Guinevere in Arthurian legend, the wife of King Arthur and lover of Lancelot. In the Arthurian cycle she is seen through her love for Lancelot as one of the key figures in the ultimate destruction of Arthur's kingdom, by providing an opening which can be exploited by the traitor Mordred.
In most versions of the tale, Guinevere's love for Lancelot exceeds her love of Arthur. In modern retellings, such as the musical Camelot, there is still affection between Guinevere and her husband, but she harbors passionate love only for Lancelot.
Plot. Lancelot is King Arthur's most valued Knight of the Round Table and a paragon of courage and virtue. Things change, however, when he falls in love with Queen Guinevere.
In many renditions of the Arthurian legend, Guinevere gets lambasted for cheating on Arthur with Lancelot, while Arthur is celebrated as the faithful partner. But in some medieval versions of the Arthurian legend, Arthur himself is not quite so chaste and honourable as popular culture tends to imagine.
As well known as King Arthur's blade or the Holy Grail of Jesus Christ, the love between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere has cemented itself as one of the most integral romances of the literary world.
Well, in the first place, the marriage of Guinevere and Arthur was an arranged marriage. Not based on love, though they did come to care for one another. But Guinevere fell head over heels in love with Lancelot and he with her. In those days, to commit adultery against the King was high treason, punishable by death.
In the medieval legends about King Arthur of Britain and his knights, Lancelot is the greatest knight of all. In time, however, Lancelot's love for Guinevere, the king's wife, leads him to betray his king and sets in motion the fatal events that end Arthur's rule.
Guinevere later returns to Arthur from Lancelot's castle and is forgiven (Arthur starts to doubt that Guinevere ever betrayed him). When Arthur goes after Lancelot to France, he leaves her in the care of Mordred, who plans to marry the queen himself and take Arthur's throne.
Camelot centres on England's reluctant, angst-ridden King Arthur (played by Richard Harris), whose attempts to bring civility to his land are undermined by the love affair between his queen, Guenevere (played by Vanessa Redgrave), and his most loyal knight, Lancelot (played by Franco Nero).
King Arthur marries Guinevere, daughter of the King of Scotland. Merlin tries to warn him against the marriage because Guinevere is in love with Sir Lancelot, one of Arthur's knights.
When Launcelot hears of the death of Arthur and Gawain, he comes to England in haste. He looks for the queen and finds her in a nunnery. For love of Guinevere as much as for remorse he takes on the habit of a priest. Guided by visions, he goes to Almesbury, where he finds Guinevere dead.
Lancelot is also the lover of King Arthur's queen, Guinevere. Lancelot, also spelled Launcelot, also called Lancelot of the Lake, French Lancelot du Lac, one of the greatest knights in Arthurian romance; he was the lover of Arthur's queen, Guinevere, and was the father of the pure knight Sir Galahad.
She is betrothed to Arthur after he helps Leodegrance defeat a rival king but, for Arthur, the marriage is more than just a reward or seal on an alliance. In Chapter 18:1, Arthur first sees Guinevere and falls instantly in love with her.
However, they soon found themselves running in the same circles the closer they got to Merlin. Eventually, Arthur and Gwen fell in love as the prince began to trust and rely on her counsel. But like every other couple, they had their ups-and-downs.
They also tell of Arthur's infidelity: while Guinevere and Lancelot are sleeping their first night together, Arthur is apparently in bed with a beautiful Saxon princess, Camille, who turns out to be as evil as Morgan le Fay.
The marriage is partly out of admiration for the king and partly for security against Malagant, but also because she does love Arthur despite their 35-year age difference. While on route to Camelot, Guinevere's carriage is ambushed by a group of Malagant's soldiers.
In her Merlin novels (1970–1983), Mary Stewart characterizes Morgause unflatteringly as an ambitious and resentful young princess who wants to learn magic from Merlin, but he refuses her. She seduces Arthur in the hope that she can later use it against him.
Following the death of Arthur, Guinevere entered a convent, where she spent the rest of her life praying and helping the poor. Filled with remorse for the trouble she and her lover had caused, she vowed never to see Lancelot again. When Guinevere died, she was buried beside King Arthur.
Gwen worked as Morgana's maid for many years before marrying Arthur, and inherited the throne after his demise. It is assumed that Gwen ruled Camelot as Queen Regnant until the day she died.
Lancelot saved Guinevere from her death. One of Arthur's knights, his son Mordred, wanted to become king and encouraged King Arthur to battle Lancelot. Mordred convinced everyone that King Arthur died in battle and Mordred overtook the throne.
Mordred is first mentioned in the Annales Cambriae, in which it simply states for the year 537, "The battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell." Who Medraut was, and whether he ... King Arthur and Guinevere did not have a child in most classic versions of the King Arthur legend.
As a result of the destruction of his kingdom and seeing the pointless death that the other races and their gods have left in their wake for purely selfish and prejudiced reasons, along with the newfound power of Chaos at his control, these have all taken a great impact on him and how he views the world.
One of these knights was Sir Lancelot. He was Arthur's best friend. But unfortunately, Lancelot was also in love with King Arthur's wife, Guinevere. And because Lancelot was the best looking and most chivalrous knight in the kingdom, Guinevere couldn't resist his allure.
What is much clearer is that other elements of the story, like the wizard Merlin, Arthur's sword Excalibur, wife Guinevere, and his Knights of the Round Table, are almost entirely fictional and appear together in Geoffrey of Monmouth's c. 1136 AD chronicle The History of the Kings of Britain or its later adaptations.