Death of Geoffrey of Monmouth

1162

The Welsh-descended cleric who had given Europe King Arthur, Merlin, and the Prophecies of Merlin died shortly after his appointment as bishop of St Asaph. He had never managed to visit his see because of Welsh wars. His fictions were by then being copied and adapted across Christendom, spawning the Arthurian romance tradition that would captivate courts from London to Palermo.