The Meeting Of Sir Lancelot And Queen Guinevere, In 'The Romance Of Lancelot Du Lac''

Originally written and illuminated in France, c. 1300, this manuscript had reached England by the second half of the century, when two miniatures and two initials containing the Bohun heraldic arms were painted in a style characteristic of books made for the Bohun family, who earls of Hereford and Essex for most of the 13th and 14th centuries. It is possible that it would have been kept at the family castle at Pleshey, near Chelmsford. This added miniature depicts the fateful moment when Sir Lancelot, one of the knights of the Round table first meets King Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere: they fall in love, and have an affair that will ultimately lead to the downfall of Camelot. The initial contains the arms of England (left) and Bohun (right).