Lot
King of Lothian and Orkney, leader of the eleven rebel kings against Arthur, slain by Pellinore.
King Lot of Lothian and Orkney is one of the eleven kings who oppose Arthur's early claim to the throne, and the most prominent among them. He arrives at Arthur's Pentecost feast "with five hundred knights" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. VIII) and is among those who scorn Merlin's prophecy of Arthur's kingship, laughing him off and calling him "a witch" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. VIII). Yet Lot is no fool. In the wars that follow, he emerges as the rebels' most capable strategist and their most formidable fighter.
In the first battle against Arthur, Lot "brake out on the back side" with the King with the Hundred Knights and King Carados, attacking Arthur's forces from behind, and personally smites Arthur down (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. IX). During the eleven kings' great battle, Lot rescues the unhorsed King Nentres by running unto Melot de la Roche and smiting him down to provide a fresh horse (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. XIV). When the battle turns against the rebels, it is Lot who rallies them: "Then King Lot made great dole for his damages and his fellows, and said unto the ten kings, But if ye will do as I devise we shall be slain and destroyed" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. XV).
Lot's military judgment is consistently sharp. He recognizes the threat posed by King Ban and King Bors of Gaul, declaring them "the most valiant knight of the world" and acknowledging that "we must needs void or die" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. XVI). Even in defeat, he and the King of the Hundred Knights and King Morganore "gathered the people together passing knightly, and did great prowess of arms, and held the battle all that day, like hard" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. XVI).
His death comes through Merlin's trickery. At the battle against Nero, Merlin deliberately "held him with a tale of prophecy" to prevent Lot from joining the fight, because "an King Lot had been with his body there at the first battle, King Arthur had been slain, and all his people destroyed" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Ch. X). When Lot finally reaches the field and learns of Nero's destruction, his response is characteristically blunt: "Alas, I am ashamed, for by my default there is many a worshipful man slain; this faiter with his prophecy hath mocked me" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Ch. X). He fights on regardless, holding "the foremost front" until King Pellinore strikes him down. The host of Orkney flees at his death, and he is buried with twelve kings in the Church of Saint Stephen's in Camelot (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Ch. X).
Malory's portrait of Lot is unusually sympathetic for an antagonist. He is never dishonored, never shown as cowardly or treacherous. His opposition to Arthur is political rather than moral -- he leads the resistance of established kings against an upstart's claim -- and his tactical acumen receives more narrative attention than any other rebel king. The detail that Merlin had to neutralize him through deception, because his presence on the battlefield would have meant Arthur's death, amounts to extraordinary praise delivered through the mouth of Arthur's own adviser.
The family connections deepen Lot's significance. His wife is Margawse, King Arthur's sister, who visits Arthur's court "in manner of a message, but she was sent thither to espy" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Ch. XIX). Their sons -- Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth -- become central figures of the Round Table. At Lot's burial, Margawse arrives with all four sons (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Ch. XI), and Gawaine later identifies himself as "the King Lot of Orkney's son, and my mother is King Arthur's sister" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book III, Ch. VIII). Lot is thus the nexus connecting Arthur's blood kin to his political enemies, a knot that the later narrative never fully untangles.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition