Mark
Also known as: King Mark / my shambling king / the Cornish King / the Cornish king / the vassal king · Family: Cornwall · Role: king · First appears: Gareth and Lynette 3
In Gareth and Lynette, Mark, the vassal king, sent Arthur a cloth of gold as a token of fealty, trusting that his liege-lord would honor him as a king. Arthur rejected the offered honor and threatened to strip him of his crown: “More like are we to reave him of his crown / Than make him knight because men call him king.” In Merlin and Vivien, Vivien, fostered at Mark’s court, says that Mark pursued her as a suitor, while she claimed to have loved Merlin first; at the same time, Mark heard that Lancelot worshipped Guinevere rather than any unmarried woman.
In The Last Tournament, Mark took Isolt from the lodge with six or seven men while Tristram was away, and Isolt became his mate before Tristram returned. She is married to her “shambling king,” yet calls Mark her enemy and says, “My God, the measure of my hate for Mark / Is as the measure of my love for thee.” She also names Tristram as Mark’s enemy, and just as their lips touched, Mark rose behind Tristram and cleaved him through the brain.
Relationship record
Life events
- Arthur rejects Mark’s offered honor and threatens to strip him of his crown.(Gareth and Lynette 3)
- With: Arthur
- “More like are we to reave him of his crown Than make him knight because men call him king.”
- Mark hears that Lancelot worships Guinevere rather than any unmarried woman.(Merlin and Vivien 1)
- Mark snatched Isolt from the lodge while Tristram was absent.(The Last Tournament 3)
- With: Isolt
- “Till Mark her lord had past, the Cornish King, With six or seven, when Tristram was away, And snatched her thence;”
- Isolt became Mark's mate before Tristram's return to her.(The Last Tournament 3)
- With: Isolt
- “For, ere I mated with my shambling king,”
- Mark kills Tristram by cleaving through his brain.(The Last Tournament 4)
- With: Tristram
- “Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek— ‘Mark’s way,’ said Mark, and clove him through the brain.”
Gareth and Lynette 3
- liege: Arthur “delivering, that his lord, the vassal king, Was even upon his way to Camelot; For having heard that Arthur of his grace Had made his goodly cousin, Tristram, knight, And, for himself was of the greater state, Being a king, he trusted his liege-lord Would yield him this large honour all the more; So prayed him well to accept this cloth of gold, In token of true heart and fealty.”
- enemies with Arthur “More like are we to reave him of his crown / Than make him knight because men call him king.”
Merlin and Vivien 1
- enemies with Arthur “For he that always bare in bitter grudge The slights of Arthur and his Table, Mark The Cornish King, had heard a wandering voice”
- admired: Vivien “And now by Mark the King For that small charm of feature mine, pursued— If any such be mine—I fly to thee.”
- admirer: Vivien “To me this narrow grizzled fork of thine Is cleaner-fashioned—Well, I loved thee first, That warps the wit.”
- ward: Vivien “Why fear? because that fostered at thy court I savour of thy—virtues? fear them? no.”
The Last Tournament 3
- married with Isolt “For, ere I mated with my shambling king”
- enemies with Isolt “My God, the measure of my hate for Mark / Is as the measure of my love for thee.”
- enemies with Tristram “Who hates thee, as I him—even to the death.”
The Last Tournament 4
- married with Isolt “O were I not my Mark’s, by whom all men Are noble, I should hate thee more than love.”
- enemies with Tristram “Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek— ‘Mark’s way,’ said Mark, and clove him through the brain.”
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Extracted from the original text of Idylls of the King. Made with Rho MD.