THE HISTORY ESSAY

As legends go, it’s got the lot. There’s blood and glory, thanks to our hero, Arthur’s, against-the-odds victories over the Anglo-Saxons on the battlefield. There’s love and betrayal (Arthur’s wife, Guinevere, leaves him for his greatest friend). There’s glamour and chivalry, courtesy of some of the most celebrated knights in literary history. And, of course, there are dragons, wizards and a supernatural sword, all topped off by a quest for an elusive grail with miraculous powers.

Given these ingredients, it’s hardly any wonder that the tale of King Arthur has proved one of the most alluring in all of western civilisation – one that has inspired everything from medieval romances to role-playing computer games. But strip back the magic and the monsters, and there’s another reason that the story has proved so enduringly attractive. That’s the tantalising possibility that the man at the centre of the legend may, just may, have been a historical figure – that this wildly popular drama might have been inspired by the real-life exploits of a fifth-century British freedom fighter.

But could this be the case? Is there a historical foundation to the legend of King Arthur? It’s a question that’s puzzled historians for centuries. And at the heart of that question lie just a handful of medieval texts. They are the key to establishing whether we are are dealing with pure fiction or something inspired by true events.

The legend of King Arthur with which we are so familiar today isn’t, of course, the product of one medieval author. Instead, it’s the handiwork of many writers – each layering their own embellishments on to the tale over a period of hundreds of years.

The earliest known account of Arthur’s deeds is in The History of the Britons, written in Wales in 829–30 (some historians attribute the text to a Welsh monk called Nennius, though others believe its author is best considered anonymous). The History sets the template for much of what was to follow, presenting Arthur as a valiant warrior who, with divine aid, led the Britons to 12 victories over the Saxon invaders who were occupying what we now think of as England.

Next, in the mid-10th century, came the Welsh Annals. Like The History of the Britons, the Annals hails Arthur’s military prowess, crediting him with a great victory at a place called Badon. In fact, the Annals seems to use The History, or something closely related, as its primary source.

If The History of the Britons and the Annals established Arthur as a Celtic hero, then it was a later manifestation of the Arthurian tale – as the hero of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s rip-roaring History of the Kings of Britain, written in the 1130s – that transformed him into an international superstar. It was Geoffrey who gave us Guinevere, Merlin and the sword Caliburn, which would later become famous as Excalibur. It was Geoffrey who first plotted out Arthur’s life story, from his birth at Tintagel to his final resting place at Avalon.

Such was the power of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s rendition of the Arthur story that, in the 1150s, the Norman poet Robert Wace felt moved to translate the tale into French, adding the story of the Round Table into the mix in the process.

The legend proved hugely influential on the continent, a fact reflected in the work of the French romance poet Chrétien de Troyes in the second half of the 12th century. Chrétien dramatically reshaped and extended the earlier story of the abduction and rescue of Guinevere. And it is to him that we owe three other famous elements of the Arthur story: Lancelot, the Grail and Camelot. The ‘sword in the stone’ and ‘sword in the lake’ were added around 1200.

So historians in search of the ‘real’ King Arthur have a number of sources to work with. The question they have to answer is, which ones qualify as potentially reliable sources? In some respects, that’s not such a difficult task: modern commentators are pretty well all agreed that we should dismiss as fiction everything from Geoffrey onwards. (He was clearly attempting to dress up a fantastical drama as history – and most later renditions were inspired by his work).

We can set aside the Welsh Annals as a witness, because the ‘Arthur’ entries were clearly not based on near-contemporary sources.. That leaves us with just one contender. If we are to find a historical Arthur buried beneath the fabrications, it’s to The History of the Britons we must turn. But does this ninth-century text stand up to the historian’s scrutiny?

You won’t find Merlin, Camelot or the Holy Grail in The History of the Britons, but what you will find is an annotated list of Arthur’s military triumphs over the Saxons. The History tells us that “in those days Arthur fought with the kings of the Britons against them [the Saxons] but he himself was the commander of battles”. It then attributes 12 battles to him. One of the most dramatic is the eighth, which was fought – so we’re told – “in the castle of Guinnion, in which Arthur carried the image of St Mary the perpetual virgin on his shoulders, and on that day the pagans were put to flight, and a great slaughter was upon them through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of Saint Mary his holy virgin mother”.

The drama builds until the final, climactic clash in Arthur’s cam-