Treason in Arthurian legend peers in the case of a treason accusation, and as an accessory Guinevere would not have been able to be sentenced until Lancelot was apprehended. However, Malory cites instead an “Arthurian treason law of his own invention as his basis for the queen’s death sentence.” Malory writes that in cases where guilt is “manifest and undeniable,” that “hasty judgment is appropriate.” However, this concept of “hasty judgment” is challenged by Sir Gawain when he protests Arthur's quick sentencing. Because Guinevere can only be considered an accessory to Lancelot's treason, “her treasonous guilt rests in the judgment on the guilt of
Treason in Arthurian legend of true nobility and manhood. Therefore, knights who committed treasonous crimes threatened to undermine the sanctity of the order as a whole, and all that it stood for. Thus, punishments for knights and nobles deemed traitors typically involved some kind of process in which their identities as both knights, and men, were stripped away. Executions of treasonous knights included a process of removing the physical representations of their titles, such as “breaking of the traitor’s sword and striking of his spurs, removing his sword belt, and publicly stripping him of the rich clothing that visually communicated his status.” Punishments could