Clariance
King of Northumberland among the eleven kings who rebelled against Arthur, attested in 1 source.
Clariance is the King of Northumberland in Le Morte d'Arthur, one of the eleven kings who gathered a great host against King Arthur. He swore to bring three thousand men of arms to the coalition (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Chapter XII). In the ensuing battle, he proved a formidable combatant, pressing hard against both Ulfius and Brastias (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Chapter XIV).
Clariance appears in two chapters of Book I covering the rebellion of the eleven kings. His pledge of three thousand men in Chapter XII establishes him as one of the more significant contributors to the alliance. In Chapter XIV, the battle narrative provides two specific combat encounters: Clariance and the Duke of Cambenet "were alway grievous on Ulfius" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Chapter XIV), while separately Clariance "returned unto Brastias, and either smote other so that horse and man went to the earth, and so they lay long astonied, and their horses' knees brast to the hard bone" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Chapter XIV). The violence of this last image -- horses' kneecaps shattering on the ground -- gives Clariance's combat a physical particularity that many of the eleven kings' encounters lack.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition