Malory, author of the Morte Darthur, fought on the wrong side in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England between two branches of the ruling family.  At a time when the Yorkists (one branch and party) had gained control of the country (in the reign of King Edward IV), Malory was a supporter of the Lancastrians (the other branch and party), who did eventually, after Malory's death, win the conflict (with the accession of King Henry VII Tudor to the English throne in 1485).

Through much of the civil war, the Yorkists came to be associated with progressive ideas about warfare, manhood, and society.  Their claim to the throne depended on the rehabilitation of the memory of King Richard II, who had been killed and replaced by the Lancastrian King Henry IV in 1399.  Richard II had been a refined, effeminate prince, who had flown in the face of all traditional notions of manhood (he was gay) and kingship (he wanted to centralize power in London and eliminate the power of the local nobility throughout England).  His Lancastrian rival, King Henry IV, was a manly man and stood for stability and tradition.  With time the differences between the Yorkists and Lancastrians became more and more blurred, but one can reasonably associate traditional values wth the Lancastrians (at least until Henry Tudor becomes the Lancastrian candidate for the throne) and progressive ideas with the Yorkists (at least until the Yorkist King Richard III rose to power in 1483 -- after Malory's death in 1471).

So, Malory seems to have been in the traditionalist party.  Many readers of the Morte Darthur come away with a feeling that Malory is very nostalgic for past times, when men were men and life was a simple matter of knocking bad guys off their horses.  So, as we read selections from the Morte Darthur, we'll be looking for signs that Malory longs for simpler, more honorable times.

One way to reconstruct Malory's mindset is to look at his work in relation to the vast body of legendary material that existed toward the end of the Middle Ages about King Arthur and the Round Table.  No one knows if Arthur really existed or not, but legends grew up about a Celtic king by that name and his heroic fight against the Anglo-Saxon invaders who took over England in the very early Middle Ages.  These legends very quickly captured the European imagination.  What could be more romantic than a king who fights for a cause that is lost?  Arthur fights for the Celts, and they're going to lose to the Anglo-Saxons.  But for one brief shining moment, the Celts succeeded in winning a breather and a short time in the sun.  Arthur's court at Camelot was perceived as a moment of civilization and sanity before the tide of barbaric Anglo-Saxon hordes swamped England.

The whole Arthur story is fundamentally tragic -- it's about losers at a time when they happened temporarily to gain the upper hand.  European writers, especially French and German writers, didn't take long before they interjected a woman into the tragedy.  Very early in the development of the Arthur legends, Arthur's wife Guinevere comes to be identified as the cause of Camelot's downfall.  According to most medieval versions of the story, Guinevere was unfaithful to her husband at every opportunity, and her infidelity eventually led to jealousy and intrigue among Arthur's knights, resulting finally in the disintegration of everything that Arthur had succeeded in building up.  Guinevere became the courtly lover's nightmare -- the lady who turns the love of her courtiers (which should be pure and should be the source of improved social cohesion) into sexual liberty (which destroys the social cohesion).

Malory makes some very interesting changes in this original source material.  First of all, he makes Guinevere unfaithful to Arthur with only one knight -- not with many as in earlier versions of the legend.  That one knight is Lancelot, the best knight at Arthur's court.  Guinevere's infidelity still plays a crucial role in the downfall of Camelot, but she no longer seems to be the sole party responsible for the tragedy.  Lancelot becomes a noble knight, whose love for the queen is constant, tragic, and upsetting -- not cheap and sordid.  Many other characters in the story are made more or less responsible for the tragic events that follow.

As you read the selections assigned from the Morte Darthur, then, think about what Malory is trying to tell us through his story.  How would this story reinforce traditional values of manhood, nobility, and kingship?  Who is the villain in the downfall of Camelot in Malory's eyes?  Why?  What does Malory's perspective on that issue tell us about his values?  How do those values compare with the values that we associate with Malory as a Lancastrian?  Who is admirable in the Morte Darthur?  What is admirable about them?  What do their admirable qualities tell us about Malory's values?