Patrise
Knight of Irish origin whose death by poisoning at Queen Guenever's feast provokes a trial-by-combat crisis, attested in Le Morte d'Arthur.
Patrise is a knight of Irish origin attested in Le Morte d'Arthur, whose death by poisoning at a dinner hosted by Queen Guenever sets in motion one of the text's most consequential episodes of courtly crisis. At a feast attended by twenty-four knights, Patrise ate a poisoned apple intended for Sir Gawaine and "swelled so till he brast, and there Sir Patrise fell down suddenly dead among them" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. III). The poisoning was the work of Sir Pinel le Savage, though suspicion initially fell on the queen herself.
The poisoning of Patrise functions in Le Morte d'Arthur as a catalyst for the trial-by-combat that tests the loyalty between Launcelot and Guenever. The text makes clear that none of the twenty-four knights present would speak in the queen's defence: "none of these four-and-twenty knights that were with you at your dinner where Sir Patrise was slain, that will do battle for you" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. IV). This refusal forces Guenever to rely on Launcelot, whose champion combat against Sir Mador de la Porte secures her acquittal. The terms of surrender are revealing: Launcelot demands "that no mention be made upon Sir Patrise's tomb that ever Queen Guenever consented to that treason" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. VII).
The resolution comes through the Damosel of the Lake, who reveals the truth of the poisoning, after which "Sir Patrise was buried in the church of Westminster in a tomb" bearing an inscription that names Sir Pinel le Savage as the true poisoner and records that "Queen Guenever was appealed of treason of the death of Sir Patrise, by Sir Mador de la Porte" and how Launcelot fought and overcame Sir Mador in her defence (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. VIII). The tomb inscription itself serves as a memorial that exonerates the queen: "All this was written upon the tomb of Sir Patrise in excusing of the queen" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Ch. VIII).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition