A medieval “historian” who created one of the most enduring fictional characters in Western literature, Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100–c. 1155) was an English bishop who popularized the story of King Arthur, a tale that has spawned countless songs, poems, novels, and movies.

In his best-known book, Historia Regum Britanniae, Geoffrey endeavored to trace the history of the English monarchy from ancient times. Ostensibly based on real Welsh-language sources, the book was a pastiche of myth, history, and Geoffrey’s own prodigious imagination; it begins with ancient kings conquering a race of giants that Geoffrey claims once lived on the island.

Arthur, according to Geoffrey, was a king of the Britons who defended the island against Saxon invaders in the fifth or sixth century. Many of the familiar elements in the Arthurian legend date to Historia Regum Britanniae: the king’s father, Uther Pendragon; his sword, Excalibur; and his sagacious wizard, Merlin. Later writers elaborated on the story provided by Geoffrey and added new elements, such as the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail.

In fact, after the Roman Empire abandoned Britain in AD 410, some of the island’s residents did resist the Anglo-Saxon invasions that followed. A climactic battle took place at Mons Badonicus in about 500, when Romano-Celts defeated the invaders, temporarily delaying the Anglo-Saxon conquest. But there is no historical evidence supporting the existence of a King Arthur.

Little is known about Geoffrey’s life. He was born in Monmouth, a city in southeastern Wales, and attended Oxford. Historia Regum Britanniae was written in the 1130s; its sequel, the equally fanciful Life of Merlin, followed several years later. Geoffrey was made a bishop in Wales in the early 1150s and died a few years later.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. At least some of Geoffrey’s accounts may be more accurate than once believed. His book describes a King Tenvantius, who does not appear in any other historical account and was long considered a figment of Geoffrey’s imagination—until Iron Age coins were unearthed in Britain bearing a similar name.
  2. A French writer, Chrétien de Troyes, introduced the Holy Grail to the Arthurian legend in the late twelfth century. Thomas Malory (c. 1405–1471) introduced the character of Sir Gareth in Le Morte d’Arthur; Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) changed the ending in Idylls of the King. Other well-known contributors to the Arthurian canon include Mark Twain (1835–1910, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court), T. H. White (1906–1964, The Once and Future King), and Monty Python (Monty Python and the Holy Grail).
  3. Two Shakespeare plays, King Lear and Cymbeline, are based on kings described in Historia Regum Britanniae. Geoffrey’s Leir is thought to be mythical, while Cunobelinus was a real monarch who ruled just before the Roman invasion. Another of Geoffrey’s characters, Sabrina, later appeared in a 1634 play, Comus, by John Milton (1608–1674).

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