King Arthur Summary

King Arthur

The legend of King Arthur is one of the greatest British stories of all time. But did King Arthur really exist?

Introduction: who was King Arthur?

The historic figure of King Arthur is a British warrior who lived during the 15th century, that leaded Britain against the Saxons. The existence of the king has never been proved, as we haven’t found any historic register about the battle against Saxons that tells about him.

First sign of a legend?

The only historic register that has ever been found about King Arthur is “History of Brittons”, written by Nennius, in 830. It tells about the 12 battles that Arthur have fought. But back in those times, it would be impossible that a man could fight 12 batttles, which indicates that the legend of King Arthur really is a legend after all.

Arthur’s legend is introduced in French culture.

Inspired by the works of Nennius and Geoffrey (a Welsh writer who wrote about King Arthur too), who bloomed in France after the Norman Conquest, Chrétien de Troyes,  a French writer, wrote about the mysterious “Holy Grail”, and introduced King Arthur in his text. The story got very famous, and due to that, all the French people know Arthur’s history.

The royal Arthur

Inspired by Chrétien’s story, British writers started to write chilvaric tales about Arthur and the Knights of the Round table. One of them was “The Death of Arthur”, by Tomas Malory. The tales became very popular, and the Tudor king  Henry VII decided to baptise his eldest son as Prince Arthur. The legend of King Arthur was one of the favorite royal family’s tales during many centuries. For example, when the parliament’s houses were rebuilt after the disastrous fire in 1834, the queen’s robing room was decorated with the themes of Malory.


Conclusion

Even if it’s very difficult that King Arthur has really existed, his myth was very important for Britain. He was a way of explaining why was Britain going so bad. It created hope in the British people during the bad times, and of course, became a symbol of British culture. We can then conclude that the myth of King Arthur was very important, even if he didn’t exist.