Green Knight Green Knight The Green Knight is a character of the 14th-century Arthurian poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and the related medieval work "The Greene Knight". His true name is revealed to be Bertilak de Hautdesert (an alternate spelling in some translations is "Bercilak" or "Bernlak") in "Sir Gawain", while "The Greene Knight" names him "Bredbeddle". The Green Knight later features as one of Arthur's greatest champions in the fragmentary ballad "King Arthur and King Cornwall", again with the name "Bredbeddle". In "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", Bercilak is transformed into the Green Knight by Morgan le Fay,
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