Sir Lancelot is the knight whose foster-mother was the Lady of the Lake.

The greatest warrior; the hero of many legends; and lover of Queen Guinevere.

Through his impulsive infatuation, brought disunity within the Kingdom,  brought dishonour to his king, and destroyed the fellowship of the Round Table.

In Arthurian Legend, Sir Lancelot (Lancelot du Lac, also Launcelot) is one of the Knights of the Round Table. He is typically considered to be one of the greatest and most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories. He is perhaps most famous for his affair with Arthur's wife Guinevere and the role he plays in the search for the Holy Grail.

Birth and Childhood
Lancelot (born Galahad) is the son of King Ban of Benwick (or Benoic) and Elaine. While Lancelot is an infant, his father is driven from his kingdom, seen in Brittany, by his enemy Claudas de la Deserte. Ban and Elaine flee, carrying the child with them. As Elaine is tending to her wounded husband, Lancelot is carried off by the Lady of the Lake who raises the child in her magical kingdom. It is from this upbringing that Lancelot earns the surname, du lac (English: "of the lake").
 

Early Adventures
When Lancelot is old enough, the Lady of the Lake sends him to King Arthur's court, where he becomes a knight at the behest of Sir Gawain. Almost immediately upon his arrival, Lancelot falls in love with the Queen, and one of his very first adventures is rescuing Guinevere from Arthur's enemy, Meleagant. Lancelot seems to be related to a Celtic abduction tale called the aithed. In this type of legend, a mysterious stranger kidnaps a married woman and takes her to his home. The husband of the woman then rescues her against insurmountable odds.

Early in Lancelot's career, he faces the Dolorous Guard. After setting out for adventure, Lancelot comes across a castle guarded by the Copper Knight. To overcome this challenge, Lancelot must battle ten knights at the first wall, ten knights at the second wall, and finally the Copper Knight himself. However, after defeating many more than twenty knights (with the aid of his foster mother, the Lady of the Lake), he discovers that the Copper Knight has fled. The townspeople lead Lancelot to a cemetery, where he finds a metal slab stating that only one knight can lift the slab and that this knight's name is written beneath the slab. Lancelot (who has heretofore been known as simply the "White Knight") is able to lift it and discovers that his name is, in fact, Lancelot.

The name of the Dolorous Guard is changed to the Joyous Guard and becomes Lancelot's home.

Lancelot plays an important role in a war between Arthur and Galehaut. Although Galehaut is Arthur's enemy, Lancelot befriends him and convinces him to surrender peacefully to Arthur. As a token of thanks, Arthur invites Lancelot to become a member of the Round Table. In spite of this happy outcome, Galehaut is the one who finally convinces Guinevere to return Lancelot's affection, an action that at least partially results in the fall of Camelot. Rather than return to Galehaut's court, Lancelot remains at the Round Table.

Later, with the help of King Arthur, Lancelot defeats Claudas and recovers his father's kingdom, though he again decides to remain at Camelot with his cousins Sir Bors and Sir Lionel and his illegitimate half-brother Ector de Maris.
 

Lancelot, Galahad, and the Grail
By this time, Lancelot is one of the most famous knights of the Round Table and Elaine, daughter of the Fisher King, falls in love with him. Using magical enchantments, she tricks him into believing that she is Guinevere, and he sleeps with her, and the ensuing pregnancy results in the birth of Galahad.

When he realizes what has happened, Lancelot goes mad and is exiled from the court for a few years. In time, he recovers and returns to Camelot.

Upon his return to King Arthur's Court, Lancelot takes part in the Grail Quest with Perceval and Galahad, though as an adulterer, he is only allowed a glimpse of the Holy Grail itself. It is instead his son, Galahad, who ultimately achieves the Grail, (along with Lancelot's cousin Sir Bors, and Sir Perceval the son of King Pellinore).

Later Years and Death
Ultimately, Lancelot's affair with Guinevere is a destructive force, resulting in the death of Gawain's brothers, the estrangement of Lancelot and Gawain, and Mordred's betrayal of King Arthur. Upon hearing the news of Arthur's death, Lancelot retires to a hermitage (after discovering Guinevere had become a nun), to live out the rest of his life in penitence (like Guinevere). According to legend, Lancelot died on a Good Friday.

Possible Pre-Romance origins
Lancelot's literary origins are unclear. Prior to his appearance in the works of Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot is virtually unknown. Scholar Roger Sherman Loomis suggests that Lancelot is related to the Welsh hero Llwch Llenlleawg ("Llwch of the Striking Hand") from Culhwch and Olwen.

