Sir Thomas Malory (person)

Fifteenth century author of Le Morte d'Arthur.

Believed to be the same as Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revell, Warwickshire. Knighted in 1442, he served in the Parliament of 1445. He fought in the The War of the Roses, and may have been imprisoned as a political prisoner; other sources say it was for murder and rape. Most of his life from 1451 was spent in London's Newgate prison, and he probably did most of his writing there. Malory's original book was called The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table, and consisted of eight seperate romances. William Caxton printed the work in 1485 as a single volume of 21 books, and gave it the misleading title of Le Morte d'Arthur--"The Death of Arthur," which only applies to the last section.