Malory: The Knight Who Became King Arthur’s Chronicler

Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur (1469) is one of the best-known books in the world. Virtually all modern versions of the Arthurian legends are derived from its energetic, memorably phrased and remarkably individual telling of the stirring exploits of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Yet the identity of the fifteenth-century knight who wrote it has remained an enigma for centuries. The only known records of his life imply that he was a criminal, accused of rape, ambush, rustling and attacks on abbeys, and in prison for most of his life.Using evidence from new historical research and deductions from the only known manuscript copy of Malory’s masterpiece, Christina Hardyment resolves the contradictions into a thrillingly exciting life, marked by great achievement as well as deep disgrace. She reveals Malory as an experienced soldier who fought against the French with Henry V in France and was closely connected with the Knights Hospitallers’ battles against the Turks in Rhodes, an expert on tournaments who was a connoisseur of literature, and a loyal subject deeply involved in the troubled politics of the Wars of the Roses who intended his great work to inspire the princes and knights of his own times to high endeavours and noble acts.Christina Hardyment has not only given Sir Thomas Malory a life worthy of King Arthur’s greatest chronicler, she has also set it against a fascinating background: the age which marked the high-water mark of medieval chivalry but which was also an essential bridge from the Middle Ages to the modern world.