Lancelot may have instead been the hero of an independent folk-tale which had contact with and was ultimately absorbed into the Arthurian tradition: the theft of an infant by a water-fairy, the appearance of the hero at a tournament on three consecutive days in three different disguises, and the rescue of a queen or princess from an OtherWorld prison are all features of a well-known and widespread folk-tale, variants of which are found in almost every land, and numerous examples of which have been collected by Emmanuel Cosquin in his Contes Lorrains, and by J. F. Campbell in his Tales of the West Highlands.

Another theory put forth by Norma Lorre Goodrich proposes that Lancelot originated from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Anguselus. This would have translated into Old French as L'Anselot, the "ng" being dropped as in other Latin to French transitions and the "ot" being substituted for "us." Hence "Lancelot" means "The Angus."

Sir Lancelot does not appear in the earliest existing versions of the Arthurian Legends.

Earliest Accounts of Sir Lancelot
The character Lancelot is first introduced by the writer Chrétien de Troyes who wrote in the 12th century. In Chrétien's earliest known work, Erec and Enide, the name Lancelot appears as third on a list of knights at King Arthur's court. The fact that Lancelot's name follows Gawain and Erec indicates the presumed importance of the knight at court, even though he does not figure prominently in Chrétien's tale. Lancelot reappears in Chrétien's Cligès. Here, Lancelot takes a more important role as one of the knights that Cligès must overcome in his quest.

Lancelot's life and adventures are featured in several Medieval romances, often with conflicting backstories and chains of events. His first appearance as a main character is in Chrétien de Troyes' Le Chevalier de la Charette, or "Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart," dating from the 12th century. In the 13th century, he figures prominently in the lengthy Vulgate Cycle, with the majority of his more famous exploits occurring in the section known as the Prose Lancelot.

It is not until Chrétien's Le Chevalier de la Charrette, however, that Lancelot becomes the protagonist.

In this text, he is presented as the most formidable knight at King Arthur's court. His adulterous relationship with the Queen is also introduced in this text. According to Pamela Raabe, in Chrétien de Troyes’ work, Lancelot is portrayed as not only the fairest of knights, but one that everyone he meets is forced to describe as uniquely perfect. His deeds are recounted for their uniqueness, not only among living knights, but of all men who have ever lived. The problem is that critics have been unable to agree on how to reconcile his perfect “saintliness” with his obvious adultery with King Arthur’s Guinevere. How can the lovers’ consummation be considered a “saintly affair” when it is also adultery? And against King Arthur, to whom William Bowman Piper suggests all knights owe selfless respect, according to Arthurian politics.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh cleric, gives the earliest story of King Arthur's life in Historia Regum Britanniae or History of the Kings of Britain in 1135 AD; however he does not mention Sir Lancelot.

The Romance
Chretien de Troyes was a French poet, and he was the first great exponent of the romance genre of Arthurian legend. He appears to be the first writer to mention Sir Lancelot. His narrative romances, composed c.1170–c.1185 in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, they include Érec et Énide; Cligès; Lancelot, le chevalier de la charette; Yvain, le chevalier au lion; and Perceval, le conte del Graal.

According to Thomas Malory, Sir Lancelot was the son of King Ban of Benwick (Benoic). He was christened with the name of Galahad, but went by his confirmation name of Lancelot.

King Ban and his Queen Elaine had been one of King Arthur's staunchest supporters while King Arthur was still a young man and young king.

King Ban and his queen had a son, whom they named Lancelot. While still a boy, Lancelot witnessed the death of his father and destruction of his home and kingdom. King Ban became the sworn enemy of his neighbouring King Claudius or Claudas de la Deserte. In the ensuing war with the neighbouring kingdom, Claudius's army were victorious.

The king and queen fled. As they were making their escape, Ban looked back. At the sight of his burning home, he collapsed in anguish, and never arose. Running to aid her husband, Elaine left the boy Lancelot beside a nearby lake. While the queen's back was turned, tending her husband, a water fairy called the Lady of the Lake emerged from the waters, and stole the child away. The boy was raised in her underwater kingdom, from whence he became known as Lancelot of the Lake or Lancelot du lac.

Thomas Malory's account follows the tradition of the Romance writers of France and Brittany, so it is hardly surprising that the knightly virtues come to the fore in the story of the young life of Lancelot as he grows to manhood.

So Lancelot was raised from boy to man in the underwater kingdom by a company of fairy mermaids and mermen in the palace of the Lady of the Lake.

Young Lancelot, though naturally gifted in combat, grew in strength and skill at arms.

At the age of fifteen or eighteen, when he was now a man, Lancelot met his cousins, Bors and Lional, and his half-brother, Ector.

