Mordred’s faction

Mordred’s faction is the political and military following that supports Mordred’s seizure of the English crown and his attempt to marry Queen Guenever, his uncle’s wife. Its rise turns a dynastic claim into open civil war: Mordred wins adherents by exploiting a false report of King Arthur’s death and the discontent of people who judge Arthur’s rule by its wars, while Guenever refuses the marriage and resists him from the Tower of London. The faction’s confrontation with Arthur ends in a devastating battle whose accidental beginning exposes how little trust remains between the opposing armies.

Formation and claim to rule

Mordred’s ascent begins while he is ruler of England in Arthur’s absence. He has letters made to appear as if they have come from overseas, announcing that Arthur has been killed in battle with Sir Launcelot. On the strength of this fabricated news, Mordred summons a Parliament, has the lords choose him king, and is crowned at Canterbury. He holds a feast there for fifteen days before moving to Winchester, where he takes Guenever and declares his intention to marry her.

The claim is therefore built on a false account of Arthur’s fate and an asserted right to exercise royal power, not on an acknowledged transfer of authority from Arthur. Guenever, distressed but unable to reveal her intentions safely, speaks pleasantly and appears to accept Mordred’s will. Her apparent compliance gives her an opportunity to leave for London, ostensibly to buy what is needed for the wedding.

Allegiance and the queen’s resistance

Once in London, Guenever takes possession of the Tower, rapidly provisioning it and strengthening its defenses with men. When Mordred learns that she has outmaneuvered him, he lays siege to the Tower, assaults it, and attacks it with engines and guns. These efforts fail: Guenever will not return to his power, whether approached by persuasion or force. She later answers him openly and privately that she would rather die than marry him.

Mordred’s power nonetheless draws substantial support. As news arrives that Arthur has raised the siege of Sir Launcelot and is returning with a large host, Mordred issues writs to the barony, and many people join him. The narrative reports that a common opinion favored Mordred because Arthur’s rule seemed to promise only war and strife, while Mordred’s appeared to promise joy and prosperity. Some who had received lands through Arthur could not bring themselves to speak well of him; the account presents their changed allegiance as part of a broader popular fickleness, not simply as the result of Mordred’s royal claim.

The narrator explicitly condemns this reversal. Mordred is described as having upheld the fellowship of noble knights, yet many English people prefer his rule and declare themselves ready to stand by him for better or worse. The contrast makes the faction’s growth a judgment on political loyalty as well as on Mordred’s ambition: the benefits and protections associated with Arthur do not secure lasting allegiance when subjects are dissatisfied with the costs of his reign.

The campaign at Dover

Mordred gathers a great host and goes to Dover, expecting Arthur to land there. When Arthur arrives with a large fleet of ships, galleys, and carracks, Mordred positions his force to prevent him from coming ashore. The fighting begins as men leave the vessels in boats, and knights and barons on both sides are killed. Arthur nevertheless lands despite Mordred’s resistance; his followers press forward, drive Mordred back, and send his people fleeing.

After the battle, Arthur orders the dead to be buried. Among the wounded he finds Sir Gawaine, lying in a large boat more than half dead. Gawaine tells Arthur that his wound is the old one received from Sir Launcelot and accepts responsibility for the conflict, saying that his earlier refusal to reconcile with Launcelot helped bring about the war. He also explains that Launcelot and his kin had kept Arthur’s enemies under control. His death thus marks a political as well as personal loss: the rupture with Launcelot has weakened the forces that once sustained Arthur’s rule, while Mordred’s faction continues to benefit from the divisions among Arthur’s former allies.

Salisbury and the collapse into battle

After the landing, Arthur moves west along the coast toward Salisbury. A battle is appointed for the Monday after Trinity Sunday. Mordred raises further support around London, drawing people from Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, as well as noble knights. The account notes that those who loved Sir Launcelot also join Mordred, linking the faction’s growth to the estrangement between Arthur and Launcelot as well as to local and popular allegiance.

Before the appointed battle, Arthur dreams of a wheel turning and casting him into a deep, dangerous place. Sir Gawaine appears to him in the dream among women for whom Gawaine had fought, and warns that fighting Mordred the next day will bring Arthur’s death and the deaths of most of the people on both sides. The warning does not prevent the armies from meeting. Arthur and Mordred arrange to confer between their forces, each bringing fourteen people, and they appear to reach agreement. Both commanders, however, have already instructed their armies to attack if they see a sword drawn, because neither trusts the other.

An adder stings a knight in the foot. Seeing it, he draws his sword to kill it; the opposing forces take that ordinary gesture as the signal for treachery. Trumpets and horns sound, and both armies charge. The chance incident turns a negotiated meeting into the battle both leaders feared and had prepared for. Fighting continues through the day, and by near nightfall a hundred thousand are reported dead on the down. Arthur discovers that only Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere remain alive among his knights, both badly wounded, and recognizes that he has reached his end. The faction’s rebellion has thus helped bring the kingdom’s political struggle to a military catastrophe, while the accidental trigger makes visible the distrust on which the final confrontation was already founded.