Lancelot Knight Of The Cart: An Analysis

Written by order of Lady of Champagne, Chrétien de Troyes Lancelot Knight of the Cart is a story of a knight named Lancelot’s undying love for King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere. In his introduction to the romantic medieval text, Chretien is sure to explain that the ideas within the text are mostly those of his Lady Champagne. Although there had been some speculation of a forbidden love between Lady Champagne and her scribe, there were never any charges against the two that lead to their dishonor. Other noble figures and members of Medieval English society however weren’t as fortunate and had to endure accusations and public humiliation. There was no separation between church and state in medieval England. Adultery was not only a sin against the church it was also an illegal crime that could not only grant a spouse an issue of divorce but the offender and their sexual partner would be subjected to criminal prosecution and public humiliation. The story of Guinevere and Lancelot reveal much about the society in which Chretien was writing within. Queen Guinevere’s status as a sovereign and wife of the king, would

have prevented her from leaving her husband, to be with his Knight Lancelot under any circumstance.
Reason of Roman de la Rose informs that she is absent from courtly love.

This coincides with Lancelot jumping into the cart of the dwarf to chase after his lady Guinevere and her captor. Denying reason over love, Lancelot humiliates himself and has his honor questioned by anyone and everyone who knows someone who knows someone who saw him in the cart. Although readers may view Lancelot’s various impulsive actions as romantic they must not fail to consider them to be both adulterous and criminal. As his cart ride ends the narrator alludes to these implications when stating that the “cart was for all criminals alike, for all traitors and murders…for all those who had stolen another’s possessions” (117). Lancelot regardless of his aim to retrieve Guinevere, a stolen woman in medieval times, would be regarded and charged just the same as Méléagant, her

abductor.
Abductions appeared frequently in medieval legal records. Abductions of women of lower social and economic status were not reported as often as women of better social standing. Recorded as ravishment or raptus(Dunn 5) abduction, rape and adultery were all documented under these terms. Caroline Dunn, in her book Stolen Women in Medieval England, found it most difficult to distinguish cases that involved rape (or sexual assault) from cases that involved a love affair between an unsatisfied woman and her new suitor. The term ravishment was used in the 12th century to describe the crime of property theft, wives included. About two-thirds of the women who were allegedly kidnapped between 1100 and 1500 were cases of ravishment; married women like Queen Guinevere, were stolen from their husbands (Dunn, Intro). Not all of the women of these cases were taken by force; some were leaving unhappy marriages to start a new life alone or with a lover. Leaving an unhappy marriage for any reason, without the permission of the church, could result in a lawsuit filed by the abandoned spouse. The case could be taken to the royal courts or the church courts depending on if it involved sex, physical property or inheritance. The royal courts heard criminal cases and civil lawsuits involving property while the church courts handled cases specific to the Church’s interest in matrimony and morality.

In Knight of the Cart, there are two other ravished women other than Guinevere who plead for Lancelot’s help. The first is a seductive, promiscuous, presumable divorcee, who has two unchivalrous knights attempt to rape and/or abduct her. Living alone on the trail to Guinevere, the woman offers Lancelot boarding in exchange for sex, but while he is in the house, she is attacked by a knight with a strong desire to take her body as he wishes. Lancelot runs into her room and sees the woman laid across the bed he almost shared with her, naked with the dishonorable knight on top of her. The woman, in a panic, pleads with him for help asking, “Will this man force his will upon me in your sight?” (126). Rape was against the knightly customs. If a man prized his good name, “sexual violence against both married women and widows was a criminal offence, and some men were prosecuted, and penalised” (55). Attackers of virgins were prosecuted more often than others. Should he or anyone else, assault her, he “would be forever disgraced at every court.” () Her second attacker, infatuated with her despite her disdain for him, attempts to commit the crime of ravishment within Lancelot’s presence. The narrator informs the reader that the customs of this time allows for a man to take a woman if he has successfully defeated her escort. The persistent knight in trying not to incur dishonor inducts to fight Lancelot (129).
Ranging from forced sexual attacks to extramarital affairs, in her investigation of only certain medieval England records between 1100 and 1500, Dunn found 1,198 instances or allegations of female seizure ( Dunn, 6). Although the vocabulary of crimes concerning rape , abduction and adultery varies it is consistently obvious that the voice and cases of the poor were silent even as the laws, qualification and the procedures following a case reported changed over medieval times. In Sara Butler’s piece on Divorce in Medieval England, we find that that legal pursuits were very costly especially those involving the church court procedures.
Although men were also seized at this time, they were seized for property and hostage negotiations while women were taken for sexual assault. Reports of abduction of higher class women were more frequent because it was an issue of higher property. Laborers were hard to find at this time. Most people who were illegally abducted to become slaves or employees for another boss were not included in Dunn’s sample.

criminals were isolated (129) everyone stop playing when Lancelot who I know for being a knight of the cart arrives .
Chivalrous law stated that if a knight could defeat his opposition he could do whatever he wanted to the lady he was fighting for Dunn (126). The first women who had most likely been given a decree of separation by the church, was merely raped by a man who broke into the house where she lived alone. Although she is an adulterous woman, Lancelot still chooses to defend her because of his promise to her. We learn the severity of the dishonor that comes with being caught as an assailant when the criminal feels he has to kill Lancelot so that there is no witness to his crime. The second woman although it is unpronounced seems to have been raped by the knight whose head she asks Lancelot for. Her rapist denies the claim and pleads his innocence while the woman is sure to stand firm on her hate for him. The lavish home the first woman invites Lancelot into reveals a bit about her marital status. It was difficult to be granted a divorce by the church. Instead couples were often only granted counseling and separation. A woman with a husband with a lot of property and many possessions was usually set up with everything she needed somewhere by order of the church.
She was precisely one of these women, separated from her husband. In this case, she admits to having had sex with other men when she wonders why Lancelot is so different.