The Final Dissolution of the Round Table marks the end of the fellowship that had bound King Arthur’s knights together. Following Sir Launcelot’s death, the survivors do not re-form around the new king: they depart for their own countries or, in the account Malory identifies as authoritative, journey to the Holy Land. The ending turns the Round Table from a living company into a memory of shared service, dispersed across separate lives and deaths.

The Fellowship Comes to an End

The book’s closing account connects the fellowship’s dissolution directly to Sir Launcelot’s death. His corpse is kept on a loft for fifteen days and then buried with great devotion. The mourners subsequently remain together with the bishop of Canterbury at his hermitage for more than a month. This interval of mourning briefly holds the survivors together, but it does not restore the company: the narrative’s next political act is the choosing of a new king, while the knights’ paths lead away from England.

An index to the book describes the fellowship as “broken for ever.” That phrase conveys the finality of the ending: the Round Table’s former unity cannot simply be resumed after the deaths and departures of its members. The book closes not with a new gathering but with an account of what becomes of those who remain.

Constantine and the Dispersal of the Knights

Sir Constantine, son of Sir Cador, is chosen king of England after Sir Launcelot’s burial and the period of mourning. The narrative presents him as a noble knight who rules the realm honorably. He summons the bishop of Canterbury, who is restored to his bishopric and leaves the hermitage. Sir Bedivere, by contrast, remains there as a hermit until the end of his life.

The surviving knights do not become Constantine’s companions. Sir Bors de Ganis, Sir Ector de Maris, Sir Gahalantine, Sir Galihud, Sir Galihodin, Sir Blamor, Sir Bleoberis, Sir Williars le Valiant, and Sir Clarrus of Cleremont return to their own countries. Constantine would have had them stay with him, but they will not remain in the realm. Their dispersal is therefore not simply a change of royal leadership: it is the withdrawal of the fellowship’s remaining members from the political community they had once served together.

The Holy Land and the Final Account

The text acknowledges conflicting accounts of the knights’ last journey. Some English books, it says, maintain that they never left England after Sir Launcelot’s death, but Malory dismisses this as the favor of their makers. He instead follows the French book, described as authoritative, which says that Sir Bors, Sir Ector, Sir Blamor, and Sir Bleoberis went to the Holy Land after settling their lands, in accordance with Sir Launcelot’s command before his death.

There, the four knights fight against the misbelievers or Turks and die on Good Friday for God’s sake. Their end redirects the fellowship’s martial service beyond England and gives its last surviving members a religious destination. The narrative thus closes the Round Table’s history through paired departures: some knights return to their countries, while four undertake a final campaign in the Holy Land and die together in the service of their faith.