Geoffrey of Monmouth publishes History of the Kings of Britain

1136

An Oxford cleric of Breton or Welsh extraction released a Latin history claiming descent from Trojan refugees and giving Europe the earliest full narrative of King Arthur, Merlin, and Guinevere. It was dismissed as fantasy by sober chroniclers and devoured by everyone else. Geoffrey's inventions proved irresistible to poets and romancers across Europe, who adapted his stories into French, German, and eventually English vernacular traditions.