34. Sir Thomas Malory Goes to Prison for Treason, London, England 1468

Old Newgate Prison — The Newgate Prison pictured here was both the city gate and a prison, notoriously unhealthy and noxious. Destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, it got rebuilt, much larger, and was finally torn down in 1904. Sir Thomas Malory spent the last years of his life here. Even with money, it can’t have been a good time. But there was a perk; it was next door to the Greyfriars Monastery, which had an excellent library. And that’s why we have Le Morte d’Arthur. Cause Thomas Malory had a library he could spend time in whilst imprisoned for treason.

Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel got into lots of legal trouble in 1443, 1451, 1452, and might or might not have done the things he got accused of, but he did indeed enter into a plot, along with Richard Neville, to overthrow King Edward IV, for which he ended up in prison. Too bad for him! But lucky for us, because that’s when he wrote The Hoole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble Knyghtes of The Rounde Table, which got published, after his death, by William Caxton, which is why we know it. Caxton, by the way, made a bunch of editing decisions, one of which was to shorten the title to Le Morte d’Arthur . Your hosts explain lots of things — Malory’s legal troubles, where Le Morte d’Arthur fits into Arthurian literature, Malory’s feud with the Duke of Buckingham — and include some holy oil given to Becket by the Virgin Mary herself, and Dickens’ connection to Marshalsea prison. It’s all connected. Really.

Link to Podcast

Link to Show Notes

Link to Transcript