King Carados

King Carados is a king who first appears among the rulers opposing Arthur’s emerging authority and later joins the eleven-king coalition against him. His clearest individual action comes in battle: he rides to encounter King Bors, is struck down, and must be rescued by the King with the Hundred Knights. The episodes place him within a political alliance whose claims are tested in combat, while giving him a brief but concrete role in its military defeat.

Identity and Political Position

At Arthur’s Pentecost feast in Carlion, Carados arrives with five hundred knights as one of several kings who have gathered under the appearance of attending the newly crowned ruler’s celebration. Arthur welcomes the visitors and sends them gifts, believing they have come to honour him. Instead, the kings reject the presents and declare their contempt for his rule, treating his youth and disputed standing as grounds to challenge his authority. Carados is therefore introduced not as a neutral guest but as a participant in a collective rejection of Arthur’s kingship.

The conflict develops into an organized military alliance. Carados swears to bring five thousand mounted men, joining the other rulers in an oath that they will not abandon one another until Arthur is destroyed. The coalition’s stated purpose grows from the affront suffered by the six kings at Carlion; Carados’s pledge makes him one of the leaders responsible for turning that grievance into a large-scale campaign. The force described comprises fifty thousand mounted men and ten thousand on foot, and its members move against Arthur’s stronghold at Bedegraine.

Carados in the Battle

During the fighting, Carados chooses to ride against King Bors, after first asking the other kings to support him if he needs aid. They agree to do so. The encounter is thus both a personal trial of arms and one action within the allied host’s wider effort against Arthur’s side.

King Bors meets the charge directly. His godson Bleoberis carries his standard, and Bors says they will see how the northern Britons bear themselves in battle. Bors then strikes Carados down. The King with the Hundred Knights intervenes with force and rescues him, demonstrating the mutual aid pledged among the allied rulers even as the encounter leaves Carados unable to continue it on his own.

Narrative Role

Carados’s appearances trace a movement from ceremonial defiance to military commitment. At the feast, his company’s refusal of Arthur’s gifts exposes the hostility concealed beneath the formal gathering; in the campaign, his oath supplies a specific troop commitment to the alliance; on the battlefield, his defeat shows that numbers and solidarity do not prevent individual reversals. The account gives no later personal resolution for Carados, but his rescue by an ally completes the episode’s immediate action and preserves him as part of the opposing coalition.