Later in the chivalric period, Sir Thomas Malory took over the Arthurian narrative in 1485 with Le Morte Darthur, The Death of Arthur. Three centuries had passed, the Middle ages were coming to a close, and Guinevere was worse tha n ever.
"In May when every lusty heart flourisheth and bourgeoneth....it befell a great anger and unhap that stinted not til the flower of chivalry of all the world was destroyed and slain; and all was... [caused by] two unhappy knights...Agravain and Sir Mordred" who "had ever a privy hate unto the queen, Dame Guinevere, and to Sir #Lancelot" (#Lacy 530-31). Here, Guinevere's cheating becomes a serious issue. Malory lacks Chretien's relish in recounting the lovers trysts, declining to d iscuss the situation in which the Knights of the Round Table find them: "And whether they were abed or at other manner of disports, me list [I wish] not hereof make no mention" (533). The lovers now have greater political ramifications than they did in C hretien's humorous bout with amour two hundred years ago. Now the lovers cannot just depend on Arthur's "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" way of living to protect them; they are in the midst of court politics. Note, however, that it is not Guin evere's fault that Arthur is betrayed, but that of the tattling knights.
Guinevere winds up again in position to betray Arthur when Mordred seizes the throne and announces that he will marry her. Ironically, she refuses to do so, locking herself in the Tower of London instead. When she finds that King Arthur has been slain, she atones for all her sins by becoming a nun. Malory, while writing in the romantic vein, tackles a more sober subject than does Chretien, and therefore lacks the earlier writer's playful tone. Guinevere has plenty of time after Arthur's death to think about the mistakes she has made and about, obviously, her betrayal of Arthur. This theme, of Guinevere's looking back on a life of betrayal and adultery, is taken up by William Morris in the nineteenth century.
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