Tristram's banishment from Cornwall is the consequence of King Mark's hostility toward the knight whose exploits have repeatedly defended Cornwall and served the royal family. When a brachet identifies Tristram at court, Mark calls for his death, but leading barons refuse to assent. Their intervention changes the sentence to ten years' exile. As Tristram departs by ship, he names the deeds for which he believes he has been repaid with banishment, making the episode both a political punishment and a reckoning over loyalty, service, and royal ingratitude.

Recognition and Sentence

The chapter presents the banishment as a decision reached after Tristram's identity is exposed. The queen departs, but the brachet will not leave Tristram; it sits upon him and bays. Sir Andred interprets this behavior as proof that the armed man is Tristram. King Mark initially refuses to believe him, then asks the knight under oath who he is. Tristram answers truthfully, naming himself Sir Tristram de Liones and leaving his fate to the king.

Mark regrets that Tristram has recovered and summons his barons to judge him to death. The proposed punishment does not secure their agreement: many will not assent, particularly Sir Dinas the seneschal and Sir Fergus. By their counsel, the king and barons impose banishment from Cornwall for ten years instead. Tristram swears to the sentence upon a book before the king and his barons. The oath makes the exile a formal judgment, while the barons' resistance marks a limit on Mark's ability to turn his hostility into an execution.

Departure with Dinadan

The sentence is carried out at the edge of the kingdom. Tristram is made to leave Cornwall, and barons escort him to his ship. The company is divided: some of those who accompany him are friends, others foes. That mixed escort gives the departure a public, unsettled character; Tristram is expelled under the authority of the court, yet his standing among Cornwall's nobles has not simply disappeared.

Sir Dinadan arrives while Tristram is armed and on his way to the ship, having come to seek him. Before Tristram leaves the court, Dinadan asks to joust with him. The barons grant permission, and Tristram unhorses Dinadan. Rather than treating the encounter as an obstacle to departure, Tristram welcomes Dinadan into his fellowship when Dinadan asks to ride with him. They take their horses and ride together to their ships, so the sentence separates Tristram from Cornwall but does not leave him without a companion.

Tristram's Account of Service

Once at sea, Tristram sends a message back to King Mark and his enemies: he will return when he can. His farewell then becomes a carefully itemized protest. He recalls fighting Sir Marhaus and delivering the country from servitude; fetching La Beale Isoud from Ireland; and facing danger on the way home, including the effort to bring Queen Isoud back from Castle Pluere. He also cites fighting Sir Bleoberis for Sir Segwarides' wife and Sir Blamor de Ganis on behalf of King Anguish, Isoud's father.

The list extends beyond those services. Tristram remembers that he struck down Sir Lamorak de Galis at Mark's request, fought the King with the Hundred Knights and the King of Northgalis when they threatened to place Mark's land in servitude, and slew the giant Tauleas. He adds that many Knights of the Round Table spared Cornwall's barons for his sake. These episodes are not recounted as a fresh sequence of adventures; they are evidence in Tristram's argument that his past work should have earned a different reward.

His final examples bring the grievance back to Isoud and to Mark's own words. Tristram says that he fought Sir Palamides and rescued Queen Isoud from him. On that occasion, Mark had declared before his barons that Tristram should have been better rewarded. The king's earlier public acknowledgment now stands in sharp contrast to the ten-year sentence. Tristram's accusation therefore rests not only on a broad record of military service but on Mark's own recognition of what that service deserved.

Meaning and Immediate Outcome

The scene closes with Tristram taking the sea, not with the dispute resolved. His promise to return when he can leaves open a future beyond the prescribed ten years, while his departure makes the sentence's immediate consequence plain: Cornwall loses the services of the knight who repeatedly defended its ruler's interests. The catalogue also clarifies why the exile reads as a reversal. Tristram recalls deeds performed for Mark, Mark's family, and the kingdom, yet the king's final judgment removes him from the country he helped protect.

The episode places royal authority, noble counsel, and personal reputation in tension. Mark can pronounce judgment, but the barons' refusal to approve execution redirects that power toward exile. Tristram, in turn, answers the sentence not by denying the court's decision but by setting it against a public record of service and a promise of return. His banishment thus separates him from Cornwall while preserving the claim that his loyalty has been repaid unjustly.