Westminster
Recurring venue for Arthurian ceremonies, combat, and tournaments in Le Morte d'Arthur.
Westminster is a place in the British Arthurian tradition attested in Le Morte d'Arthur with 7 citations across multiple books. It functions as a recurring venue for royal ceremonies, judicial combat, tournaments, and departures throughout the later Arthurian narrative.
The attestations present Westminster as the institutional heart of Arthur's kingdom. William Caxton's preface identifies it as a site of Arthurian relics: "First in the abbey of Westminster" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Preface). In the narrative proper, Westminster serves as the ground for judicial combat when Sir Mador accuses the queen of treason: "I give the day this day fifteen days that thou be ready armed on horseback in the meadow beside Westminster" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter IV). The combat itself draws king, queen, and assembled knights to "the meadow beside Westminster where the battle should be" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter VI).
Westminster is also the destination for the barge carrying the dead Fair Maid of Astolat, steered by a man along the Thames until "he rowed a great while to and fro or any espied it" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter XIX). Tournaments are staged there: "the cry was made that the day of the jousts should be beside Westminster upon Candlemas Day" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter XXI). Queen Guenever rides out a-Maying "into woods and fields beside Westminster" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Chapter I), and Meliagrance proposes that "after dinner ye and the queen and ye may ride all to Westminster" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIX, Chapter VII).
Appears in: Places, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition