Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur
Including Le Morte d’Arthur (‘The Death of King Arthur’) on this list is slightly controversial. We do not know for certain who Thomas Malory was, but by far the most likely candidate is Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel, Warwickshire (c.1415-71), a soldier during the Wars of the Roses imprisoned for a number of (alleged) misdeeds. Malory was incarcerated at the notorious Newgate Prison in London, where it is believed that he set about undertaking the mammoth task of writing Le Morte d’Arthur. The work is important in itself for compiling and translating the wealth of material about King Arthur.
Sir Thomas Malory was born to Sir John Malory, Justice of the Peace for Warwickshire, and Lady Phillipa Malory, a rich heiress. He inherited his father’s estates in 1431 or 1433, and served in the army of Richard Beauchamp at Calais, ‘with one lance and two archers’. He was knighted before 1441, and became MP for Warwickshire in 1445. 5 years later, however, he began a life of crime which took in 8 imprisonments and 2 daring escapes, swimming the moat of Coleshill Prison in 1451 and fighting his way out of Colchester in 1454 with deadly weapons.
Records state that Malory lay in wait and ambushed the Duke of Buckingham in 1450, intending to murder him. He broke into the Abbey of Blessed Mary of Coombe and stole money and treasure from the abbot’s chest, before returning a few days later to insult the abbot. He also twice robbed one Hugh Smyth and forced himself on his wife. Furthermore, he led frequent and extensive cattle raids and extorted money. Malory protested his innocence but, in the words of the great Malory scholar Eugene Vinaver, ‘the charges are so multifarious that it is difficult to ignore them altogether’.
Malory was imprisoned at Newgate Prison, London, after his final arrest in 1460, and seems to have been released sometime in 1462. It is here that he is believed to have written Le Morte d’Arthur. This suggestion is supported by Dick Whittington, Mayor of London, exercising leniency towards Newgate’s inmates and allowing them to use the library at the adjoining monastery of Christ Church Greyfriars. Le Morte d’Arthur evidences an author with access to an extensive library, for the Arthurian myths it collates and blends existed in such diverse sources as historical chronicles and Welsh, French, and Middle English verse-romances.
This collation and translation, rather than the author’s literary abilities, make Le Morte d’Arthur a fundamental work in the Arthurian canon. For though Malory lacks the deft touch of Chrétien de Troyes, for example, his source-work is second to none. Le Morte d’Arthur tells the whole story of the rise and fall of Arthur and Camelot, and is intended as a didactic piece about how a knight should behave. Quite how the sexual deviant and thug Sir Thomas Malory saw himself alongside the honourable, woman-protecting Christian knights of Camelot is unclear. Malory was buried at Greyfriars, unpardoned for his crimes.