Editing Mordred (section)

==Family relations==
{{Further|King Arthur's family}}

[[File:Blason Mordret.svg|thumb|upright|left|Mordred's attributed arms featuring the symbol of the Orkney clan according to chivalric romance heraldry]]

Traditions vary regarding Mordred's relationship to Arthur. Medraut is never considered Arthur's son in Welsh texts, only his nephew, though ''[[The Dream of Rhonabwy]]'' mentions that the king had been his foster father. In early literature derived from Geoffrey's ''Historia'', Mordred was considered the legitimate son of Arthur's sister or half-sister queen named [[Morgause|Anna or Gwyar]] and her husband [[King Lot|Lot]], the king of either [[Lothian]] or [[Orkney]]. Today, however, he is best known as Arthur's own illegitimate son by his beautiful half-sister and Lot's wife, known as Morgause (Orcades / Morcades / Morgawse / Margawse), [[Morgause|the Queen of Orkney]]. This motif was introduced in the Vulgate Cycle, in which their union happens at the time when neither of them have yet known of their blood relation and she was not married yet. Accounts of Mordred's incestuous origin story (including two different variants in just the different parts of the main version of the Vulgate Cycle) present the circumstances of it variably, attributing various degrees of blame or innocence to either party of the teenage (usually aged 15) Arthur's tryst with his much older (mother to children almost his age) half-sister.{{#tag:ref|[[Richard Cavendish (occult writer)|Richard Cavendish]] writes in ''King Arthur and the Grail: The Arthurian Legends and Their Meaning'': "On the contrary, in the ''Suite'' (though not in Malory), it is implied that she knew he was her half-brother. This makes Mordred the child, on his mother’s side, of a perverse passion which could well be felt to imbue him with sinister force."|group="note"}}

[[File:The Fight in the Queen's Ante-Chamber.png|thumb|Lancelot fighting Mordred and Agravain in Guinevere's chambers, [[Walter Crane]]'s illustration for [[Henry Gilbert (author)|Henry Gilbert]]'s ''King Arthur's Knights'' (1911)|alt=]]

Her eldest son Gawain has been Mordred's brother already in the ''Historia'' as well as in [[Layamon]]'s [[Layamon's Brut|''Brut'']]. Besides him, Mordred's other brothers or half-brothers often appearing in literature include [[Agravain]] and [[Gaheris]] in the tradition derived from the French romances, beginning with the prose versions of [[Robert de Boron]]'s poems ''[[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Merlin]]'' and ''Perceval''. Another of the brothers, [[Gareth]], joined them in the later versions. In the Vulgate ''Lancelot'', Mordred is the youngest of the siblings who begins his knightly career as Agravain's own squire, and the two of them later conspire to reveal Lancelot's affair with Guinevere, resulting in Agravain's death and consequently the civil war between Arthur's and Lancelot's factions. In stark contrast to many modern works, Mordred's only interaction with Arthur's other sister [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]] in any medieval text occurs in the Post-Vulgate ''Queste'', when all the Orkney brothers visit Morgan's castle and are informed by her about Guinevere's infidelity.

In the ''Historia'' and certain other texts, such as the Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'' reimagination of the ''Historia'' where Mordred is portrayed sympathetically, Mordred marries Guinevere (usually his aunt) consensually after he takes over the throne. However, in later writings like the ''[[Lancelot-Grail]]'' cycle and ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', Guinevere (now the wife of Mordred's real father) is not treated as a traitor and instead flees Mordred's proposal and hides in the [[Tower of London]]. Willing adultery is still tied to her role in these later romances, but Mordred has been replaced as her lover by Lancelot. Related to this motif, the Galician-Portuguese Post-Vulgate ''Demanda'' makes Mordred hate Lancelot due to Mordred's own love for Guinevere.

