Cabinet 16: Contested Authorship

There were at least six Thomas Malorys alive in fifteenth-century England when Le Morte d’Arthur was written. Scholars are divided, but the most likely candidate for author is Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire. The only information about him comes from the Winchester manuscript; the end of book six states: “For this was written by a knight prisoner Thomas Malleorre, that God send him good recovery.”

Thomas Malory, The Birth, Life and Acts of King Arthur, of His Noble Knights of the Round Table, their Marvellous Enquests and Adventures, the Achieving of the San Greal and in the End le Morte d’Arthur with Dolorous Death and Departing out of this World of Them All (London: Dent, 1893) Special Collections PR 2040 1893