King Brandegoris

King Brandegoris appears in the account of the northern kings’ uprising as one of the rulers who binds himself by oath to a joint campaign against King Arthur. His specific contribution is a pledge of five thousand mounted men; the alliance, rather than a personal episode or independent arc for Brandegoris, defines his recorded role in the narrative.

Place in the Northern Alliance

The rebellion grows out of the six kings’ resentment over the affront they suffered at Carlion. They recruit five other kings, and the eleven rulers swear that they will not abandon one another until Arthur has been destroyed. King Brandegoris of Stranggore is one of the oath-takers. His promise of five thousand men places him among the alliance’s substantial military contributors, though the narrative gives no separate account of his territory’s resources or his personal reasons for joining.

The Army at Bedegraine

The text totals the coalition’s mounted force at fifty thousand, with another ten thousand foot soldiers. Once assembled, the eleven kings send scouts ahead and lay siege to the Castle of Bedegraine, a stronghold held for Arthur. They then move toward Arthur, leaving only a small force to maintain the siege. Brandegoris’s pledge thus belongs to a large, coordinated challenge to the king, directed not merely at his person but at a fortified position within his realm.

Battle and Narrative Limits

In the battle that follows, King Arthur, King Ban, and King Bors lead their forces against the northern host. The account describes the fighting and names several rulers and knights involved in particular encounters, but it does not assign King Brandegoris an individual action, wound, capture, or death. His part remains that of an oath-bound leader whose promised troops help establish the scale of the revolt. The episode presents the challenge to Arthur as a political and military coalition: a grievance at Carlion is converted into mutual obligation, a stated objective of destroying the king, and an assault on his castle.