Sir Thomas Malory

His father, John Malory

Esquire with land in three English
Midland counties (Warwickshire,
Leicestershire and Northampton shire)
Public officeholder in Warwickshire
twice sheriff, five times a member of
Parliament and a justice of the peace
Married Philippa Chetwynd, and they
had at least three children including
Thomas in 1416ish

Malorys early years

The Good
By the age of 23, Thomas seems to be
following in his fathers footsteps as a
respectable landowner
By 1441, he has been knighted and is Sir
Thomas
Marries Elizabeth Walsh, and has a son
Robert
1445 elected as a public official for
Warwickshire

The Bad
1443 Malory charged with wounding
and imprisoning Thomas Smith and
stealing his goods.
Nothing seems to come of the charges,
and as seen before, he is elected to public
office in 1445
Political turmoil in the late 1440s/early
1550s and the War of the Roses

The UGLY or:

Malory makes Chaucer

look like a saint

Alleged actions and a downward spiral

1/4/1450 Malory and a number of other armed men lay an
ambush for the Duke of Buckingham near Newbold Revel
5/23/1450 rapes Joan Smith
5/31/1450 extortion
8/6/1450 rapes Joan Smith again, and steals from her husband
8/31/1450 some more extortion
1451 responsible for the theft of 7 cows, 2 calves, 335 sheep,
and a cart (Buckingham attempts to apprehend him)
Imprisoned more than once escapes and swims across a moat,
is bailed out a few times, fights his way out once, and is
pardoned
Later expressly left out of royal pardons

The Morte
Written in part (or perhaps wholly) during
Malorys multiple incarcerations
Completed 1469/1470, not long before
Morte de Malory 3/14/1471, possibly
while still a prisoner at Newgate. Buried at
Greyfriars Church

Controversy!
How are we to handle the discrepancy between the way
Malory lived his life and the virtues held up in Le Morte
Darthur?
Easiest way is to claim that the Newbold Revel Malory
isnt the right Malory
16th Century John Bale associates Malory with
Welsh origins
Other possible Thomas Malory candidates, as public
records are fragmentary, often contradictory and
sometimes fraudulent
Most scholars, however, accept the Newbold Revel
Malory as the writer/compiler of the Morte

Sources

Field, P.J.C. Malorys Life Records. A Companion to Malory. Ed.

Elizabeth Archibald and A.S.G. Edwards. Cambridge: D.S.
Brewer, 1996.
Mathews, William. The Ill Famed Knight. Berkeley: University of
California P, 1966.
Shepherd, Stephen H.A. "Malory: Life Events." Foreword. Le Morte
Darthur. By Sir Thomas Malory. New York: Norton & Company,
2004. Xxiv-xvii.
"Thomas Malory." Wikipedia. 1 Apr. 2009
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Malory>.