THE LEGEND
OF KING ARTHUR
THE BIRTH
OF KING ARTHUR
Uther, the High-King of Britain fell in
love with the Lady Igraine, but she was
already married to Gorlois, the Duke of
Tintagel.
King Uther decided he must marry
Igraine. So he took his army and fought
with Gorlois. Gorlois was killed.
King Uther married Igraine and they had a
son named Arthur. He was born at
Tintagel Castle.
This was a very dangerous time and attacks
by Saxons happened a lot. So King Uther
gave his baby son to his wizard, Merlin, for
safety.
Merlin sent Arthur away to be raised in the
countryside by Sir Ector. He grew up with
his foster brother, Kay. He never knew who
his real parents were.
Arthur got into trouble because he had
When King Uther died, no-one knew forgotten Kay’s sword. So he went off
he had a son. So there was lots of to look for one
arguing about who should be High-
King of Britain.
He found the sword in the stone and
pulled it out easily.
Suddenly a mysterious stone magically
appeared in the churchyard of St.
Paul’s Cathedral in London. Sticking Arthur gave the sword to Kay. Kay
out of it was a huge sword. There was noticed the message and everyone
a message on it. wanted to know who had pulled the
sword from the stone
It said that whoever pulled the sword
from the stone was the rightful
High-King of Britain. At first, no-one believed that Arthur
Lots of the local kings (or 'tyrants') had done it. But he repeated what he
tried to pull the sword out. It was had done. Everyone was amazed.
magically stuck fast though and the
arguing carried on.
Years later, Arthur had grown into a
fifteen year old lad. It was time for his
elder foster-brother, Kay, to go to his
first tournament (where knights
practiced fighting). So the family went
to London
ARTHUR
BECAME A KING
Arthur was crowned King by St. Dubricius.
However, 11 of the local kings would not agree
to him being High-King. They did not want to
have to do what a fifteen-year-old told them to.
They started a rebellion (a war against the
proper ruler).
Merlin the Wizard helped King Arthur to rule
Britain. He took him to a magical lake. Merlin’s
friend, the ‘Lady of the Lake’ lived there
beneath the water. She gave Arthur a magic
sword called ‘Excalibur’.
Excalibur was kept in a magic scabbard. If you
used Excalibur in a fight, you would always
defeat your opponent. If you had the scabbard,
you would always be protected from being hurt
yourself.
Arthur led a big army against the 11 rebel
kings. There were many battles, but Arthur had
Excalibur, so he won. The kings agreed that
Arthur should be High-King.
Arthur set up his Royal palace at The Saxons were still attacking
Camelot. the British.
Arthur and the Knights of the
When Arthur was a bit older, he Round Table fought against the
married a princess named Guinevere. Saxons in many battles. They
She was the daughter of King finally defeated them at the Battle
Leodegrance of Cameliard. of Mount Badon.
As a wedding present, her father gave
them a huge round table.
Everyone was happy and felt very
safe again.
All the knights in the country wanted
Arthur thought he was doing a
to be soldiers for King Arthur. The better job than the Roman
bravest of them were allowed to sit at Emperor in Italy. He decided to
the round table. They were known as take his army to Europe. After a
the ‘Knights of the Round Table’. lot of fighting, the Emperor
Because it was round, the agreed to give the western half of
positions of all the seats were Europe to Arthur.
equal. No-one could say they Back in Britain, the Knights of the
were more important because Round Table had lots of
they sat at the end. adventures. Some rescued
princesses. Some fought dragons
or bad knights. Many of them
went to look for a religious cup
called the ‘Holy Grail
The best and bravest of the
Knights of the Round Table was King Arthur’s nephew was
called Sir Lancelot. He came called Mordred (or Medrod).
from Brittany (in France) and was He was an evil man. He found
King Arthur's friend.
out what Guinevere and
He was also very handsome and Lancelot were doing and he
Queen Guinevere fell in love told King Arthur.
with him.
The two would sneak away from
Lancelot ran away, but Queen
the palace to spend time together. Guinevere was taken to court.
King Arthur had no idea what was The judges decided she should
going on.
be burnt to death.
Lancelot rescued her and they
escaped to Brittany.
Arthur took a big army across
the English Channel to
Brittany. He wanted to punish
Lancelot and Guinevere.
King Arthur left Mordred in charge while he
was away in Brittany.
As Arthur had no children, Mordred was
going to inherit the kingdom when Arthur
died; but he could not wait.
Mordred told everyone that King Arthur had
been killed fighting in Brittany. People
believed him and Mordred made himself
High-King of Britain.
Luckily, Arthur heard about what was going
on. He returned to Britain with his army.
Mordred had given away lots of money and
so some people liked him. They helped him
put together his own army and start a
rebellion (a war against the proper ruler).
The armies of Arthur and Mordred fought at
the Battle of Camlann. Unfortunately, Arthur
did not have Excalibur’s scabbard with him.
It had been stolen by his wicked sister,
Morgan Le Fay.
The battle was so bad that only a few
people were left alive at the end. Two of
these were King Arthur and Mordred.
They fought each other in single combat.
Arthur killed Mordred, but was very badly
hurt himself.
Arthur knew he was going to die. He gave Excalibur to
Sir Bedivere. He told him to return it to the magical
lake.
Bedivere pretended to do what he was told; but he hid
Excalibur under a bush instead.
Arthur asked Bedivere what happened when he threw
the sword into the lake. Bedivere said that it sank.
Arthur knew he was lying and told him to go and do the
job properly.
Bedivere threw the sword into the lake. He saw the
hand of the ‘Lady of the Lake’ come out of the water to
catch it.
Three Queens arrived in a boat and took Arthur away
to the Isle of Avalon.
It is thought that he died there soon afterward.
Knights of the Round Table
Knights of the Round Table were those men awarded the highest order of
Chivalry at the Court of King Arthur in the literary cycle the
Matter of Britain.
The table at which they met was created to have no head or foot,
representing the equality of all the members. Different stories had
different numbers of knights, ranging from only 12 to 150 or more.
The Winchester Round Table, which dates from the 1270s, lists 25 names
of knights.
Sir Thomas Malory describes the Knights' code of chivalry as:
To never do outrage nor murder
Always to flee treason
To by no means be cruel but to give mercy unto him who asks for mercy
To always do ladies, gentlewomen and widows succor
To never force ladies, gentlewomen or widows
Not to take up battles in wrongful quarrels for love or worldly goods
LEGEND The Saxons then stayed
OR within their small
settlements and did not
REALITY ? move into new areas for a
whole generation.
At the end of the 5th century, Britain
came under the leadership of a man A document called the
named Arthur. Welsh Annals records that
He was a real man but very little is Arthur died at the Battle of
known about him. Camlann. He was either
There are lots of fighting alongside or
legends told about Arthur and his against a man named
followers, known as the 'Knights of the Medrod. No-one knows
Round Table'. Unfortunately, most of where this battle took
these are just made up stories. place.
He may have been a brilliant
commander in charge of the British
army or a High-King like Vortigern.
A monk named Nennius wrote a
document telling how Arthur was a
Christian who fought 12 great battles
against the Saxons.
The most important of these was his
spectacular victory at the Battle of
Mount Badon. Some people think this
was somewhere near Bath in Somerset.
