Description | Geoffrey of Monmouth: Welsh clergyman who, in the 1130w, published the Historia Regum Britanniae, a largely fictional history of the Kings of England. Despite its patent fictions, which were detected from the beginning, it proved highly popular. It was the source for the Arthurian legend as we now know it, as well as the story of King Lear. We have few details on Geoffrey himself; he probably derived a few ideas from Welsh legend, but the bulk of his original material was his own creation. |