Sir Thomas Mallory wrote Le Morte D'Arthur between 1469-1470 while imprisoned. Though known for its tales of chivalry, Mallory had a criminal past involving theft, kidnapping and rape. The characters of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were well-known in English legends by the 15th century, having originated from Welsh and French sources. Mallory's work collected these scattered stories into a single narrative and helped popularize the Arthurian legends.

1. Le Morte D'Arthur (1485)
“The Death of Arthur”
written 1469-1470
by Sir Thomas Mallory
(b.1450-d.1471)

2. We didn't always know who the author was, although we knew his name, Thomas
Malory, and the editor's name, William Caxton. A professor at Harvard provided
the evidence in 1896 that it was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel.
The reason this identity is interesting
is that, in addition to being a soldier
and a member of Parliament who
fought at Calais, Malory had been
imprisoned as a thief, bandit,
kidnapper and rapist, which hardly
seemed in keeping with the high
chivalric standards of his book.
Helen Cooper referred to his life as
one that "reads more like an
account of exemplary thuggery than
chivalry." Mallory wrote the entire
800 page romance in a knight's
prison, which was more like being
locked in a hotel room with room
service for the rest of your life.

3. By the time Thomas Malory sat
down to write Le Morte
D'Arthur (first published by
Caxton in 1485), the
characters of Arthur and his
knights were already well-
known in England.
In the ninth century, a monk-
historian named Nennius
gave the name Arthur to a
sixth-century Roman-British
general who waged some
successful battles against
invading Saxons, but the
term "arthwyr" was the Celtic
term in general for “prince”.

4. In any case, I stress that the stories of
King Arthur are fictional, and based
largely upon English legends and
French literature.
During the 1100s, the French
Normans who invaded England
traced their ancestry back to
Arthur, using that as an excuse for
their reign in England.
In the beginning, these tales were
mostly in French. Mallory relied on
both English and French sources
as he was writing Le Morte –
except for the Tale of Sir Gareth,
which is his own invention.

5. Potential Allegorical Meaning
England was knee-deep in the Wars of
the Roses (1399-1485), a fight
between rival groups, the Lancasters
and the Yorks, who claimed the
English throne. It's way too
complicated to go into the whole story
here, but what's important to keep in
mind is that the War of the Roses
was an internal and civil war, kind of
like the one between the rival groups
of Arthur's knights, so it's popularity at
the time might have been as social
commentary and allegorical
examples.

7. The fact that you know who Arthur is in the first place is all thanks to Le Morte
D'Arthur. That's because this book collected the numerous, scattered
legends of the Arthurian tradition, from multiple languages, into one narrative
in English.
The story is a Medieval romance,
a term you should already
have in your notes, about
chivalry and heroism told in an
episodic form. It is 21 books
long, and our excerpts are only
from Book 20 (Chapters 1-4 &
8-10) & Book 21 (Chapters 3-7
& 10-12).