View source for Mark of Cornwall

{{Short description|Husband of Iseault in Arthurian legend}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[Image:King Mark of Cornwall 11400.jpg|thumb|alt=Drawing of Mark on a throne, with sword and staff|King Mark of Cornwall, drawn by [[Howard Pyle]] in 1905]]

'''Mark of Cornwall''' ({{langx|la|Marcus}}, {{langx|kw|Margh}}, {{langx|cy|March or Marchell}}, {{langx|br|Marc'h}}) was a sixth-century King of [[History of Cornwall|Kernow]] ([[Cornwall]]), possibly identical with King [[Conomor]]. As Mark or '''Marc''' (''Marc'h''), he is best known for his appearance in [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] legend as the uncle of [[Tristan]] and the husband of [[Iseult]], who engages with Tristan in a secret liaison, giving Mark the epithet "Cuckold King".<ref>Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, ''Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', 1895, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6-DQAAAAMAAJ&dq=cuckold%20king&pg=PA315 p. 315]</ref>

==King Mark==
[[File:Tristan Quilt, V&A 03.jpg|thumb|14th-century depiction of Mark of Cornwall, from the [[Tristan Quilt]]|alt=Mark on a light-coloured quilt]]

{{See also|Conomor}}

In [[Old Welsh]] records, Mark is recorded as "March son of [[Meirchion]]" of Kernow ([[Cornwall]]). He is associated with governing portions of [[Gwynedd]] and [[Glamorgan]] in Wales.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/markcw.html|title = EBK: King Marc of Cornwall}}</ref> The distance of these areas from modern day [[Cornwall]] may indicate that Mark was in fact a ruler of the eponymous [[Cornovii]].<ref name="Strange (2025)">{{cite web|last=Strange|first=O|title=The Lost Land of the Cornovii|url=https://www.academia.edu/127089896|accessdate=18 January 2025}}</ref> Mark has been identified with [[Conomor]], a king of Domnonea and Kernev ([[Domnonée]] and [[Cornouaille]]) in [[Armorica]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historicaltimes.org/post/drustan-and-esyllt-the-lost-romance|title=Drustan and Esyllt – the Lost Romance?|date=11 February 2022}}</ref>

In his ''Life of St. [[Paul Aurelian|Pol de Leon]]'', Wrmonoc of Landévennec refers to a "King Marc whose other name is Quonomorus". Also rendered as ''Cunomorus'', the name means "Hound-of-the-sea".<ref name="Thomas">Thomas, Charles (1986). ''Celtic Britain''. London: Thames & Hudson {{ISBN|0-500-02107-4}}; p. 70</ref>

An inscription on a sixth-century gravestone near the Cornish town of [[Fowey]] memorializes (in [[Latin]]) a "Drustanus son of Cunomorus", and it has been thought that this is the "Tristan son of Mark (alias 'Quonomorus')" of legend.<ref name="longstone">{{cite web|url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8342|title=Tristan Stone [Longstone] Early Christian Sculptured Stone|website=The Megalithic Portal}}</ref> The present location of the stone is at {{gbmapping|SX112521}}, but it was originally at [[Castle Dore]]. It has a mid-6th-century, two-line inscription which has been interpreted as DRVSTANVS HIC IACIT CVNOWORI FILIVS ("Drustan lies here, of Cunomorus the son"). A now-missing third line was described by the 16th-century antiquarian John Leland as CVM DOMINA OUSILLA ("with the lady Ousilla"). Ousilla is a Latinisation of the Cornish female name Eselt.<ref>[[Craig Weatherhill]], ''Cornovia: Ancient sites of Cornwall and Scilly 4000 BC – 1000 AD''.</ref> The stone led to Mark's association with [[Castle Dore]].<ref name="BartrumWCD">{{cite book |last1=Bartrum |first1=Peter C. |author1-link=Peter Bartrum |title=A Welsh Classical Dictionary |date=2009 |publisher=National Library of Wales |page=516 |edition=online |url=https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/new_structure/discover/digital_exhibitions/printed_material/welsh_classical_dictionary/08_M-N.pdf |access-date=1 November 2025 |language=en |chapter=March ap Meirchion}}</ref>

==Legend==
In most versions of the story of [[Tristan and Iseult]], King Mark of Cornwall is [[Tristan]]'s uncle. His sister is Tristan's mother, [[Blancheflor]] (also known as Elizabeth or Isabelle). In some later versions he is related to Tristan's father, [[Meliadus]].  [[Peter Bartrum]] noted "In the older versions of the Tristan legend Mark was a sympathetic character and behaved honourably in spite of much frustration."<ref name="BartrumWCD" />

[[File:Edward Burne-Jones - King Mark and La Belle Iseult - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''King Mark and La Belle Iseult'' by [[Edward Burne-Jones]] (1862)|alt=19th-century painting of an older man and a young woman]]

Mark sends Tristan as his proxy to bring his young bride, Princess [[Iseult]], from [[Gaelic Ireland|Ireland]]. Tristan and Iseult fall in love and, with the help of a magic potion, have one of the stormiest love affairs in [[medieval literature]]. Mark suspects the affair, and his suspicions are eventually confirmed. In some versions he sends for Tristan to be hanged, and banishes Iseult to a [[leper colony]]. Tristan escapes the hanging, and rescues Iseult from her confinement. Mark later discovers this, and eventually forgives them; Iseult returns to Mark, and Tristan leaves the country. The story is cyclical, with Mark repeatedly suspecting Tristan and Iseult of adultery and then believing that they are innocent. In [[Béroul]]'s version, Tristan and Iseult are never in grave danger; the narrator declares that he and God are on their side. Mark, as a husband and king, is not idealized like other Arthurian kings; his ties to the story are personal. [[Marie de France]]'s [[Breton lai]] ''[[Chevrefoil]]''  begins with an explanation of Mark's fury at the affair of Tristan and Isoude, which leads Mark to banish Tristan from Cornwall.<ref name="chevrefoil">{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11417|title=French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France|via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref>

[[File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p190.jpg|thumb|1922 illustration by [[N. C. Wyeth]]: "King Mark slew the noble knight Sir Tristram as he sat harping before his lady la Belle Isolde."|alt=Illustration of Mark preparing to kill Tristan with a sword]]

In the [[Prose Tristan|Prose ''Tristan'']], Mark is the son of king [[Felec of Cornwall|Felix]] and his character deteriorates from a sympathetic [[cuckold]] to a villain; he rapes his niece and murders her when she produces his son, Meraugis. Mark also murders his brother, Prince Boudwin, and later kills Boudwin's vengeful teenage son Alisander (Alisuander, Alexander) the Orphan. In earlier variants of the story, Tristan dies in [[Brittany]] far from Mark; in the Prose ''Tristan'', however, Tristan is mortally wounded by Mark while he plays the harp under a tree for Iseult. This version of Mark was popular in other medieval works, including the ''[[Palamedes (romance)|Romance of Palamedes]]'' and [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]''. In these texts, Mark usually rules Cornwall from [[Tintagel Castle]], is often an enemy of Arthur's jester knight [[Dinadan]], and (as in the [[Post-Vulgate Cycle]]) even destroys [[Camelot]] after the [[Battle of Camlann|death of Arthur]], allying himself with the pagan [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxons]] and killing the archbishop.

Some Post-Vulgate variants end with the death of Mark.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ywEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA343 | title=The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature | date=15 October 2020 | publisher=University of Wales Press | isbn=978-1-78683-743-1 }}</ref> In Micheau Gonnot's ''Arthurian Compilation'', he is ambushed by the sons of his baron Dinas, who tie him to a tree and leave him to be eaten alive by a bear.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NenKwH-6zg8C&pg=PA47 | title=Arthurian Literature XXII | isbn=978-1-84384-062-6 | last1=Busby | first1=Keith | last2=Dalrymple | first2=Roger | date=2005 | publisher=DS Brewer }}</ref> Malory's version says that Alisander's son eventually avenges his father and grandfather, presumably by killing Mark.

===Horse ears===
Mark has become associated with a [[The Goat's Ears of the Emperor Trojan#Predecessors|Celtic variant]] of the story of [[Midas]] and his donkey ears from [[Greek mythology]], due to a pun on ''marc'' (a Celtic word for "horse").<ref name=sargent-baur/> The story occurs in ''Tristan'' by the 12th-century French poet Béroul, where a dwarf reveals that "Mark has horse's ears" to a [[Crataegus monogyna|hawthorn]] tree in the presence of three lords.<ref name=sargent-baur/>

According to a Breton tale published in 1794, Mark was initially the king of [[Cornouaille]], France, and was seated at Ploumarch (Portzmarch).{{efn|He is known as the "king of Portzmarch" (not as Mark) in Cambry's 1794 version.}}<ref name=cambry-1794/> The king kills every barber who knows the secret about his ears except one, who tells the secret to the sand<ref name=cambry-1794/> (or wind).<ref name=wood/> [[Reed (plant)|Reeds]] grow from that spot, which are harvested to make [[Reed (mouthpiece)|reed]]s for the [[oboe]] (or, simply, pipes).<ref name=wood/> When the instruments are played, the music seems to say that the king has horse's ears.<ref name=cambry-1794>Cambry, F., ''Voyage dans le Finistere en 1749'', II, 287; cited by {{harvp|Loomis|1950|pp=290–291}}</ref><ref name=wood>{{cite journal|last=Wood|first=Charles W. |title=The Bretons at Home |journal=The Argosy |volume=52 |year=1891 |page =226 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HeMYAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA226}}</ref> [[John Rhys]] recorded a Welsh tale similar to the simpler Breton version.{{efn|The reeds sprang from the place where the king's victims were buried.}}<ref name=rhys>{{cite book |last=Rhys |first=John |author-link=John Rhys |title=Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |volume=1 |year=1901 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kyTaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA233 |pages=233–234 |isbn=9780384506107 }}</ref>

An embellished 1905 version, collected by [[Yann ar Floc'h]], blends the legend of [[Ys]] with the premise that Mark was condemned by [[Gradlon]]'s daughter {{illm|Ahès|fr|preserve=yes}} (or [[Dahut]]).<ref name=brekelien/> Mark tried to hunt her when she assumed the guise of a doe, and had his ears exchanged for those of his prized horse [[Morvarc'h]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Milin |first=Gaël |title=Le roi Marc aux oreilles de cheval |publisher=Librairie Droz |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yAkM6MAGU9cC&pg=PA247 |pages=245–252|isbn=9782600028868 }}</ref><ref name=brekelien>{{cite book|last=Brékilien |first=Yann |title=Le roi Marc'h aux oreilles de cheval |work=Contes et légendes du pays breton |publisher=Nature et Bretagne |year=1973|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cA8MAAAAYAAJ&q=%22biche%22 |pages=37–}}</ref>

==Modern culture==
*King Mark has a gruesome role in [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Alfred, Lord Tennyson's]] poetry cycle ''[[Idylls of the King]]''. While Arthur and many of his knights are taking on the court of the [[Red Knight]], [[Lancelot]] is called upon to judge "The Tournament of the Dead Innocence." The tournament quickly becomes a mockery, full of insults and broken rules. Tristram (Tristan) is the winner of the tournament, winning all the rubies from the necklace. He then breaks with tradition in presenting them to a woman, saying: "This day my Queen of Beauty is not here". This enrages the crowd, and many say that "All courtesy is dead," and "The glory of our Round Table is no more." Tristram, who in this version marries [[Iseult#Iseult of Brittany|Isolt of the White Hands]], carries his winnings to Mark's wife [[Iseult#Iseult of Ireland|Queen Isolt]] (who is upset that Tristram married another woman). They mock each other briefly before Tristram puts the necklace around Isolt's neck and leans down to kiss her. Mark appears as his lips touch her, killing Tristram with a sword.<ref name="tennyson">{{cite book |last=Tennyson |first=Alfred |author-link=Alfred, Lord Tennyson |year=1983 |chapter=The Last Tournament |editor-last=Gray |editor-first=J. M. |title=Idylls of the King |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-140-42253-5 |pages=248–268}}</ref>
*Mark (the German "Marke") is a character in [[Richard Wagner|Wagner's]] 1859 opera, ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', where the role was first sung by the [[bass (vocal range)|bass]] Ludwig Zottmayer.
*In the 1954 film ''[[The Black Knight (film)|The Black Knight]]'', he is depicted by [[Patrick Troughton]] as a pagan trying to overthrow Christianity and King Arthur.
*In the 1970s TV show ''[[Arthur of the Britons]]'', Mark was played by [[Brian Blessed]].<ref name="1970imdb">{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068041/fullcredits |title=Arthur of the Britons (TV Series 1972-1973) - Full Cast & Crew |website=IMDb}}</ref>
*In 1981 film ''Lovespell'', King Mark was played by [[Richard Burton]].<ref name="1981imdb">{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079492/fullcredits |title=Lovespell (1981) - Full Cast & Crew |website=IMDb}}</ref>
*Mark (called "Marc'h of Kernow")<ref name="Raven">{{cite book |title=The White Raven: Diana L. Paxson: 9780688074968: Amazon.com: Books |isbn=0688074960 |last1=Paxson |first1=Diana L. |year=1988 |publisher=W. Morrow }}</ref> is a character in [[Diana L. Paxson|Diana L. Paxson's]] 1988 novel, ''The White Raven''. The novel is of Paxson's take on the Tristan and Iseult story from the point of view of Iseult's cousin, [[Branwen]].<ref name="Paxson">{{cite web |url=http://diana-paxson.com/writing/historicalmythic-fantasy/ |title=Historical and Mythic Fantasy |last=Paxson |first=Diana |website=diana-paxson.com/}}</ref>
*In [[Bernard Cornwell]]'s 1996 novel ''[[Enemy of God (novel)|Enemy of God]]'' (part of his ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'' series), King Mark is a physically- and morally-monstrous tyrant who murders his young wife every few years to marry another. When Mark's newest teenage wife (Iseult) flees with his young son Tristan, the fugitive lovers take refuge in [[Mordred]]'s kingdom of [[Dumnonia]] under the regency of Tristan's friend, Arthur. Arthur allows Mark to arrive with his soldiers, and has the prince killed and the queen burned at the stake. Mark later dies from a horrible illness.
*In the 2006 film ''[[Tristan & Isolde (film)|Tristan & Isolde]]'', Marke was played by [[Rufus Sewell]]. He adopts Tristan as his son after the death of the boy's parents, who loyally supported Marke's plans to unite Britain. Marke is portrayed as a good ruler and a kind husband to Isolde (unaware that she has already fallen for Tristan), and is confused by his adopted son's unhappy, distanced behaviour. When Tristan and Isolde are caught embracing, Marke feels angry and betrayed; he relents after hearing the story of their meeting and lets them leave together, although Tristan insists on staying to stand against Marke's enemies. After Tristan is mortally wounded in battle, Marke returns him to Isolde for his last moments and then  unites Britain.<ref name="2006imdb">{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375154/fullcredits |title=Tristan + Isolde (2006) - Full Cast & Crew |website=IMDb}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of legendary rulers of Cornwall]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
;Citations
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=sargent-baur>{{citation|last=Sargent-Baur |first=Barbara N. |title=The Romance of Tristran by Beroul and Beroul II: Student Edition and English Translation |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TO7dDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT77|pages=35–37 (vv. 1306–50), and endnote, p. 127|isbn=9782849525203 }}</ref>
}}

;Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite journal|last=Loomis |first=Roger S. |author-link=Roger S. Loomis |title=Breton Folklore and Arthurian Romance  |journal=Comparative Literature |volume=4 |number=2 |year=1950 |pages =289–306 |doi=10.2307/1768387 |jstor=1768387}}
{{refend}}
*{{Gutenberg |no=11417 |name=French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France by Marie |author=Marie de France (trans. Eugene Mason) |origyear=1911 |chapter=The Lay of the Honeysuckle}}
*{{Gutenberg |no=1251 |name=Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 |author=Sir Thomas Malory |chapter=Book VIII}}
*{{Gutenberg |no=610 |name=Idylls of the King |author=Alfred, Lord Tennyson |chapter=The Last Tournament |origyear=1996}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
{{Commons category|King Mark of Cornwall}}
*[https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/mark.html Mark] at The Camelot Project

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{{s-bef | before = [[Felec of Cornwall|Felix]] }}
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{{Tristan and Iseult}}
{{Arthurian Legend}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mark Of Cornwall}}
[[Category:6th-century English monarchs]]
[[Category:Arthurian characters]]
[[Category:Legendary British kings]]
[[Category:Tristan and Iseult]]
[[Category:Monarchs of Cornwall]]