25 Facts About Thomas Malory

Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of Le Morte d'Arthur, the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources.

Thomas Malory is described as a "knyght presoner", distinguishing him from several other candidates bearing the name Thomas Malory in the 15th century when Le Morte d'Arthur was written.

In King Henry V's time, [Thomas Malory] was of the retinue to Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick at the siege of Calais, and served there with one lance and two archers, receiving for his lance and first archer 20 pounds per year and their diet; and for the other archer, 10 marks and no diet.

Dugdale's history revealed that this Thomas Malory had served as a Member of Parliament, and recorded the date of his death, the location of his tomb, and many other details of his life and family.

Field suggests that the first public record of this Thomas Malory in 1439 is an indication of when he reached the date of his majority.

Thomas Malory agrees with other scholars that Dugdale knew the Malorys of Newbold Revel and suggests that he would have certainly made the connection between this Malory and Le Morte if there were any connection to be made.

Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel was born to Sir John Malory of Winwick, Northamptonshire, who had served as a Justice of the Peace in Warwickshire and as a Member of Parliament, and Lady Phillipa Malory, heiress of Newbold.

Thomas Malory married a woman named Elizabeth Walsh, with whom he had at least one son, named Robert, and possibly one or two other children.

Thomas Malory's status changed abruptly in 1451 when he was accused of ambushing Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, a prominent Lancastrian in the Wars of the Roses, along with 26 other men sometime in 1450.

Thomas Malory was accused of breaking into the house of Hugh Smyth of Monks Kirby in 1450, stealing 40 pounds' worth of goods and raping Smyth's wife, and with attacking her again in Coventry eight weeks later.

Aurner suggests that Thomas Malory's enemies tried to slander him, giving evidence that the Duke of Buckingham was Thomas Malory's long-time enemy.

Thomas Malory was convicted and sent to the Marshalsea Prison in London, where he remained for a year.

Thomas Malory demanded a retrial with a jury of men from his own county.

Thomas Malory later ended up in custody in Colchester, accused of still more crimes, involving robbery and the stealing of horses.

Thomas Malory was released as part of a general pardon at the accession of King Edward IV in 1461.

In 1462, Thomas Malory settled his estate on his son Robert and, in 1466 or 1467, Robert fathered a son named Nicholas, Thomas Malory's grandson and ultimate heir.

Thomas Malory inherited his father's estates in 1425 and was placed in the wardship of the King, initially as a minor, but later remaining there until within four months of his death in 1469.

The outcome of this case is unknown, but it seems to indicate that this Thomas Malory was something other than an ordinary country gentleman.

However, while this candidate's father and several other close family members were knights, no clear evidence survives showing that this Thomas Malory was ever actually knighted.

The question of the identity of the Thomas Malory listed in this document is widely regarded as critical to the final identification of the author.

Matthews points out that this Northern campaign was geographically much closer to Hutton Conyers in Yorkshire than to Newbold Revel, and concludes that the document referred to the Thomas Malory of Hutton Conyers - not to Malory of Newbold Revel, who was a Yorkist and would have been something in excess of 70 years old; far too old to have taken part in this Northern military campaign.

Linton has removed that principal objection, providing extensive detail about the Malorys of Yorkshire and offering evidence that Thomas of Yorkshire was a Knight Hospitaller, a knight of the church.

The earliest identification was made by John Bale, a 16th-century antiquarian, who declared that Thomas Malory was Welsh, hailing from Mailoria on the River Dee.

However, most modern scholars have disregarded this early work on the basis that no such place as Mailoria has ever been identified on the Dee or elsewhere; no Welsh Thomas Malory appears in the surviving historical record; and Malory identified himself as English rather than Welsh.

Thomas Malory was responsible for organizing these diverse sources and consolidating them into a cohesive whole.