The four journeyed to Camelot. When they arrived, Lancelot found great favour with King Arthur, because the now older King remembered the loyal support he had once received from Lancelot's father, King Ban. Lancelot was dubbed a knight on St. John's Day.

Guinevere

While making a promising start as a young knight, the real trials for Sir Lancelot begin with his love for Guinevere.

In some versions of the legend, one of Lancelot's first duties as a knight is to escort King Arthur's betrothed lady, the Princess Guinevere, to Camelot for the wedding. But, alas, during this journey together, Guinevere and Lancelot fall in love.

However, in other accounts, Guinevere is already at Camelot when Lancelot arrived, and he becomes one of the Queen's Knights. This was a lower knightly order of the Round Table to which young aspiring knights belonged before they had fully proven themselves to take a seat with the King.

Lancelot is constantly tied to the Christianity associated with Arthurian Legend. Raabe compares Lancelot’s quest for Guinevere in “Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart,” as a quest likening to Everyman’s quest for salvation and Christ’s quest for the human soul. This becomes intensified when he becomes the prophesied savior of the captives of Logres. His adventure among the tombs is described in terms that suggest Christ’s “harrowing of Hell” and resurrection: he effortlessly lifts the lid off the sarcophagus, which bears an inscription foretelling his freeing of the captives.

Danielle MacBain’s study of Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur,” claims Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere is often seen as parallel to that of Tristram, or Tristan, and Iseult. Lancelot and Tristram are constantly said to be equal in power and worth, but MacBain suggests that it is Lancelot who is ultimately identified with the tragedy of chance and human failing that is responsible for the downfall of the round table.

Although Lancelot will be later associated with the Grail Quest, Chrétien does not include him at all in his final romance, Le conte du graal. In this story, which introduces the Grail motif in medieval literature, Perceval is the sole seeker of the grail. Lancelot's involvement in the Grail legend is first recorded in the Perlesvaus written between 1200 and 1210.

Later Stories
Lancelot's character is perhaps most fully developed in the so-called Vulgate Cycle, where he appears prominently in the third and fourth parts, known as the Prose Lancelot (or Lancelot du lac) and the Queste del Saint Graal (or The Quest for the Holy Grail) respectively.

While Gaston Paris argues that the Guenivere-Meleagant episode of the Prose Lancelot is an almost literal adaptation of Chrétien's poem the Prose Lancelot can be seen as a considerable amplification of Chrétien's tale. Whereas Chrétien treats Lancelot if his audience were already familiar the character's background, most of the exploits associated with Lancelot today are first mentioned here (e.g. Lancelot's parentage, Lancelot and the Grail, Lancelot, Guinevere and the fall of Camelot, etc.). In Arthur Rex Lancelot was the cousin of Sir Boris who found him in a monastery and was completely oblivious to the wilds of women and only fell for Guinevere through complete obedience and nothing more.

The True Knight

In common with all Romances, Lancelot proves himself a true knight when he takes upon himself illustrious quests, of which he must complete to gain glory. Every challenge he comes through, till he becomes acknowledged as the greatest knight of all. Among his other adventures, Lancelot conquers a castle called Dolorous Gard. He makes it his own home, and he renames it Joyous Gard. Soon after, Lancelot returns in triumph to Camelot, and he is made a full Knight of the Round Table, and becomes King Arthur's closest companion and champion.

When Guinevere was abducted by Meliagaunce, the son of King Bagdemagus, Lancelot pursued them in a cart. In this adventure, he has to cross a sword bridge to reach the castle of the captor. Lancelot fights Meliagaunce to have Guinevere released, but Bagdemagus pleads with Guinevere to stop the fight so Meliagaunce's life will be spared. Lancelot heads her intervention.

Later, the spoilt Meliagaunce accuses Guinevere of having an affair with Sir Kay, and so the combat between he and Lancelot recommenced. Once again, Bagdemagus pleads for his son's life. Lancelot spares him. Later, this time at King Arthur's court, the pair quarrelled again. Lancelot slew Meliagaunce in combat.

Knight of the Round Table

After taking his seat with the Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot aides King Arthur in his struggle to put down the rebellion of Galehaut, the Haut Prince. Galehaut surrenders to King Arthur after observing Lancelot's chivalry and prowess in battle, which he knows that none of his men can match. Galehaut becomes Lancelot's admirer, and closest friend and finally the great knight's confident. It was he who became a secret go-between between Sir Lancelot and Guinevere.

Sir Lancelot had one failing, his adulterous love of Queen Guinevere. They tried to keep this love secret, it became known, and eventually brought about the undoing of the Round Table.

