Lucan
Sir Lucan the Butler, loyal Knight of the Round Table who dies carrying the wounded Arthur.
Sir Lucan the Butler is a Knight of the Round Table attested extensively in Le Morte d'Arthur, where he serves as one of King Arthur's most loyal retainers through the final catastrophe of the Arthurian world. He identifies himself plainly: "my name is Sir Lucan, the butler, a Knight of the Round Table" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXXVI). His role grows from minor appearances in the middle books to become central in the final scenes of Arthur's reign, where he stands as one of only two knights left alive after the last battle.
Le Morte d'Arthur presents Lucan in two distinct phases. In the earlier books he appears as a competent knight — receiving visitors, jousting at tournaments — but in the final books he emerges as a figure of tragic loyalty.
The political Lucan appears in Book XX, where he acts as intermediary between Arthur and Launcelot's party. When a damosel arrives from Launcelot, it is Lucan who meets her, and his private assessment reveals the fracture within Arthur's court: "my lord Arthur would love Launcelot, but Sir Gawaine will not suffer him" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XX, Chapter XIX). This single line captures the entire dynamic that drives the Arthurian collapse — the king's desire for reconciliation blocked by Gawaine's vengeance.
In the final battle, Lucan serves as Arthur's last military advisor. When Arthur sees Mordred standing among the dead and demands his spear, it is Lucan who counsels restraint: "Sir, let him be, for he is unhappy; and if ye pass this unhappy day ye shall be right well revenged upon him" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter IV). Arthur ignores this advice and kills Mordred but takes a mortal wound in return.
After the battle, with only Lucan and his brother Bedivere surviving, Arthur commands Lucan to scout the battlefield. Though "grievously wounded in many places," Lucan departs and returns to report what he has seen, advising the king to seek shelter in a town (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter IV). His death comes in the act of carrying his wounded king: "Sir Lucan took up the king the one part, and Sir Bedivere the other part, and in the lifting the king swooned; and Sir Lucan fell in a swoon with the lift, that the part of his guts fell out of his body, and therewith the noble knight's heart brast" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter V). Arthur wakes to find Lucan "foaming at the mouth, and part of his guts lay at his feet" and grieves that "the death of Sir Lucan would grieve me evermore" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter V). Bedivere is later identified as "the bold Bedivere, and the full noble duke, Sir Lucan the Butler, was your brother" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter VI).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition