King Mark Timeline and Summary

More

King Mark Timeline and Summary

  • Mark knights Tristan, then allows him to serve as his champion against Morholt.
  • Mark declares that he will marry the woman whose hair a swallow drops in front of him.
  • Mark fails to recognize the substitution of Brangain for Yseut on his wedding night. After their marriage, he treats Yseut well.
  • Mark eavesdrops on Tristan and Yseut's tryst and believes their playacting, becoming convinced that they are not lovers.
  • Mark goes along with a plot to catch Tristan in Yseut's bed and condemns them to be burnt when they are caught. 
  • Mark accepts Yseut back into his household after he receives a letter from Tristan insisting on her innocence. However, he caves to his barons' demand that he send Tristan away.
  • Mark witnesses Yseut's oath of fidelity to him and, at Arthur's prompting, agrees never to mistrust her again.
  • Mark apparently backtracks on this agreement when Tristan kills two of his barons; he announces a reward for Tristan's capture, forcing Tristan to go into exile in Brittany.
  • After Tristan and Yseut's death, Mark arranges for their burial in a Cornish chapel. He repeatedly attempts to cut down the trees that intertwine over their graves.