Sir Thomas Malory

The greatest English version of the stories of King Arthur, the Morte Darthur was completed in 1469-70 by Sir Thomas Malory, 'knight prisoner'. His identity is uncertain, but he is likely to have been the lord of the manor of Newbold Revel, in Warwickshire. Malory's text collects, combines, and abbreviates the key French thirteenth-century prose romances of Arthur, many of which were themselves based on earlier verse originals, and supplements them with English Arthurian material. The Morte channels all the important Arthurian legends into a single source that itself stands at the head of the whole later Arthurian tradition in English. After initially leading the life of a responsible member of the gentry, this Sir Thomas Malory turned to a career of spectacular lawlessness; he spent a number of years in prison, was excluded from two general pardons and died in 1471.