Sir Thomas Malory
(1405?–1471)

Sir Thomas Malory wrote Morte d'Arthur by compiling and giving order to a collection of French, English, and Latin tales about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. William Caxton first published the work in 1485, after Caxton had established the first printing press in England.

Although Malory seems to have stayed on the right side of the law while young, his arrest in 1451 for damaging a monastery in Lincolnshire signaled the beginning of his lifelong battles with authority. He was also brought up on charges of breaking out of jail, twice for looting the Abbey of Coombe, and for extortion—as well as various other crimes. He denied all the charges against him, but was convicted and jailed nonetheless. Malory spent most of his later years in prison, probably because he supported the Lancasters while the Yorkists ruled England during the War of the Roses. In fact, it was in prison that he wrote Morte d'Arthur.

Malory lived in a wild, unruly time, torn by the strife of the War of the Roses. Harassed by those in power, perhaps he defended taking the law into his own hands as a political necessity. Scholars have suggested, however, that he had a fierce temper and was not against confrontations. Malory most likely died in jail, after King Edward IV, a Yorkist, expressly barred him from two amnesties he allowed the other Lancaster supporters.

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