Lancelot and Guinevere's love for each other grew slowly. Initially Guinevere kept Sir Lancelot away from her. Eventually, however the pair became lovers. Sir Meliagaunt grew suspicious and confronted Sir Lancelot in front of both the king and queen. The "insult" led to single combat between the two, in order to reveal the truth. Sir Lancelot overpowered Sir Meliagaunt, and cleaved his head into in two bits. Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere's honour were restored.

Sir Meliaguant was not the only knight suspicious of the pair's relationship. Sir Agravain and Sir Modred, King Arthur's nephew, led a band of 12 knights to Guinevere's chamber where they disturbed the lovers in bed. Sir Lancelot made his escape by fighting his way out of the castle, but Guinevere was seized and condemned to burn to death for her adultery. Sir Lancelot returned several days later to rescue his Guinevere, killing several of King Arthur's knights in the process.

Lancelot and Guinevere were discovered together in her chamber by Mordred. Lancelot fled and Guinevere was sentenced to burn at the stake. Sir Lancelot returned to rescue Guinevere, accidently killing Agravain, and Sir Gawain's brothers, Gaheris and Gareth in the process.
 

The escaping lovers took refuge in Galehaut's kingdom of Sorelois when the Second Guinevere (or the False Guinevere) took the true Queen's place at Camelot. After the deception was discovered, Lancelot restored the Queen to King Arthur, but by this time, Sir Lancelot and Guinevere were irrevocably in love.

King Arthur and his Queen Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table had come to an end.

Sir Gawain wanted to extract revenge on Lancelot, who had killed his brother during a battle. Sir Gawain managed to convince King Arthur that Lancelot was a traitor. King Arthur put Morgan le Fay's son, Sir Mordred in charge of his kingdom and took his army to confront Lancelot.

The End of the Kingdom
King Arthur later attacked Lancelot's castle without success. War between Lancelot and King Arthur resulted.

Sir Mordred had eyes on becoming king and marrying Guinevere, so he announced that King Arthur had been killed in battle with Sir Lancelot.

Hence Mordred became king. King Arthur heard this news and returned to England to regain his kingdom.

Mordred's army had a pitched battle with Arthur's army at Dover. In the battle Sir Gawain was mortally wounded, but while dying asked the king to forgive Sir Lancelot.

In the final battle King Arthur and Mordred fight each other in single combat. Arthur and Mordred strike each other with deadlt blows. Hearing of this, Lancelot returned to aid Arthur but arrived too late to save him from a mortal wound at the Battle of Camlann. King Arthur dies. This is the end of Camelot.

When news reached Sir Lancelot of King Arthur's death at the Battle of Camlann, Lancelot exchanged his armour for the clothes of a monk. When he died, he was buried beside his friend Galehaut at Joyous Gard.

The Grail Quest

Suffering from a guilty conscience, Sir Lancelot endured quest after quest in order to be away from Guinevere. Lancelot visited King Pelles the Grail Guardian, and while there, he saved Pelles's daughter, Elaine of Corbenic, from a tub of boiling water in which she had been imprisoned by enchantment for several years. Brisen, Elaine's nurse, tricked Sir Lancelot to believe that Elaine was Guinevere, and he slept with her. That night, Galahad was conceived.

Sir Lancelot's son Galahad later appears at Camelot and together they began their quest for the Holy Grail. Sir Lancelot had several visions of the Grail and finds the door to the Chapel in which the Grail was kept. However he is prevented from entering the building and discovers that this is because his love for Guinevere, exceeded his love for God.

Eventually, he meets Elaine of Astolat, whom he brings home to Joyous Gard. But Sir Lancelot is not happy with her either. Elaine later died because of her unrequited love for Lancelot.

Lancelot ended his days by renouncing being a knight, and lived as a hermit. Guinevere became a nun at Amesbury, where she died. He was buried at Joyous Gard.

Arondight
Lancelot's mythical sword Arondight is given to him by the Lady of the Lake. According to legend the sword was moulded by the stars and is a crystallisation of the hopes and dreams of all people. Arondight is said to be difficult to blunt. Later on, Lancelot uses Arondight to slay Gawain's younger brother Gareth since King Arthur wanted him to do so. This act turns his sword from being a sacred sword into a cursed sword.

The Name: Lancelot

The name Lancelot does not appear to be Celtic, though attempts have been made to find a possible Celtic origin that might have been corrupted into Lancelot (such as "Lance ap Lot," meaning Lance, son of Lot).

However, the name "Lance" was not known at that time. Roger Sherman Loomis has postulated that Llenlleawg, an Irish warrior of Arthur's who appears in Welsh legends, may have been the origin for the French Sir Lancelot, and Norma Goodrich has postulated that the name comes from "L'Anguselus", referring to the Scottish king Anguselus mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth, but these theories have never really gained much credence. The meaning of his name is still a mystery.