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The Knight Of The Cart Guinevere: An Analysis

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The Knight Of The Cart Guinevere: An Analysis
In his Historia Regum Britannie, Geoffrey of Monmouth presents the Britons as the descendants of Brutus who is the great-grandson of Aeneas. This gives the Britons a right to conquer Rome, and conquering Rome becomes one of Arthur’s goal in the history Geoffrey of Monmouth presents. The anxiety to be like the Romans yet rule Rome is shown in the fact that the Britons do not want to be a part of Rome unless they are in control. After the Romans appear, Hoel proclaims, “Since, then, the Romans want to take our possessions from us, we should surely take theirs from the... consider the Sibylline prophecies, which testify in verses that three times there will be one born of British stock who will obtain the rule of Rome!” The Romans are presented …show more content…
Even though the stories appear to separate the ideas of territory and love, the two are acted upon in the same way. In The Knight of the Cart, Guinevere is presented a piece that is fought over just like the land in Historia Regum Britannie. Lancelot has to go on a quest to retrieve Guinevere from Meleagant, and he must fight multiple times to obtain her, so while the expansion of actual land is set aside, romantic desires are still a form of claiming territory. When Lancelot appears before the King, the King says to Lancelot, “You won’t find the knight who brought her here generous enough to return her without battle...” Even though the King wants Guinevere to be set free, he is here acknowledging that Meleagant has some type command over her, and she can only leave with his permission, and this permission has to be taken by force. This is also shown early in the tale when Lancelot is traveling with the girl. They encounter a knight who desires to fight Lancelot for the girl. It is custom that girls are keep under the protection of a knight, and if a second knight comes along and defeats the first knight, he can take the girl. The same works with land. If one king defeats another king, he can take the land of the defeated knight. Both the King and the knight’s father show a distaste for this, but the King stills always the fight to happen. The knight’s father stops the fight because he does not want his son to fight. For this reason, I argue that territory is still fought over in the romance stories. The territory only appears in a different
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