Lancelot was a Red Cross Knight, which meant that he was one of the knights in the quest to find the Holy Grail. He saw the ascension of Sir Galahad. His first appearance as a main character is in Chrétien de Troyes' Le Chevalier de la Charrette ("The Knight of the Cart"), written in the 12th century, where his exploits are recounted in the section known as the Prose Lancelot, often with conflicting background stories and chains of events.