Damas
Sir Damas is a knight in Le Morte d'Arthur, characterized as "the falsest knight that liveth, and full of treason, and a very coward as any liveth" .
Sir Damas is a knight in Le Morte d'Arthur, characterized as "the falsest knight that liveth, and full of treason, and a very coward as any liveth" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter VII). He is the elder brother of Sir Ontzlake, and the two are locked in a land dispute that drives the central conflict of Book IV, Chapters VII-XII.
The quarrel between the brothers is defined by asymmetry. Ontzlake repeatedly offers single combat to settle their claims, but Damas refuses to fight in person: "ever he proffereth Sir Damas to fight for the livelihood, body for body, but he will not do" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter VII). Instead, Damas seeks a champion, and when none will serve him willingly -- for "he is so evil beloved and hated, that there is never a knight will fight for him" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter VII) -- he resorts to kidnapping. He has "daily lain await with many knights with him, and taken all the knights in this country" as prisoners, hoping to compel one to fight on his behalf (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter VII). Many die of hunger in his dungeons: "many good knights have died in this prison for hunger, to the number of eighteen knights" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter VII).
Arthur, himself imprisoned by Damas, agrees to serve as his champion in exchange for the release of all captives (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter VII). The resulting combat pits Arthur unknowingly against Accolon, who fights for Ontzlake with Arthur's own enchanted sword Excalibur. After Arthur wins despite this treachery, he pronounces judgment on the brothers. Damas is stripped of his unearned lands and charged "upon pain of death, that thou never distress no knights errant that ride on their adventure" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XII).
The thirteen citations span four chapters, and they construct Damas as Malory's exemplar of unchivalric lordship. The testimony of the imprisoned knights establishes the terms: Damas is false, cowardly, and cruel. But the narrative does something more specific than simply cataloguing his vices. Damas's refusal to fight his own quarrel is the structural engine of the plot -- it creates the need for a champion, which draws Arthur into the trap, which triggers the Excalibur theft. His cowardice is not just a character flaw but a plot mechanism.
Arthur's judgment at the end inverts the standard Malorian pattern where good knights are rewarded with lands. Here, Arthur transfers Damas's property to Ontzlake and condemns Damas to live on his brother's charity. The prohibition against troubling errant knights reads as both practical punishment and symbolic restoration of the chivalric order that Damas's kidnapping scheme had violated.
The Book V citation (Chapter II) is distinct -- a passing reference to Damascus in a geographical catalogue -- and appears to be a coincidental name match rather than a continuation of the Damas narrative.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition