During the 12th century, Norman churchman Wace added the story of the Round Table to Geoffrey Monmouth's fictional history of King Arthur and his knights-thus establishing a chivalric order whose influence was unparalleled in the Middle Ages. Many aristocrats, poets, and scholars were influenced by this new sensibility, that spread like a wild fire throughout Europe.
In Malory's version of the Arthurian legends, the tradition of chivalry is first introduced on the wedding day King Arthur and Quenevere. The royal banquet wedding is interrupted by a strange event that inspires the Arthurian tradition of embarking on quests to oppose the forces of evil and defend the defenseless. The Wedding Feast is interrupted by a white hart that runs through the banquet hall followed by a white dog and fifty couples of black hounds. After a knight is knocked over by the white hart, he seizes the dog and departs. Minutes later, a woman enters the hall demanding the white dog be returned, claiming that she is the owner. Suddenly, a fully armed knight on horseback enters the banquet hall, snatches the damsel and departs. The noble guests of the wedding are perplexed by the event. Merlin exhorts Arthur to investigate the strange occurrences. Thus, Sir Gowain and Sir Pellinor, Arthur's illegitimate son, depart on quest to find the white dog and to rescue the damsel. Such are the beginnings of the noble quest of chivalry that culminate in the establishment of the Arthurian Chivalric Code:
...Then the king stablysshed all the knyghtes and gaff them rychesse and
londys; and charged them never to do outerage nothir mourthir, and
allwayes to fle treson, and to gyff mercy unto hym that askith mercy,
uppon payne of forfitre (of their) worship and lodship of kynge Arthure
for evirmore; and allwayes to do ladyes, damesels, and jantilwomen
and wydowes (socour:) strengthe hem in hir ryghtes, and never to enforce
the, uppon payne of dethe. Also, that no man take no batayles in a
wrongefull quarell for no love ne for no woldis goodis. So unto thys were
all knghtis sworne of the Table Round, bothe olde and younge, and every
yere so were the(y) sworne at the hyge feste of Pentecoste.
According to Arthur's code, personal virtue is the quintessence of a true knight. Loyalty to the crown, the display mercy, respect for women and integrity are essential to qualities of a knight of the Round Table.