The character of Guinevere is an oft maligned one. She is most often remembered for her adulterous affairs and the role that they eventually play in the fall of King Arthur. In the three works I will cite, the major events leading up to the end of Arthur's kingdom are superficially the same: while Arthur is campaigning on the mainland, he leaves the kingdom in the hands of a trusted knight, Sir Modred. Sir Modred leads a rebellion against the absent king and marries or tries to marry the queen, Guinevere. The ensuing civil war leads to the death of nearly every knight of the round table and the death or grievous wounding of King Arthur. However, as time went by and the myth became more complex and the characters and their relationships more fleshed out, the poets began to treat Guinevere in a far more sympathetic and ultimately tragic fashion.

In the early works, Guinevere is portrayed, at best, as a pawn or token to be won and, at worst, as an opportunist or conspirator with the enemies of Arthur. In Layamon's "Brut", written around 1189, while Arthur is campaigning on the continent he has a prophetic dream, in which "Arthur... is sitting astride the roof of a hall with Walwain (Gawain) before him. Modred comes with a battle-axe and hews the posts which uphold the building and Wenhaver (Guinevere) pulls down the roof so that Arthur falls and breaks his right arm" (Layamon, pg 85). The next day, a messenger tells Arthur of Modred's coup. Modred has not only named himself king, but took Arthur's wife as his own, and, according to Arthur's prophetic dream, she is a willing conspirator in this treason.

In the "Alliterative Morte Arthure", which was written around 1360, the poet tells us of the last time Arthur saw Guinevere before embarking on his conquest of the known world. She swoons to see him go, and says "Why ne might I, dere love, die in your arms, ere I this destainy of dole sholde drie by mine one!" (Alliterative, 89). However, when Sir Craddoke reaches Arthur to report Modred's treason, Craddoke also tells Arthur that Modred "has wedded Guinevere and calls her his wife, And lives in the wild lands of the west marshes, And has got her with child, so say those who have seen" (Alliterative, 96). In this version Modred's crime is made worse because he will have children by Guinevere, something Arthur did not do.

It is not clear whether Guinevere wedded Modred of her own free will or was taken by force, although Arthur believes he sees the evidence of her part in the conspiracy during the final battle: "For I see Clarent uncledde that crown is of swordes, My wardrope at Walingford I wot is destroyed. Wiste no wye of wonne but Waynor herselven; She had the keeping herself of that kidd wepen" (Alliterative, 97). Even if she was not a willing conspirator, it seems that Guinevere may have proved ultimately disloyal to King Arthur.

By the time that Malory wrote "Morte D'Arthur", printed in 1485, an important change took place in the Arthur myth. The popularity of courtly romance had thrust the knight Sir Lancelot, courtly lover of Queen Guinevere, into the most prominent place among the knights of the round table, eclipsing even Sir Gawain, the old favorite of warrior legends. Sir Lancelot was a brave, strong but ultimately flawed knight whose love for Arthur was surpassed only by his love for Guinevere. This love triangle would be what eventually led to the fall of King Arthur.

The love triangle also makes the conflict far more personal. King Arthur isn't campaigning for conquest or land, but to avenge himself on Sir Lancelot for Guinevere's infidelity. Arthur is not betrayed by his queen, but by a pair of tattling knights, who "had ever a privy hate unto the quene, dame Guenyver" (103), and seek the fall of the round table.

Guinevere is having an affair with Sir Lancelot, and although Malory is unwilling to elaborate on the details of their secret meetings: "And whether they were abed other at other maner of disportis, me lyste nat thereof make no mencion, for love that tyme was nat as love ys nowadayes" (Malory, 106), Sir Aggravayne says that "we all... know how sir Launcelot lyeth dayly and nyghtly by the quene" (Malory, 103). When this affair comes to the attention of the king, he attempts to kill Sir Lancelot and burn Guinevere. Failing at both, he besieges Lancelot's castle in France, giving Modred the opportunity to take over and marry Guinevere.

Although Guinevere "spake fayre, and aggreed to sir Mordredys wylle" (Malory, 115), she goes to extraordinary lengths to prevent marrying Modred: "And bycause of her fayre speche sir Mordred trusted her and gaff her leve; and so whan she cam to London she toke the Towre of London, and suddeynly in all haste possyble she stuffed hit with all maner of vytayle, and well garnysshed hit with men, and so kepte hit" (Malory, 115). Guinevere is able to successfully defend the tower while she awaits the return of King Arthur.

She finally descends from the tower, the battle is over and Arthur dead or taken. Guinevere doesn't marry or even go to Lancelot. Instead:

"And whan quene Guenyver undirstood that kynge Arthure was dede, and all the noble knyghtes, sir Mordred and all the remanaunte, than she stale away with fyve ladyes with her, and so she wente to Amysbyry; and there she lete make herselff a nunne, and wered whyght clothys and blak, and grete penaunce she toke uppon her, as ever ded synfull woman in thys londe. And never creature coude make her myry; but ever she lyved in fastynge, prayers, and almes-dedis, that all maner of people mervayled how vertuously she was chaunged. (Malory, 123).

Guinevere was ultimately true to her husband and king.

It is ironic that her infidelity with Sir Lancelot actually made her more loyal to King Arthur. It is only in the later works, after the introduction of Sir Lancelot, in which Guinevere is seen as a more noble and sympathetic character. It is ultimately Sir Lancelot who redeems the Lady Guinevere.