Cameliard is the land ruled by King Leodegrance and a pivotal place in the making of King Arthur’s marriage and political alliances. Arthur first sees Guenever there after helping rescue her father from his enemies; Leodegrance later gives Arthur his daughter in marriage and sends the Round Table as a wedding gift.

Setting and Rulership

The narrative identifies Cameliard as the country of King Leodegrance, Guenever’s father. The place is defined less by a detailed description of its landscape than by its ruler and its role in Arthur’s early political world: it is a kingdom under attack, a refuge to be relieved, and the home of the woman Arthur chooses to marry.

The Rescue and Arthur’s First Sight of Guenever

King Arthur, King Ban, and King Bors travel with a fellowship of twenty thousand and reach Cameliard in six days. They rescue Leodegrance and defeat a force belonging to King Rience, killing ten thousand men and putting Rience to flight. Leodegrance thanks the three kings for avenging his enemies. During this visit, Arthur sees Guenever for the first time and thereafter loves her. The rescue thus establishes a bond of gratitude and military fellowship before the marriage is arranged.

Marriage and the Round Table

When Arthur later asks Merlin’s counsel about taking a wife, he names Guenever as the woman he loves and identifies her as Leodegrance’s daughter of Cameliard. Leodegrance welcomes the proposal as a great honor. Rather than offer land, which he believes Arthur already has in abundance, he gives the Round Table that Uther Pendragon had once entrusted to him. Leodegrance says that the completed table is intended for one hundred and fifty knights; he can supply one hundred knights but is short of fifty, since so many have been killed in his own time. He delivers Guenever and the table, together with the hundred knights, to Merlin, who brings them toward London. Cameliard’s importance therefore extends beyond the earlier rescue: its ruler contributes a central institution and a company of knights to Arthur’s court as part of the marriage alliance.

A Kingdom Within Arthur’s Wider Alliances

The events at Cameliard connect Arthur’s personal attachment to Guenever with the reciprocal obligations of kings. Arthur and his allies use force to defend Leodegrance; Leodegrance responds with his daughter and the Round Table, joining kinship, political alliance, and the fellowship of knights. The narrative presents Cameliard as the setting where these relationships converge, turning an act of military aid into a lasting bond between Leodegrance’s household and Arthur’s kingship.