A Fine and Terrible Mystery - Episode 22: Why did he write it?

This is episode 22 of my investigation into the life and works of Sir Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte d’Arthur.  Episode 1 can be found here.

 

Why did Sir Thomas Malory write Le Morte d’Arthur?   Here are three alternatives.  He was imprisoned and trapped in a labyrinth of legal difficulties from which he might never emerge.  His solace was a diverse library of Arthurian sources and, choosing an avocation, he undertook to reconcile and collect what he judged to be the most important of those stories into a single coherent chronicle of the legendary ruler.  It was simply a distraction.

Or, imprisoned and trapped in a labyrinth of legal difficulties but with access to a diverse library of historical and fictional writing about King Arthur he decided to extract the true history of that most worthy king into a single chronicle and through doing so develop the perspective and wisdom to understand and patiently bear his own situation.  It was a search for personal illumination.

Or, finally, imprisoned and trapped in a labyrinth of legal difficulties but with access to an extraordinary Arthurian library, he decided to write a new work of fiction compiled from them which would prove to the world the virtue and morality of the code by which he himself attempted to live in stories about a time as fraught with conflict and unrest as his own.  It was an act of self-affirmation.

I’ve been researching Sir Thomas Malory’s life and reading his works since January and I wouldn’t presume to opine which of the those three is most likely correct.  The events of his life and what I’ve learned has convinced me that he was most probably innocent of all the charges leveled against him in the 1450s.  At a minimum the extant evidence is far from sufficient for conviction by modern legal standards.  Yet, for all that, I’m surprised at how little I feel I know the man.  What was his own family life like?  Did he love his wife and son?  Did he love the Warwickshire country in which he lived and remember moments and vistas as he languished in the Marshalsea?

One of my goals in undertaking the project was to develop a deeper sense of 15^th century life.  The past is indeed a foreign country; they do things differently there and it is sometimes very difficult to travel.  Yet that uncertainty is part of a greater empathy I’m developing for those that lived at that particular time and the difficult choices they faced.

Here’s an example.  From 1455 to 1460, extensive, sometimes ruthless parliamentary maneuvering and four important battles, 1^st St. Albans, Blore Heath, Ludford Bridge and Northampton delineated and polarized the two major camps of the Wars of the Roses:   the Queen’s party and the party of Richard, Duke of York.   As I’ve discussed previously, Malory was finally freed in October of 1457 through the efforts of  Lord Fauconberg, one of York’s lieutenants.  York’s ambition was apparent, yet he was also the more capable and equitable administrator.  The Queen’s party which mostly had control of the government, and King Henry’s apathetic approval, was exploitive, corrupt and divisive.  On October 31, 1460, the last great compromise between the two factions was announced.  Henry VI would rule until his death, but he would be succeeded by York and his heirs, not his own son, Edward of Winchester.  Shakespeare portrays a weak Henry, coerced by Warwick and York, who have him in his power but there could be more to it.  There was speculation at the time that Edward might not have been Henry’s son.  (Margaret may have chosen to conceive by a surrogate because the King was incapable or unwilling.  When her pregnancy was announced, the Milanese ambassador told Duke Francesco Sforza that when told of his wife’s pregnancy Henry had exclaimed “If she is expecting a child, then it must have been conceived by the Holy Ghost.”)  If so, there was a certain sense to it:  York would have been Henry’s proper heir.  Nevertheless, I don’t know.   Malory almost certainly didn’t know.

One thing we do know is that Malory’s nemesis and the Queen’s lieutenant, Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham was killed at the Battle of Northampton and the events of Malory’s life would have a very different character thereafter.

Episode 23 can be found here.