Sir Ontzlake

Sir Ontzlake is a capable, respected knight whose conflict with his elder brother, Sir Damas, draws King Arthur into a rigged combat. Though wounded and unable to fight for his own claim, Ontzlake’s standing contrasts with Damas’s abuse of power; after Arthur wins the contest, he awards Ontzlake the manor and invites him into royal service.

Identity and Conflict

Sir Ontzlake is Sir Damas’s younger brother, a knight of prowess who lives on a rich manor that he has had to defend through his own strength. The brothers’ dispute concerns that holding: Damas, the elder, refuses to grant Ontzlake a proper share of his livelihood, while Ontzlake’s military ability has enabled him to retain the manor and remain well loved by the local people.

The conflict has become a coercive contest. Ontzlake repeatedly offers to fight Damas for the livelihood, man against man, and Damas agrees either to fight or to find a champion. But Damas is so disliked that no knight will willingly fight for him. He responds not by settling the dispute but by seizing passing knights and imprisoning them, hoping to force one to serve as his champion. The captives report that eighteen knights have died in prison from hunger; the remaining prisoners refuse to fight for Damas because they distrust his treachery.

The Substitute Champion

When Arthur encounters the imprisoned knights, they explain that Ontzlake has consistently had the better of his brother and that Damas’s prisoners are being held to supply the champion Damas cannot recruit. Arthur agrees to fight, on the condition that his victory will free all the captives. The account thus brings the brothers’ private land quarrel into contact with Damas’s larger abuse of wandering knights.

By the time the combat is arranged, Ontzlake has recently been wounded through both thighs by a spear. Although distressed, he is willing to undertake the fight himself. Accolon, who is staying with him, learns of the contest and volunteers to fight in his place. Accolon has received Arthur’s sword and scabbard from Morgan le Fay for the purpose of fighting Arthur, while Arthur is deceived into accepting a counterfeit sword sent in their place. Ontzlake welcomes Accolon’s offer and thanks him. His substitution makes him the beneficiary of the scheme without evidence that he knows its concealed purpose.

Arthur’s Judgment

After Arthur defeats Accolon, he hears the people’s plea for mercy and resolves the dispute between the brothers. He grants Ontzlake the whole manor and its appurtenances, to be held on the condition that Ontzlake provide Damas with a palfrey each year. The judgment recognizes Ontzlake’s claim while leaving his elder brother a defined provision.

Arthur also orders Damas, under pain of death, never again to distress knights travelling on adventure, and commands him to restore the twenty prisoners with whatever equipment they require. Any prisoner who later complains at Arthur’s court may bring Damas under threat of the same penalty. Ontzlake, by contrast, is praised as a good and valiant knight, true and gentle in his deeds, and is charged to come promptly to Arthur’s court and become one of his knights. Arthur promises that, if Ontzlake’s future conduct matches this assessment, he will advance him to a position in which he can live honourably.

Aftermath and Narrative Role

Ontzlake explains that he had been wounded only shortly before the combat and would otherwise have fought Arthur himself. Arthur replies that, had Ontzlake done so, Arthur would not have been wounded as he was: the king’s injury arose because his own sword had been stolen through treachery and the encounter had been arranged to kill him. Ontzlake expresses sorrow that so noble a king could be targeted in this way. The revelation links the local inheritance dispute to Morgan le Fay’s larger plot, while preserving the distinction between Ontzlake’s open contest with Damas and the concealed betrayal behind Arthur’s fight.

Arthur asks how far he is from Camelot, and Ontzlake says it is two days’ journey. He then directs the injured king to a nearby abbey, founded by Arthur’s forebears and three miles away, where Arthur can rest and obtain care. Arthur and Accolon are both treated there; Accolon dies four days later from his wounds, while Arthur recovers. Ontzlake’s role therefore turns on a contrast: he begins as a dispossessed but locally esteemed knight caught in his brother’s unjust system, and ends with his claim recognized, the prisoners released, and a place offered in the king’s court.