lancelot himself is again allowed only a glimpse of the Grail because he is an [[adultery|adulterer]] and was distracted from faith in God by earthly honours that came through his knightly prowess. Instead, it is his spiritually-pure son who ultimately achieves the Grail. Galahad's also virgin companions, Lancelot's cousin Bors the Younger and Pellinore's son Perceval, then witness his [[ascension (mystical)|ascension]] into the Heaven. As noted by [[George Brown (medievalist)|George Brown]], while "Galahad is the typological descendant of [[Solomon]] through [[Joseph of Arimathea]], Lancelot is equivalent to [[David]], the warrior-sinner."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://web.stanford.edu/class/engl165b/sangral.htm|title=Malory's Sangrail|website=web.stanford.edu}}</ref>

===Conflict with Arthur===
{{Further|Gawain|Mordred}}

[[File:SIR LAUNCELOT AND QUEEN GUINEVERE).jpg|thumb|left|[[James Archer (artist)|James Archer]]'s ''Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere'' (1864)]]

Ultimately, Lancelot's affair with Guinevere is a destructive force, which was glorified and justified in the Vulgate ''Lancelot''  but becomes condemned by the time of the Vulgate ''Queste''.<ref>Dover, ''A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle'', p. 119.</ref> After his failure in the Grail quest, Lancelot tries to live a chaste life, angering Guinevere who sends him away, although they soon reconcile and resume their relationship as it had been before Elaine and Galahad. When Maleagant tries to prove Guinevere's infidelity, he is killed by Lancelot in a [[trial by combat]]. Lancelot also saves the Queen from an accusation of murder by poison when he fights as her [[champion]] against [[Knights of the Round Table#Mador de la Porte|Mador de la Porte]] upon his timely return in another episode included in Malory's version. In all, Lancelot fights in five such duels throughout the prose ''Lancelot''.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=King, David S. |year=2016 |title=Victories foretelling disgrace: Judicial duels in the prose ''Lancelot'' |journal=South Atlantic Review |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=55–71 |jstor=soutatlarevi.81.2.55}}</ref>

[[File:Tales of the Round table; based on the tales in the Book of romance (1908) (14580312508).jpg|thumb|Lancelot's bloody rescue of Guinevere from the stake in [[Henry Justice Ford]]'s illustration for Andrew Lang's ''Tales of the Round Table'' (1908)]]

However, after the truth about Lancelot and Guinevere is finally revealed to Arthur by Morgan, it leads to the death of three of Gawain's brothers ([[Agravain]], [[Gaheris]] and [[Gareth]]) when Lancelot with his family and followers arrive to violently save the condemned queen from being burned at the stake. During her rescue, the rampaging Lancelot and his companions slaughter the men sent by Arthur to guard the execution, including those who went unwilling and unarmed (as did Lancelot's own close friend Gareth, whose head he crushes in a blind rage). In Malory's version, Agravain is killed by Lancelot earlier, during his bloody escape from Camelot, as well as Florent and Lovel, two of Gawain's sons (Arthur's nephews) who accompanied Agravain and [[Mordred]] in their ambush of Lancelot in Guinevere's chambers along with several other knights from Scotland. In the Vulgate ''Mort Artu'', Lancelot's now-vacated former seat at the Round Table is given to an Irish knight named Elians.

The killing of Arthur's loyal knights, including some of the king's own relatives, sets in motion the events leading to the treason by Mordred and the disappearance and apparent death of Arthur. The civil war between Arthur and Lancelot was introduced in the Vulgate ''Mort Artu'', where it replaced the great Roman War taking place at the end of Arthur's reign in the chronicle tradition. What first occurs is a series of engagements waged against Lancelot's faction by Arthur and the vengeful Gawain; they besiege Lancelot at Joyous Gard for two months and then pursue him with their army into Gaul (France in Malory).

The eventual result of this is the betrayal of Arthur by Mordred, the king's bastard son (and formerly one of Lancelot's young followers), who falsely announces Arthur's death to seize the throne for himself. Meanwhile, Gawain challenges Lancelot to a duel twice; each time Lancelot delays because of Gawain's enchantment that makes him grow stronger between morning and noon. Lancelot then strikes down Gawain with Galahad's sword but spares Gawain's life (in the Vulgate, despite being urged by Hector to finish him off<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ojpHBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT17 | title=The Passing of Arthur: New Essays in Arthurian Tradition | isbn=9781317656913 | last1=Baswell | first1=Christopher | last2=Sharpe | first2=William | year= 2014 | publisher=Routledge }}</ref>). However, Gawain's head wound nevertheless proves to be fatal later, when it reopens during the war with Mordred back in Britain. Upon receiving a desperate letter from the dying Gawain offering him forgiveness and asking for his help in the fight against Mordred, Lancelot hurries to return to Britain with his army, only to hear the news of Arthur's death at [[Salisbury Plain]] (romance version of the [[Battle of Camlann]]).

