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 pillory, the wheel, or the removal of the accused's eyes. One source reads that “in 1476, Jean Bon, the would-be assassin of the dauphin Charles, was fortunate not to be punished capitally, though he did have his eyes gouged out.” Punishments of treason could also contain a sense of a macabre “poetic justice,” or a punishment tailored to fit the crime, as in the instance of counterfeiter Jean Jouye who was boiled alive “presumably because his crime involved the melting down of coin.” Imprisonment for traitors was usually the result of a reduced death sentence, rather than of an initial