The King of Tars is a medieval English chivalric romance, an amplified version of the oldest variant found in the Reimchronik, which is found in three manuscripts including the Auchinleck manuscript. It contains many specific religious phrases, and is consistently religious in intent.
Contents
Synopsis
A Christian princess refuses a pagan king but agrees to marry him to prevent war. They have a deformed child, and each blames the other's religion. However, baptism restores the child to beauty and health, causing the king to convert.
Motifs
This romance appears to have influenced Le Bone Florence of Rome, where the heroine's kingdom is also attacked by a rebuffed suitor. In that case, the reluctance springs from his age, and the work is less consistently religious.
The deformed child is also in common with the romance Theseus of Cologne, where rivals use the child to accuse the queen of adultery, but the child is also restored by miracle.