How many wives did King Arthur have?

Answer 1

Like most of Arthurian legend, this depends on which version you have read. Gerald of Wales, who died in the 1200's, stated that he saw King Arthur exhumed. He claimed on the head stone it said 'Here lies buried the famous King Arthur with Guenevere his second wife in the island of Avalon.' If this is any indication of what the popular version of the story was, then the answer is two.

Answer 2

In most countries all marriages are limited to one. In these countries a King could therefore only have one wife. However, in the past in some eastern cultures, Kings had many wives that were housed in a harem.

Answer 3

In legends that have survived, Arthur in one of the medieval Welsh triads, is said to have had three wives, all named Gwenhwyfar:

Arthur's Three Great Queens:

Gwenhwyfar daughter of (Cywryd) Gwent,

and Gwenhwyfar daughter of Gwythyr son of Greidiawl,

and Gwenhwyfar daughter of Gogfran the Giant.

In other surviving, medieval, Welsh texts, when Arthur's wife's father is named, he is always called Gogfran or Ogfran.

In the medieval Prose Lancelot, a woman falsely claims to be the true Guenevere who was replaced by an imposter on Arthur's wedding knight. In the longer version of this story, Arthur becomes convinced that this is true and that the woman is indeed the Guenevere whom he had promised to marry. But Arthur was misled, for the woman was a half-sister of the true Guenevere who looked almost identical to her. Her real name is not provided by the story, which calls her the false Guenevere. Arthur take her as his wife for two years and true Guenevere flees to the country of Sorelois, until Arthur's new queen becomes sick to death, admits the truth, and dies. Then Arthur takes back his original wife.

In the Vulgate Merlin, a romance which is a prequel to the Prose Lancelot, it is explained that this false Guenevere was the daughter of King Leodegan who fathered her on the wife of his seneschal Cleodalis the same night that he fathered the true Guenevere on his wife, and that both of them were given the same name, Guenevere.

The name appears in various spellings: Gwenhwyfar, Gwenhwyvar, Gaynor, Waynor, Ganhumara, Guenevere, Gwinevere, Guennuuar, Wenneuereia, Genoivre, Guenievre, Ganievre, Wenhauer, Gwendolena, Jennifer, and others.