Meliagrance
Meliagrance is a knight of the British tradition, attested solely in Le Morte d'Arthur with 39 citations across Book XIX.
Meliagrance is a knight of the British tradition, attested solely in Le Morte d'Arthur with 39 citations across Book XIX. He is defined above all by his obsessive love for Queen Guenever and the catastrophic actions that follow from it.
The record presents Meliagrance as a figure driven by long-harboured desire. He "loved passing well Queen Guenever, and so had he done long and many years" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. I), and his entire arc turns on the moment he acts on this fixation. Spotting the queen riding out for Maying with only ten unarmed knights and no Launcelot in attendance, Meliagrance ambushes her party with a hundred and sixty armed men (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. II). The disparity is deliberate -- he tells the queen plainly that he has waited for just such an advantage: "never or now could I get you at such an advantage as I do now, and therefore I will take you as I find you" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. II).
The queen's ten knights warn Meliagrance that he risks his worship, but he orders them to fight regardless. When the wounded knights can resist no longer, Guenever surrenders herself on the condition that he spare their lives (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. II). Even after securing this capitulation, Meliagrance remains fearful of Launcelot. He forbids anyone in the queen's company from departing and lays an ambush of thirty archers along the road to intercept Launcelot, ordering them to kill his horse (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. III).
Launcelot's arrival at the castle forces a reversal. Meliagrance falls to his knees before the queen, begging mercy and promising to amend all wrongs (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. V). This submission proves tactical rather than genuine. That night, finding blood on the queen's bed -- left by Launcelot, who had cut his hand entering through a barred window -- Meliagrance accuses Guenever of treason, claiming one of her wounded knights had lain with her (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. VI). The ten knights denounce the charge as false, but the visible blood gives Meliagrance leverage: he was "passing glad that he had the queen at such an advantage, for he deemed by that to hide his treason" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. VI).
Launcelot challenges Meliagrance to trial by combat, but before the appointed day Meliagrance traps Launcelot through a trapdoor and hides his horse to make it appear he has fled (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. VII). When Launcelot arrives on the day of battle despite the trap, the full scope of Meliagrance's treachery is revealed, and the court is "all ashamed on his behalf" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. IX). In the final combat, Meliagrance refuses to yield honourably. Launcelot offers to fight with half his armour removed, and when Meliagrance accepts this advantage, Launcelot strikes him dead (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. IX).
The French book, cited within Le Morte d'Arthur, records that because of Launcelot's use of the cart during this episode, knights and ladies mocked him as "the knight that rode in the chariot like as he were judged to the gallows" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Ch. XIII).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition