King Arthur was a potent figure in the Middle Ages as a legitimate historical personage whose accomplishments, including the conquering of all Europe, were never seriously challenged. But rivaling this view was the Arthur who was the renowned head of a famous court, the exemplar and model of chivalry, the King Arthur of the romances. During the Middle Ages various English kings utilised both traditions to achieve political gains.

In the late twelfth century, a writer in France named Chretien de Troyes wrote five romances which took as their theme the achievements of the English King Arthur and his worthy companions. Among his sources was a history which was written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth titled Historia Regum Britanniae. In this work Geoffrey traced the decent of the princes of Britain from Brutus, the grandson of Aeneas, who escaping from the destruction of Troy, had founded Rome. Arthur emerges as a figure to be set among the heroes and emperors of the world. Chretien de Troyes embellished the Arthurian matter, some of which was only suggested in Geoffrey's history and set out for the first time the noble king, the beautiful and distant queen, the Round Table and the knights famous for their skill and courtesy.

Not long after the composition of the romances in the 1170s, King Arthur's grave was discovered Glastonbury Abbey. According to Gerald of Wales, an aging Welsh bard had divulged the secret of the burial place to King Henry II, who in turn passed the news on to the Abbot. In 1191, after the death of the King, the monks dug and found the remains of Arthur and Guinevere exactly where Henry had told them to dig. Henry's motive in persuading the Glastonbury monks to dig up what could be taken for the remains of King Arthur seem clear enough. Welsh opposition to England was high towards the end of Henry's reign, encouraged in part by the belief that Arthur would come again to lead them. Folk belief held that Arthur had no grave but was dwelling in an enchanted island or asleep in a cave waiting the time when he was needed to return. It was thought that the discovery of Arthur's grave would discourage any resistance. 

It is interesting to note that the exhumation of the bodies of Arthur and his queen occurred soon after a fire had partly destroyed the Abbey, and it has been suggested that the find was contrived to attract pilgrims and their sorely needed donations for the rebuilding program. Whatever the motivation behind the excavation in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey, the discovery was not seriously questioned at the time, at least not by Gerald of Wales who endorses the attitude that King Henry II sought to engender in the populace.

Many tales are told and many legends have been invented about King Arthur and his mysterious ending. In their stupidity the British people maintain that he is still alive. Now the truth is known… The fairy-tales have been snuffed out…

The relics did not receive the seal of royal patronage until 1278 when in the presence of Edward I, Queen Eleanor and the entire court, the bones were transferred from the Lady Chapel to a new resting place in the presbytery of the restored church. The remains were placed in a marble mausoleum, with the skulls of Arthur and Guinevere resting on top, exposed to the gaze of onlookers.

Throughout his reign, Edward I associated himself with King Arthur and utilised relics of the king to further his political aims. He is the first English monarch whose name is linked with the organisation of Round Tables, events lasting several days and involving jousting, feasting and dancing. As their name suggests, these meetings borrowed heavily from the Arthurian romances. The King and his leading contemporaries would adopt the names and roles of the Arthur and his companions.

The celebration of Edward's successful Welsh campaign in 1284 took the form of a Round Table at Nevin. In 1299 Margaret, daughter of Marie de Brabant married King Edward and part of the festivities included the hosting of a Round Table which consisted of interludes that depicted his triumphs over the Welsh and the Scots. It is recorded that it was the fifth such event that Edward had attended and that he was personally active in all the arrangements.

'Round Tables' were not the only way in which Edward I exploited the figure of Arthur. In 1282 Llewelyn, the last native prince of Wales, rebelled against English rule and when the Welsh surrendered the King obtained certain national treasures. One such object was King Arthur's crown, which on his return in 1285, he placed on the high altar in Westminster Abbey. Whether Edward truly believed it to be the crown of Arthur is not important. As with the Scottish Stone of Scone, it was the symbolic significance of the capture and installment of the relic that mattered. The crown symbolised the vigour, pride and the very independence of the Welsh, who were never again to see a native prince wear the Welsh crown.

Edward I's grandson, Edward III, further developed the idea of the Round Table. Whereas Edward I's events lasted only a few days, it was the intention of Edward III to develop a permanent Round Table. Edward was an enthusiastic jouster and spent most of 1343 taking part in tournaments in England and on the continent. Edward announced his plans to a crowd assembled at Windsor on 19 January 1344, declaring that he had found a Round Table of the same kind and status as that once used by King Arthur. A special hall was even commissioned to house it.

It was politically advantageous for Edward to be seen as a chivalric hero, especially following the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II. There can be no doubt that one of Edward's principal objectives in refounding the Round Table was to associate himself as strongly as possible in the eyes of his subjects and on the continent, with King Arthur. The company assembled at Pentecost, which was the principal feast of the Arthurian romances in general, and met in a castle which Edward identified as the place Arthur founded and maintained is Round Table.

With an ongoing war against the French King, for Edward to style himself as a successor to King Arthur, who had conquered and subdued France, clearly had strong political motives.

In the middle of the fifteenth century Sir Thomas Malory wrote the Morte Dauthur, the definitive English version of the story of King Arthur. It was partly based upon the alliterative poem Morte Arthure, which Malory expands and elaborates to make Arthur the true embodiment of heroic chivalry. It has been suggested that the figure of Arthur may well be interpreted as a tribute to Henry V, who ruled from 1413 to 1422, as Malory was known to have Lancastrian sympathies. Malory adds details which makes Arthur's expedition against the Romans resemble Henry V's triumphant campaign in France by altering Arthur's itinerary. The work was written at a time when there was a dynastic dispute directed against Henry V's legitimate heir, when a connection between Henry and Arthur would have been advantageous for the Lancastrian cause.

At the founding of the Tudor dynasty near the end of the fifteenth century, the figure of Arthur was again put to use for propaganda purposes. In comparison to the early Plantaganet monarchs who manipulated Arthurian relics to quash Welsh resistance, Henry VII emphasised his Welsh ancestry to claim that he was the leader, as prophesised at the conclusion of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae that would make England great again. Henry laid claim to an ancient British lineage that stretched back to Brutus and Arthur and he fashioned a coat of arms that displayed both of his illustrious ancestors. In 1486 he named his first son Arthur and when the boy was made Prince of Wales in 1489, the pageantry that accompanied the coronation pursued links between the Prince and King Arthur.

Arthur was acclaimed, not only by the medieval authors and historians of England but of all Western Europe, as the most valiant and chivalrous of kings, whose courage and valour on the battlefield was equaled only by his humility. Little wonder, then, that successive English monarchs desired the light of King Arthur to illuminate themselves and attempted, in various ways, to share his glory.

 

Further Reading

Geoffrey of Monmouth - King Arthur subdues Norway, Dacia, Aquitaine and Gaul

Gerald of Wales - The Discovery of the Tomb of King Arthur

Links

King Arthur

Llys Arthur

The Myths and Legends of King Arthur

© Text Copyright Lucette Gatehouse 1999. All rights reserved