Anguish
King of Ireland in Le Morte d'Arthur, father of La Beale Isoud, who demanded tribute from Cornwall and later needed Tristram's defence.
King Anguish is a prominent figure in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, attested with 13 citations across ten chapters spanning Books V, VIII, and XVIII. He appears as both King Anguish of Ireland -- father of La Beale Isoud and central to the Tristram cycle -- and, in one attribution, as King Anguish of Scotland. His role in the narrative shifts between that of a demanding overlord, an accused defendant, a grateful father, and a tournament participant.
Anguish's earliest citation in the text's sequence comes from Book V, where he counsels King Arthur against submission to Rome: "Sir, ye ought of right to be above all other kings, for unto you is none like nor pareil in Christendom" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter II). Here he is titled King of Scotland, a potential variant or a different character sharing the name.
The Tristram books present the more developed Anguish of Ireland. His introduction is as a demanding overlord: "King Anguish of Ireland sent unto King Mark of Cornwall for his truage, that Cornwall had paid many winters" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IV). When his demand is refused, "he was wonderly wroth" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IV). This initial posture of power reverses when Anguish himself is "summoned to come to King Arthur's court for treason" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XX). The man who demanded tribute must now defend himself, and it is Sir Tristram -- the same knight Cornwall sent to fight Anguish's champion Marhaus -- who becomes Anguish's defender in trial by combat.
The relationship between Anguish and Tristram is the core tension. Having earlier sent Marhaus against Cornwall, Anguish later welcomes Tristram (disguised as Tramtrist) into his household and asks why he will not joust at a tournament (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IX). When the queen discovers Tristram's identity as Marhaus's killer, Anguish's response -- "Who is that, and where is he?" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XI) -- carries the weight of a king caught between gratitude and family honour.
The later attestations show Anguish in the diminished role of a tournament attendee. At Winchester, he fights on Arthur's side alongside the King of Scots, only to be "smote down" by the King with the Hundred Knights (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter X). This final appearance reduces a once-forceful monarch to a name in a tournament list.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition