What punishment does the king initially issue the knight in "The Wife of Bath’s Tale"?

The narrative action of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” begins
when one of King Arthur’s knights, who the Wife of Bath describes as a “lusty bacheler,”
or a pleasure-loving knight of lower order, “rafte [the] maydenhed,” or rapes, a young
girl (ll. 883, 888). According to the “cours of law,” and his kingdom’s demand for
justice, King Arthur decrees that the knight will be beheaded: “And swich pursute unto
the kyng Arthour / That dampned was this knyght for to be deed / By cours of lawe, and
sholde han lost his heed --” (ll. 890-892). However, the queen and her ladies beg Arthur
to forgive the knight. Chaucer writes:

But that the queene
and other ladyes mo

So longe preyeden the kyng of
grace

Til he his lyf hym graunted in the
place,

And yaf hym to the queene, al at hir
wille,

To chese wheither she wolde hym save or spille.
(ll.894-898)

Chaucer does not describe why the queen and
the other ladies intervene on the knight’s behalf; still, their intervention and prayers
convince King Arthur to pardon the knight’s life. Additionally, Arthur hands the knight
over to the queen to decide whether she will save his life or have him put to death.
 

Arthur offers the queen a choice: “save or spille” the
knight’s life. In an attempt to assert her “wille,” the queen rejects the “save or
spille” binary and, instead, proposes her own solution. Addressing the knight, the queen
states, “I grante thee lyf, if thou kanst tellen me / What thyng is it that wommen moost
desiren” (ll. 904-905). In other words, the queen declares that she will grant the
knight his life only if he can tell her what thing women most desire. She gives the
knight “A twelf-month and a day” to seek and learn a satisfactory answer (ll.
909).

Near the end of the Wife of Bath’s Tale, the knight,
having hitherto failed to answer the question of “what womman love moost,” decides to
return home and accept his fate (ll. 985). At his lowest emotional point, with a
“sorweful” heart, the knight encounters a deformed, old hag: “on the green he saw
sitting a woman -- / A fouler wight ther may no man devyse” (ll. 986, 998-999). The
knight asks the foul, old woman to teach him “what thyng it is that womman moost desire”
(ll. 1008). In exchange for this knowledge, the knight pledges to “quite [hir] hire,” or
repay her, by doing the “nexte thyng that [she] requere[s]” (ll. 1008, 1010). Having
gained the knowledge of what women desire most, the knight returns to court and
proclaims that “Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee” (ll. 1038). With this, the old hag
demands that the knight honor his pledge and marry her. They are married but the knight
is overcome with woe because “his wyf looked so foule” (ll. 1082). Noting her husband’s
sorrow, the wife/hag asserts that she can “amende al this” and offers two choices: she
can stay ugly and old and remain his “trewe, humble wyf” or become young and fair but
surrounded by lovers (ll. 1106, 1221-1226). The knight surrenders sovereignty to his
wife: “Cheseth youreself which may be moost pleasance… / For as yow liketh, it suffiseth
me” (ll. 1232, 1235). Having achieved mastery over her husband, the wife transforms into
a beautiful, young maiden and promises to obey “hym in every thyng” (ll.
1255).