Ultimately, the couple is discovered and Arthur pursues Lancelot into France, leaving Mordred behind as regent. Following 12 years of prosperity, Arthur's knights commence a quest to discover the Holy Grail, during which time Lancelot, his chief knight, consummates an adulterous affair with Queen Guinevere. He marries Guinevere, founds the Knights of the Round Table at Camelot and begets a son, Mordred, in unknowing incest. After being raised in secret, Arthur proves himself, king, by drawing a sword from a stone. Le Morte d'Arthur opens with Arthur conceived as the illegitimate son of Uther Pendragon (literally 'the Head Dragon' or King of Britain). Though these adventures are as real as a boy's dream, they're as difficult to place in the latitude and longitude of today's world. Malory's text transports the reader to a dreamland of castles and kingdoms in which the love of adventure was reason enough to wage battles. As Homer was to Odysseus, so was Sir Thomas Malory to Arthur. He dressed Arthur in the fashions of his own times, transforming him into a 15th-century hero. In his Le Morte d'Arthur ( The Death of Arthur), printed in 1485, he retold many of the tales that had first been circulated by word of mouth and were then written down. Not only did de Troyes create many of the knights, including Sir Lancelot, he also used the more lyrical sounding Guinevere as the name for Arthur's queen and chose Camelot for the name of his court.īut the story of King Arthur as we know it today is mostly the work of Sir Thomas Malory. Later, in 1160, the French writer Chretien de Troyes established King Arthur as a fashionable subject of romantic literature by introducing medieval chivalry and courtly romance into the tales. Also in the 12th century, the monk Nennius, in his Historia Brittonum (The History of the Britons) listed Arthur's battles against Germanic invaders - the Saxons and the Angles - during the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Foremost among these was the Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), written in 1135 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the centuries that followed Arthur's death, fanciful histories fleshed out the few reliable facts about the 'King' with a whole body of literature that created an enduring legend. This may explain the myriad of places in Britain that claim a connection to the legendary king. The decades between Ambrosius' death, sometime after 495, and Arthur's own demise some 40 years later were a time of shifting fortune and wide-ranging struggles. Arthur's father may have been Ambrosius Aurelianus, himself a Duke of Britain. When Roman rule faded on the island, the old kingly families of the tribes and regions re-emerged.įrom hints found in ancient records, we can glean a picture of Arthur as a warrior who was successful for a time, only to die tragically in a civil war after a mysterious Battle of Camlann in AD 537 or thereabouts. However, by AD 500, such titles had become vague and 'King' was the customary designation of Celtic leaders. Some historians believe Arthur was Dux (Duke) of Britain, a Roman title.