When she rejects them, they introduce a youth into her room, kill him in the presence of witnesses, and accuse her of adultery.
Historically, Bernard I, Count of Toulouse, son of the Guillaume d'Orange of the Carolingian romances, and the empress Judith, second wife of Louis the Pious, were indeed charged with adultery and purged themselves by an oath and an offer for trial by combat; the historical situation has been embellished with romantic incident, in that the motives, which were changed from (probably) ambition to thwarted love, and the offer for combat was taken up.
[5] The poem is also found in the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript, under the title The Romance of Dyoclicyane.
[6][7] In the Child ballad Sir Aldingar, a clearly miraculous champion, a tiny figure of supernatural origins comes to her aid.
[9] The accusation by the knights, and the defense by a disinterested champion, represent a distinct group of romances, using motifs found only in romances, in contrast to those making use of such fairy tale motifs as the mother-in-law persecutor, and the champion being the heroine's own children; this is a distinctly medieval addition.