Andred
Treacherous cousin of Tristram in Le Morte d'Arthur who spied on the lovers and sought Tristram's lands.
Sir Andred is a recurrent antagonist in the Tristram books of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, attested with 16 citations across six chapters spanning Books VIII and IX. He is King Mark's nephew and cousin to Sir Tristram, and his role in the narrative is defined by treachery, surveillance, and self-serving ambition. Andred consistently acts as Mark's instrument against Tristram, from spying on the lovers to orchestrating Tristram's capture and attempted execution.
Andred's 16 citations reveal a figure whose villainy operates through two modes: covert surveillance and direct violence. The earliest attestations establish his role as Mark's agent. He rides into Cornwall on royal business, encountering and being bested by knights of Arthur's court (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XV). His function as a spy is made explicit: "But ever Sir Andred, that was nigh cousin to Sir Tristram, lay in a watch to wait betwixt Sir Tristram and La Beale Isoud, for to take them and slander them" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXXII).
The betrayal in Chapter XXXIV is Andred's most sustained action in the text. He "espied the hour and the time when Sir Tristram went to his lady," then gathered twelve knights to take Tristram "naked abed with La Beale Isoud" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXXIV). The capture leads to a chapel on the sea rocks where Tristram is brought "bounden with forty knights" to face judgment. When Tristram denounces him, Andred's response is telling: "Fie upon thee, false traitor that thou art, with thine avaunting; for all thy boast thou shalt die this day" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXXIV). He draws his sword to kill Tristram directly -- an act of personal violence that exceeds his role as merely Mark's proxy.
Later in Book IX, Andred's ambition becomes explicit. After spreading a false rumour of Tristram's death through a paramour, the text reveals the motive: "All this did Sir Andred because he would have had Sir Tristram's lands" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XIX). He schemes to have himself made king of Liones, Tristram's lordship. His identification of Tristram by the brachet (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXI) and his nighttime mission with King Mark that ends in humiliation by Sir Gaheris (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXVIII) complete the portrait of a figure who is treacherous in intention and incompetent in execution.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition