Sir Alisander le Orphelin

Sir Alisander le Orphelin is the son of Prince Boudwin and Anglides, whose concealed survival and inheritance shape his passage into knighthood. His mother gives him his father’s bloodstained clothes and a charge of vengeance on the day he is knighted; thereafter he bears the shirt as a lasting token of his father’s death. His story joins inherited grievance to a career of repeated martial victories, ending with his departure alongside Alice la Beale Pilgrim.

Identity and Background

Alisander is the child of Prince Boudwin and Anglides. After King Mark kills Boudwin, Anglides escapes with her young son. Sir Sadok, sent to recover them, instead allows Anglides to depart on the condition that Alisander will one day avenge his father. He then falsely tells King Mark that the child has been drowned, giving mother and son time to get away.

Anglides rides south to Magouns Castle, later called Arundel in Southsex. The constable, Bellangere, welcomes her and tells her that the castle belongs to her by inheritance. She remains there for years, until Alisander has grown strong and become conspicuous for his prowess. His upbringing thus takes place away from King Mark, while his father’s death remains the grievance that will define his knighthood.

Knighthood and the Vow of Vengeance

When Bellangere judges that Alisander is ready to be made a knight, the ceremony is arranged for Lady Day in Lent. Alisander is knighted with twenty other young men of good birth. During the mass, Anglides approaches him with his father’s old bloodstained doublet and shirt, explaining that Boudwin wore them on the day King Mark killed him.

Anglides charges her son, by her blessing and by the order of knighthood he has just received, to avenge his father. The revelation overwhelms her, and she swoons; Alisander lifts her in his arms and promises that, when he can, he will take vengeance on King Mark. The vow makes his new status as a knight more than a social distinction: it carries a specific obligation inherited from his mother and grounded in his father’s death.

After the ceremony, Bellangere ensures that Alisander is well horsed and equipped. He then jousts with the twenty knights made alongside him and defeats them all. The immediate display of strength gives the newly knighted man a public proof of the ability on which his promised revenge may depend.

The Bloody Shirt and the Tournament

At his departure from Anglides, Alisander takes his father’s bloody shirt with him and keeps it until his own death, carrying it as a reminder of Boudwin’s killing. On Sir Tristram’s counsel, he intends to travel to London to seek Sir Launcelot, but takes the wrong road along the coast. His journey instead brings him to a tournament held by King Carados.

There Alisander wins the prize, unhorsing King Carados, twenty of his knights, and Sir Safere, Sir Palamides’ brother. After each victory he makes the defeated knight swear not to wear arms for a year and a day. A damsel watching the tournament regards him as the finest jouster she has seen. The episode establishes a pattern in which his prowess is accompanied by a defined condition imposed on those he defeats.

A Year of Combat and Departure

The tournament victories bring Alisander to the attention of Morgan le Fay, who says she wants to meet the young knight. He continues his combats, and one encounter reveals a moment of vulnerability: while he is distracted by his love for Alice, Sir Mordred leads him by the bridle in an attempt to shame him. A damsel who had helped him out of a castle intervenes, striking him with a sword so that he comes to himself; Mordred and the damsel then flee in different directions. Alisander regrets that Mordred has escaped.

The narrative describes his fighting thereafter as a daily succession of challenges, sometimes against one knight, sometimes against three or four. For a full year he is never put to the worse. At the end of that year he departs with Alice la Beale Pilgrim. The damsel who had intervened for him refuses to leave his side, and the pair travel to their country of Benoye, where they live in great joy.

Narrative Role

Alisander’s arc is organized around a token and a promise. The bloody shirt connects his father’s death to his own adult identity, while Anglides’ charge turns private family loss into a knightly objective. His repeated victories show him fulfilling the martial promise of his upbringing, but the episode with Mordred also shows how distraction can interrupt that assurance. The account ends not with a narrated confrontation with King Mark, but with Alisander’s departure after a year of success, still carrying the reminder that first set his course.