The Dolorous Tower is named as the site where Sir Launcelot killed Sir Carados. Though the narrative supplies no description of the tower itself, its brief mention explains the grievance behind Sir Turquine’s feud with Launcelot and the violence visited on other knights in his name.

The Tower and Sir Carados’s Death

Sir Turquine tells Launcelot that he hates him above all other knights because Launcelot slew his brother, Sir Carados, at the Dolorous Tower. The place enters the account through this recollection: it is the setting of a prior killing, not the scene of the encounter now unfolding between the two knights.

A Place Made Consequential by Vengeance

Sir Turquine has made his brother’s death the cause of a sustained campaign against Launcelot’s companions. He says that, for Launcelot’s sake, he has killed a hundred good knights and maimed as many more, leaving them unable to help themselves; others have died in prison, and sixty-four remain captive. The Dolorous Tower thus stands at the beginning of a chain of retaliatory violence whose victims extend well beyond the original conflict.

The Tower’s Role in the Launcelot–Turquine Conflict

The memory of Sir Carados transforms a possible alliance into a mortal contest. Before learning Launcelot’s identity, Sir Turquine offers to release his prisoners and become his fellow if the stranger is not the knight he hates. Launcelot reveals that he is Sir Launcelot du Lake, King Ban’s son of Benwick and a knight of the Round Table; Sir Turquine then declares that neither will part until one is dead. The tower’s remembered killing therefore supplies the reason their meeting cannot end in reconciliation.