Le Morte Darthur [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The Writer and his Times The precise identity of the Sir Thomas Malory who wrote Le Morte Darthur has always been shrouded in mystery, and has provoked much speculation. The work itself provides one piece of significant information. This comes at the end of the book, when the author reveals that he is a knight and that he completed his work in 'the ninth year of the reign of King Edward the Fotuth' (p. 804), that is, sometime between 4 March 1469 and 3 March 1470. The leading candidate for identification as the author of Le Morte Darthur is Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire.* He was probably bom between 1414 and 1418, and died on 12 or 14 March 1471.^ The son ofjohn and PhiHppa Malory, Thomas is first recorded in 1439, as witness to a legal settlement made by his cousin. The first reference to Thomas as a knight comes in 1441, so he must have been knighted at some point in the intervening years.^ Malory's wife was called Elizabeth (the date of their marriage is unknown) and they had at least two children: Robert, their heir, and Thomas, who probably died around 1457.^ Malory's later life overlapped with the period of English history sometimes called the 'Wars of the Roses', indicating the period * P. J. C. Field, in The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory (Woodbridge, 1993), pp. 8-24, discusses and discounts the five other fifteenth-century men called Thomas Malory who are possible contenders. They are the Thomas Malorys of Holcot (Northamptonshire), Papworth St Agnes (Cambridgeshire), Tachbrook Mallory (Warwickshire), Long Whatton (Leicestershire) and Hutton Conyers (Yorkshire), t Ibid., pp. 64 and 34 t Ibid., pp. 83-4 § Aid., pp. 84 and 121