The 14th-century Scottish chronicler [[John of Fordun]] claimed that Mordred was the rightful heir to the throne of Britain, as Arthur was an illegitimate child (in his account, Mordred was the legitimate son of Lot and Anna, who here is [[Uther Pendragon|Uther]]'s sister). This sentiment was elaborated upon by [[Walter Bower]] and by [[Hector Boece]], who in his ''Historia Gentis Scotorum'' goes so far as to say Arthur and Mordred's brother Gawain were traitors and villains, and Arthur usurped the throne from Mordred.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXoqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1380|title=The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, 4 Volume Set|last1=Echard|first1=Sian|last2=Rouse|first2=Robert|last3=Fay|first3=Jacqueline A.|last4=Fulton|first4=Helen|last5=Rector|first5=Geoff|date=2017|publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]]|location=Hoboken, New Jersey|isbn=9781118396988|language=en}}</ref> According to Boece, Arthur agreed to make Mordred his heir, but on the advice of the Britons who did not want Mordred to rule, he later made [[Constantine (Briton)|Constantine]] his heir; this led to the war in which Arthur and Mordred died. In [[John Major (philosopher)|John Mair]]'s Scottish ''Historia Maioris Britanniae'', Arthurus, Modred and Valvanus (Gawain) were all said to be underage and thus unfit to rule, with Arthur described as a bastard, though Mordred is also not depicted heroically when he uses mercenaries to seize both the throne and Guanora (Guinevere).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDooDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT134|title=Premodern Scotland: Literature and Governance 1420-1587|first1=Joanna|last1=Martin|first2=Emily|last2=Wingfield|date=16 June 2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-109148-3 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The 18th-century Welsh antiquarian [[Lewis Morris (1701–1765)|Lewis Morris]], based on statements made by Boece, suggested that Medrawd had a wife named [[Cwyllog]], daughter of Caw.<ref name="Bartrum, Peter 1993, p. 180">{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Bartrum|author-link=Peter Bartrum|title=A Welsh Classical Dictionary|publisher=[[National Library of Wales]]|location=Aberystwyth, Wales|date=1993|asin=B01K3M0ZE0|page=180}}</ref> Another late Welsh tradition tells of Medrawd's marriage with Guinevere's sister, [[Gwenhwyfach|Gwenhwy(f)ach]].<ref name="Bartrum, Peter 1993, p. 180" />

===Offspring===
Mordred has been often said to be succeeded by his sons. They are always being numbered as two, though they are usually not named, nor is their mother. In Geoffrey's version, after the Battle of Camlann, Constantine is appointed Arthur's successor. However, Mordred's sons and their Saxon allies rise against him.<ref>[[s:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 11|''Historia Regum Britanniae'', Book 11, ch. 3]].</ref> After they are defeated, one of them flees to sanctuary in the Church of [[Amphibalus]] in [[Winchester]] while the other hides in a London [[Monastery|friary]]. Constantine tracks them down and kills them before the altars of their respective hiding places. This act invokes the vengeance of God, and three years later Constantine is killed by his nephew [[Aurelius Conanus]].<ref name=Historia4>[[s:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 11|''Historia Regum Britanniae'', Book 11, ch. 4]].</ref> Geoffrey's account of the episode may be based on Constantine's murder of two "royal youths" as mentioned by Gildas.<ref name=Gildas>[[s:The Ruin of Britain#28|''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', ch. 28–29]].</ref>

In the Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'', the dying Arthur personally orders Constantine to kill Mordred's infant sons. Guinevere had been asked by Mordred to flee with them to Ireland, but she instead returns to Arthur's [[Caerleon]] without care or concern for their children's safety.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7M6vuneJGSEC&pg=PA40|title=The Alliterative Morte Arthure: A Reassessment of the Poem|last=Göller|first=Karl Heinz|date=1981|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9780859910750|language=en}}</ref> The perhaps 15th-century Spanish chivalric romance ''Florambel de Lucea'' tells of the surviving Arthur having been saved by his sister Morgaina (Morgan) in a later battle against the sons of Morderec (Mordred).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcAmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT184|title=The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds|last=Hook|first=David|date=2015|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=9781783162437|language=en}}</ref>

The elder of Mordred's sons is named Melehan or Melian (possibly the same as Melou from Layamon's ''Brut''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&pg=PA355|title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary|first=Christopher W.|last=Bruce|date=19 January 1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780815328650 |via=Google Books}}</ref>), but he was the younger one in the ''Lancelot-Grail'' and the Post-Vulgate Cycle. Years later (just after Guinevere's death), in a battle near [[Winchester]], Melehan mortally wounds [[Sir Lionel|Lionel]], brother to [[Bors]] the Younger and a cousin of Lancelot. Bors then splits Melehan's head, avenging his brother's death, while the angry Lancelot chases after and decapitates the unnamed other brother who tried to escape deep into a forest.