Sir Percard

Sir Percard, known as the knight of the black lawn, is the first of three brothers whose encounters with Beaumains shape the early course of Gareth’s adventure. He appears as a formidable knight guarding a passage, but his death does not end the conflict: it brings his green-armoured brother against Beaumains and later becomes part of the testimony by which the brothers’ standing and Beaumains’ accomplishments are understood at court.

Identity and Place in the Adventure

Sir Percard is one of four brothers known at King Arthur’s court as noble knights. The family has long held war against the Knights of the Round Table, and its members have been recognized as opponents of Arthur’s fellowship. Sir Percard is identified by his black armour and as the knight of the black lawn. His part in the narrative is brief but consequential: his death marks the first named defeat in a sequence through which Beaumains establishes himself as a capable knight despite the damsel’s repeated attempts to dismiss him as a kitchen servant.

The damsel accompanying Beaumains does not present Sir Percard as an ordinary encounter. On seeing him, she warns Beaumains to flee, explaining that the knight’s horse is not saddled. Sir Percard, for his part, asks whether she has brought the knight of King Arthur as her champion. She denies that Beaumains is a knight and describes him as a kitchen servant whom she cannot persuade to leave her company. Her account turns the encounter into a contest not only of arms but of status: Sir Percard treats Beaumains as beneath a knight’s attention, while Beaumains refuses the role assigned to him.

The Encounter with Beaumains

Sir Percard proposes to dismount Beaumains with a single foot and take his horse and equipment, suggesting that a greater victory would be beneath him. Beaumains answers that Sir Percard will gain neither horse nor armour without winning them in combat. He also rejects the claim that he is merely a kitchen page, asserting that he is a gentleman of higher lineage and offering to prove it through the fight.

They charge on horseback. Sir Percard’s spear breaks, while Beaumains drives his own spear through Sir Percard’s sides; Beaumains’ spear also breaks, leaving its shaft in place. Sir Percard continues the combat with his sword and wounds Beaumains. The fight lasts an hour and a half before Sir Percard falls from his horse in a swoon and dies. The account establishes both the danger Beaumains faces and the decisive result: his victory is not effortless, yet he withstands Sir Percard’s continued resistance and survives the encounter.

After Sir Percard’s death, Beaumains takes his horse and arms and rides on after the damsel. She continues to call him a kitchen knave and treats the defeat as an accident rather than an achievement. Beaumains refuses to abandon her or the journey, saying he will continue until he sees its end, even if he is beaten or killed. Sir Percard’s defeat therefore changes Beaumains’ equipment and advances the quest, but it does not change the damsel’s judgment of him.

Family Conflict and Aftermath

Sir Percard’s brother, the green knight, soon meets Beaumains and asks whether the black knight is his brother. The damsel answers that the supposed kitchen servant killed him. The green knight names the dead man as Sir Percard and accuses Beaumains of killing his brother. Beaumains insists that he defeated Sir Percard honourably, not shamefully. The new encounter thus converts the first combat into a family grievance and gives Beaumains an opportunity to defend the manner of his victory as well as its result.

Later, Sir Persant of Inde recognizes the sequence of encounters. After Beaumains defeats him and grants his life at the damsel’s request, Sir Persant identifies Beaumains as the man who slew his brother Sir Percard at the black thorn. He also recognizes that Beaumains has overcome his other brothers, Sir Pertolepe and Sir Perimones. In response, Sir Persant offers Beaumains homage and the fealty of one hundred knights, promising their service wherever Beaumains commands. The encounter with Sir Percard is thereby recalled not simply as a death but as the first link in a sequence whose eventual consequence is allegiance.

At King Arthur’s court, Sir Pertolepe later confirms that Beaumains killed his brother Sir Percard in an encounter with a spear. The king calls the death a great pity, and the assembled knights share that judgment. Their response preserves Sir Percard’s reputation even as the account records his defeat: he belonged to a family regarded at court as noble, and Beaumains’ advancement comes through overcoming worthy opponents, not through defeating men whom the court regards as insignificant.

Narrative Significance

Sir Percard’s role depends on the contrast between how Beaumains is described and what he does. The damsel’s belittling account and Sir Percard’s confidence make Beaumains’ challenge a test of recognition as well as strength. Beaumains claims gentlemanly birth when his opponent calls his status into question, then answers the challenge in combat. Yet the story does not let the victory erase Sir Percard’s standing: his brother’s accusation, Sir Persant’s later recognition, and the court’s regret all retain his identity as a noble knight.

The episode also sets a pattern for the journey. A defeat produces another challenge, and each encounter enlarges the account of Beaumains’ prowess; the series moves from hostility toward the recognition of his achievement and, in Sir Persant’s case, an offer of service. Sir Percard’s death is the beginning of that movement, while its consequences make clear that a knight’s reputation can survive defeat and that Beaumains’ worth becomes legible through the testimony of those he has overcome.