Geoffrey of Monmouth

(?1100-55)

   A Benedictine monk attached to the household of Robert, Earl of Gloucester; in 1152 he became Bishop of St Asaph. His Historia Regum Britan-niae, written c.1136, claims to be a history of all the kings of Britain from Brutus, the founder of the realm and great-grandson of Aeneas of Troy and Rome, to Cadwallader (d. 689); the reign of *Arthur is the centrepiece of the work, and Geoffrey's account, which was accepted as historically valid by most of his contemporaries and successors, was a major influence on the development of Arthurian romances throughout Europe. His Vita Merlini (c.1150) was equally important as a source for legends about *Merlin, and for prophecies attributed to him. Geoffrey drew on older historians, notably Bede and Nennius, and may have known Welsh traditions now lost; however, a high proportion of what he says, not merely about Arthur but about many alleged early kings and heroes of Britain, seems to have no basis outside his own imagination.