Editing Mordred (section)

===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.