===Late years and death===
There are two main variants of Lancelot's demise, both involving him spending his final years removed from society as a hermit monk. In the original from the variants of ''Mort Artu'', after mourning his king, Lancelot abandons society, with exception of his later participation in a victorious war against the young sons of Mordred and their Briton supporters and Saxon allies that provides him with partial atonement for his earlier role in the story.<ref>Dover, ''A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle'', pp. 121–122.</ref> It happens shortly after the death of Guinevere, as Lancelot personally kills one of Mordred's sons after chasing him through a forest in the battle at [[Winchester]], but himself goes abruptly missing. Lancelot dies of illness four years later, accompanied only by Hector, Bleoberis, and the former [[archbishop of Canterbury]]. It is implied that he wished to be buried beside the king and queen, however, he had made a vow some time before to be buried at Joyous Gard next to Galehaut, so he asks to be buried there to keep his word. In the Post-Vulgate, the burial site and bodies of Lancelot and Galehaut are later destroyed by King Mark when he ravages Arthur's former kingdom.

There is no war with the sons of Mordred in the version included in ''Le Morte d'Arthur''.<ref name="Pyle 1993 238"/> In it, Guinevere blames all the destruction of the Round Table upon their adulterous relationship, which is the seed of all the dismay that followed, and becomes a nun. She refuses to kiss Lancelot one last time, telling him to return to his lands and that he will never see her face again. Upon hearing this, Lancelot declares that if she will take a life of [[Penance|penitence]], then so will he.<ref>{{cite book |last=Umland |first=Samuel J. |year=1996 |title=The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film: From Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-313-29798-4 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LE5mGSVCd7wC&pg=PA91}}</ref> Lancelot retires to a [[hermitage (retreat)|hermitage]] to seek redemption, with eight of his kin joining him in a monastic life, including Hector. As a monk, he later conducts [[last rites]] over Guinevere's body (who had become an abbess). In a dream, he is warned that she is dying and sets out to visit her, but Guinevere prays that she might die before he arrives, which she does; as she had declared, he never saw her face again in life. After the queen's death, Lancelot and his fellow knights escort her body to be interred beside King Arthur. The distraught Lancelot's health then begins to fail (''Le Morte d'Arthur'' states that even before this time, he had lost a cubit of height due to his [[fasting]]s and prayers) and he dies six weeks after the death of the queen. His eight companions return to France to take care of the affairs of their lands before, acting on Lancelot's death-bed request, they go on a [[Crusades|crusade]] to the [[Holy Land]] and die there fighting the [[Saracen]]s ("[[Ottoman Empire|Turks]]" in Malory<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roland |first=Meg |date=2006 |title=Arthur and the Turks |journal=Arthuriana |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=29–42 |issn=1078-6279 |jstor=27870787}}</ref>). In the 14th-century romance ''Ysaÿe le Triste'', a hermit uses Lancelot's exhumed skeletal arm to knight the anonymous son of Tristan "by the hand of one of the best knights in the world."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WdvYaKETyykC&pg=PA13|title=Ysaïe le triste: traduction|first=André|last=Giacchetti|date=26 April 1993|publisher=Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre|isbn=978-2-87775-888-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref> {{Clear}}

===Gallery===
<gallery widths="200" heights="250" mode="packed">
File:IRHT 305652 2 P.jpg|<small>"How Lancelot fought the six knights of Chastel d'Uter to save the [[Brunor|knight of the badly-cut coat]]." (''[[Tristan en prose]]'' c. 1479–1480)</small>
File:IRHT 094618 2 P.jpg|<small>Lancelot, dressed in brown, living with his companions in a hermit hut at the end of his life (''Tristan en prose'' c. 1450–1460)</small>
</gallery>

<gallery widths="200" heights="250" mode="packed" caption="[[N. C. Wyeth]]'s illustrations from ''[[The Boy's King Arthur]]''">
File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p38.jpg|Facing Turquine: "I am Sir Launcelot du Lake, King Ban's son of Benwick."
File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p246.jpg|"Sir Mador's spear broke all to pieces, but his spear held."
File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p52.jpg|"[Lancelot] ever ran wild wood from place to place"
File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p316.jpg|"Launcelot saw her visage, he wept not greatly, but sighed."
</gallery>