Although the legends of King Arthur had existed for hundreds of years in ballads and popular folk songs, it was not until 1135 that the first extensive biography of Arthur was written. This first recounting of Arthur's life appears in The History of the Kings of Britain, a pseudo-historical work written by a Norman cleric known as Geoffrey of Monmouth (about 1100–1154). Geoffrey's version of the myth lays the groundwork for future versions: He mentions Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon, his marriage to Guenever (who, in The History of the Kings of Britain, is the daughter of a Roman nobleman), and the king's betrayal by Mordred. However, Geoffrey also adds that Arthur seized Paris and almost conquered all of Rome, were it not for the fact that the treachery of Mordred called him back to Britain to fight against the usurper. As Shakespeare did with some of his history plays, Geoffrey reconstrued "history" into a story with a clear political agenda: in this case, to use the life of Arthur as a way to justify the idea that the Norman French were destined to become a force as great as the Roman Empire.
The most famous account of Arthur's life, however, is one written by Sir Thomas Malory (about 1410–1471). A criminal who often found himself in jail, Malory was nonetheless gifted with a fantastic imagination that allowed him to compile different versions of the Arthurian myth and shape them into a sometimes uneven but overall coherent whole. His Le Morte D'Arthur ("The Death of Arthur") was written — in prison — between March of 1469 and March of 1470. Using the Vulgate Cycle, a thirteenth century compilation of Old French tales of Lancelot, the Quest for the Grail, and the death of Arthur, Malory fashioned a book so popular that it was one of the first books printed in England. The printer, William Caxton (about 1422–1491) is now believed to have freely edited Malory's book in order to make his separate tales fit into more of a whole. (The book's only surviving manuscript was found in 1934 and was not written in Malory's hand.) Caxton's introduction to Le Morte D'Arthur reveals his moral (as opposed to financial) intentions in publishing the book: "I . . . present this book following; which I have emprised to imprint; and treateth of the noble acts, feats of arms of chivalry, prowess, hardiness, humanity, love, courtesy and very gentleness, with many wonderful histories and adventures."
