Malory, Sir Thomas

(ca. 1410–1471)

   Thomas Malory is the supposed author of Le MORTE DARTHUR, the last medieval English version of the Arthurian chivalric romances, which was published by William CAXTON in 1485.What we know of Malory’s life has been gleaned from his book and from scanty court records. For many years, it was believed that the only accurate biographical statement was found at the end of Le Morte Darthur, which states that the book was finished in prison in the ninth year of the reign of Edward IV (March 1469–March 1470), a statement that provides little direction. Critical controversy over the exact identity ofMalory continues to plague scholars; however, in 1934, another version of the Morte besides Caxton’s was discovered. It contained not the seamless 21 books presented by Caxton, but rather eight separate ROMANCES to which were appended personal remarks. At the end of the first of these, the author identifies himself as “knight presoner Sir Thomas Malleore,” thus lending credence to the identification discussed below. Thomas Malory (the standardized modern spelling) of Newbold Revell,Warwickshire, was born anywhere between 1405 and 1416 into an established East Midlands gentry family. His father, John Malory, was an esquire who owned land not only in Warwickshire, but also in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. John served as sheriff twice and also as a member of Parliament and a justice of the peace. He married Philippa Chetwynd, and records indicate that besides a son, Thomas, they also had at least three daughters. Nothing more is known of young Thomas. At the age of 23, records indicate that he was a respected landowner who was increasingly interested in politics. By 1441, he had been knighted. Sometime in these years, he also married Elizabeth Walsh ofWanlip,with whom he had a son, Robert. During these years, he also served in the retinue of Richard Beauchamp, the earl of Warwickshire (known as the “Father of Courtesy”), perhaps at Calais, but certainly in France. Malory was also elected a member of Parliament for Warwickshire in 1445, serving primarily on the tax-exemption commission.

   Prior to his election, Malory had experienced his first brush with the law. In 1443, he was accused of wounding and imprisoning Thomas Smith, although the charges were soon dismissed. This began a pattern that would haunt Malory for the rest of his life, and from 1450 onward, he was often either in prison or on the run. His first major crime seems to have been taking part in a plot to ambush and murder the duke of Buckingham early in 1450. In May 1450, Malory was accused, for the first time, of raping Joan Smith. The actual charges leveled against Malory are intriguing. Instead of being accused of abduction, which was fairly standard in rape cases, the records read cum ea carnaliter (“he lay with her carnally”), and the complaint was not filed by Joan, but rather by her husband, Thomas. Three months later, in August 1450,Malory is once again accused of raping Joan Smith, and also of stealing 40 pounds of items from her husband.

   Besides rape and ambush,Malory was also accused of various forms of extortion and theft throughout 1450–51, including personal assault, breaking and entering, cattle rustling, and poaching. In mid-1451, he was arrested and imprisoned at Coleshill in Warwickshire, but quickly escaped by swimming the moat.He then supposedly broke into an abbey (Abbey Coombe), assaulted the abbot, tormented the monks, stole much of the treasury, and trashed the monastery. By 1452, he was once again in prison, this time in London, awaiting trial. Malory pled “not guilty” to each and every charge, yet mostly remained in prison. In 1456, under the protectorship of the duke of York, Malory received a royal pardon, but it was ignored until 1460 when the Yorkists actually took the throne.Malory appears to have changed sides frequently during the Wars of the Roses, and in 1468, he was specifically excluded from the general amnesties issued by Edward IV. In October 1470, the Lancastrians returned to power and freed the members of their party still imprisoned. Six months later, Thomas Malory died.He was buried in Greyfriars, Newgate, one of the most fashionable churches of its day. Originally his grave bore a great marble tombstone, now destroyed. However, the inscription was preserved in parish records. It names Malory a valens miles (“valiant knight”). It also lists the date of his death as March 14, 1470, which under the present-day calendar would be 1471.

   Malory supposedly wrote Le Morte Darthur while he was in prison, perhaps as quickly as within two years. It is a varied composition, based on French prose romances and ancient Welsh legends, all filtered through Malory’s own perspective. It is this final point that is, perhaps, the most offensive to many.

   There are other candidates that have been suggested as the Malory who wrote Le Morte Darthur, and for a long time, scholars and fans alike strove to uncover a different identity for Thomas Malory than the habitual felon from Newbold Revell whose life seems so inconsistent with the chivalry he extols in his book. For example, John Bale conjectured that the author of the Morte, Malory or not, was Welsh, primarily because many of the Arthurian adventures take place there. The variant spellings of his surname, including Maleore and Mallorie, also provided hope, mostly unfounded after the 1934 discovery. A Thomas Malory from Yorkshire has been discovered, but he was probably too young to have written the text. Another Thomas Malory, from Cambridgeshire, has been suggested, but this Malory never seems to have been imprisoned. The Warwickshire Malory seems the candidate most likely to have been the author. Overall, it seems that many are offended that the man who wrote the most enduring version of the great chivalric romances was himself such a scoundrel. However, sifting through the charges brings a new understanding—many of the accusations and prison terms appear to be political side effects from the Wars of the Roses, and the “rape” charges appear to have been the result of a longstanding extramarital affair. Both of these situations are reflected in the Morte itself, perhaps explaining in part why it has become the standard source for later versions of the Arthurian legend.

   Bibliography

   ■ Archibald, Elizabeth, and A. S. G. Edwards, eds. A Companion to Malory. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1996.

   ■ Field, P. J. C. The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993.

   ■ Matthew,William. The Ill-Framed Knight: A Skeptical Inquiry into the Identity of Sir Thomas Malory. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

   ■ McCarthy, Terence. An Introduction to Malory. Rev. ed. Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K.: Boydell and Brewer, 1991.

   ■ Riddy, Felicity. Sir Thomas Malory. Leiden: Brill, 1987.

   Michelle M. Sauer