King Mark of Cornwall was a king of that region in the early 6th century, but his name is most famous in Arthurian legend as the uncle of Tristan and husband of Isolde. Mark was betrothed to Isolde of Ireland in one of those politically correct marriages so popular at the time, and he sent his nephew, Tristan, to escort her back to Cornwall. You know the drill, boys and girls. Boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl; boy cheats on uncle with girl. Oh, sure, there is a love potion or two figuring in this plot, but there are also two attractive young people on a journey together. Even after the marriage of Mark and Isolde, the affair continued. Some strong potion. So King Mark finds out and – who can blame him? – banishes Tristan from the kingdom. Tristan goes off and marries a girl called Iseult of Brittany, presumably because she had such a similar name. One little twist – he fails to consummate the marriage because of his great love for the spelling of Isolde. As legend tells us, Tristan and Isolde die in a Romeo-and-Juliet type of setup (helped along by the badly spelled Iseult). And King Mark married again. That’s really all we need to know for our purposes here, because Mark’s own end wasn’t so pleasant, either.
