_How king Arthur took a wife, and wedded Guenever daughter to
Leodegrance, king of the land of Cameliard, with whom he had the
Round Table._
In the beginning of Arthur, after he was chosen king by adventure and
by grace,—for the most part of the barons knew not that he was Uther
Pendragon’s son, but as Merlin made it openly known,—many kings and
lords made great war against him for that cause; but well Arthur
overcame them all; for the most part of the days of his life he was
ruled much by the counsel of Merlin. So it fell on a time king Arthur
said unto Merlin, My barons will let me have no rest, but needs I must
take a wife, and I will none take but by thy counsel and by thine
advice. It is well done, said Merlin, that ye take a wife, for a man of
your bounty and nobleness should not be without a wife. Now is there
any that ye love more than another? Yea, said king Arthur, I love
Guenever, the daughter of king Leodegrance, of the land of Cameliard,
which Leodegrance holdeth in his house the Table Round, that ye told he
had of my father, Uther. And this damsel is the most valiant and
fairest lady that I know living, or yet that ever I could find. Sir,
said Merlin, as of her beauty and fairness she is one of the fairest on
live. But and ye loved her not so well as ye do, I could find you a
damsel of beauty and of goodness that should like you and please you,
and your heart were not set; but there as a man’s heart is set, he will
be loth to return. That is truth, said king Arthur. But Merlin warned
the king covertly that Guenever was not wholesome for him to take to
wife, for he warned him that Launcelot should love her, and she him
again; and so he turned his tale to the adventures of the Sangreal.
Then Merlin desired of the king to have men with him that should
enquire of Guenever, and so the king granted him. And Merlin went forth
to king Leodegrance of Cameliard, and told him of the desire of the
king that he would have unto his wife Guenever his daughter. That is to
me, said king Leodegrance, the best tidings that ever I heard, that so
worthy a king of prowess and noblesse will wed my daughter. And as for
my lands I will give him wist I it might please him, but he hath lands
enough, him needeth none, but I shall send him a gift shall please him
much more, for I shall give him the Table Round, the which Uther
Pendragon gave me, and when it is full complete there is an hundred
knights and fifty. And as for an hundred good knights I have myself,
but I lack fifty, for so many have been slain in my days. And so king
Leodegrance delivered his daughter Guenever unto Merlin, and the Table
Round, with the hundred knights, and so they rode freshly, with great
royalty, what by water and what by land, till that they came nigh unto
London.