There is no definitive proof that King Arthur ever existed. As Cornwell notes in his Author’s Note at the end of the book, the first definitive mention of Arthur comes roughly 200 years after the period when he was supposed to have lived, with folktales comprising the only thing resembling a primary source. Whether Arthur was real, imagined, or somewhere in between, he emerged as the definitive British hero in the literature of the Middle Ages. Many of the story’s most famous elements, such as the Knights of the Round Table, Merlin, Guinevere, and the quest for the Holy Grail, came from a variety of different authors over the course of centuries. Arthur is dated to the period when pagan Britain was slowly becoming Christian, and the legend itself came to incorporate pagan elements such as magic with Christian notions of chivalry and courtly love. Near the end of the medieval period (circa 1470), Thomas Malory composed Le Morte d’Arthur, a comprehensive account that ties together the various strands of previous accounts and remains the best-known single volume of Arthurian legend.

Malory’s account, however, marked a climax of interest in Arthur, which dimmed for several centuries.