On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:14:13 GMT, lclough <clough@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>In that time (i.e. when the novel and epic were set, not the
>musical) adultery in the Queen was indeed treason. The whole
>point of the marrying a virgin, your wife being faithful, your
>daughters being guarded bit was to ensure that you, the king,
>were going to pass your kingdom on to your true genetic son. If
>the Queen commits adultery she is by definition imperilling the
>succession, and is lucky to get off merely with being burnt at
>the stake. There are plenty of places on this planet even now
>where that rule holds.
IIRC one of Henry VIII's wives was executed for this reason. So in
England this was the case at least until the Tudor period.
But of course the original (or rather the earliest version) was set in
post Roman Britain - One or two Roman emperors had executed a wife for
adultery (real or imagined), but I don't know the situation in Celtic
law.
And of course "Lancelot" didn't exist in the early version - he was
"grafted on" later.
--
Terry
|
