Kehydius — Loredex

Kehydius is attested across 12 citations in Le Morte d'Arthur as the son of King Howel of Brittany and a figure tragically entangled in the Tristram-Isoud love triangle. He first appears as a warrior: "on a time Sir Kehydius, that was son to King Howel, as he issued out he was sore wounded, nigh to the death" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXXVI), establishing his martial vulnerability alongside his lineage.

His fatal attraction to La Beale Isoud is presented as instantaneous and absolute: "at the first time that ever Sir Kehydius saw La Beale Isoud he was so enamoured upon her that for very pure love he might never withdraw it" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XVI). The narrative states his end plainly: "at the last, as ye shall hear or the book be ended, Sir Kehydius died for the love of La Beale Isoud" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XVI).

Tristram confronts Kehydius directly, reminding him of the debt of loyalty: "I brought thee out of Brittany into this country, and thy father, King Howel, I won his lands, howbeit I wedded thy sister Isoud la Blanche Mains for the goodness she did unto me" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XVI). Tristram's anger is explicit: "for this falsehood and treason thou hast done me, I will revenge it upon thee" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XVI). Kehydius's response is physical flight rather than verbal defense: "when Sir Kehydius saw Sir Tristram come upon him he saw none other boot, but leapt out at a bay-window even over the head where sat King Mark playing at the chess" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XVI).

La Beale Isoud eventually "commanded Sir Kehydius out of the country of Cornwall," and he "departed with a dolorous heart" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XVIII). In exile, Kehydius meets Sir Palomides, "and they enfellowshipped together; and either complained to other of their hot love that they loved La Beale Isoud" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XVIII). Palomides later invokes Kehydius as a cautionary exemplar: "well I wot it shall befall me as for her love as befell to the noble knight Sir Kehydius, that died for the love of La Beale Isoud" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LXXXVI).

All twelve citations come from Le Morte d'Arthur, concentrated in the Tristram books. Kehydius functions as a mirror and cautionary figure for the other men destroyed by Isoud's beauty. His trajectory -- wounded warrior, instant lover, confronted betrayer, exile, death from love -- compresses into a minor arc the same forces that drive the major Tristram narrative. The bay-window leap is the most vivid physical detail: a man literally throwing himself from a window to escape the consequences of his desire, landing over the head of King Mark who sits oblivious at chess. His later companionship with Palomides, another man doomed by love for Isoud, creates a fraternity of the lovesick that underscores Isoud's destructive magnetism across the Arthurian world.