On this day in history, 14th March 1471 - Death of Sir Thomas Malory, known for his work &l

On this day in history, 14th March 1471 - Death of Sir Thomas Malory, known for his work “Le Morte d'Arthur”, which he wrote in prison. In his own words, Malory was a ‘knight prisoner’ who implored his readers to pray for his deliverance in life and his soul in death. Though his identity is not certain, he is generally believed to have been the Sir Thomas Malory who inherited the estates of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire and Winwick in Northamptonshire in 1434, aged around 24 years.Malory led the unremarkable life of a country gentleman, attending to his judicial and social responsibilities as lord of the manor until 1450 when, for unknown reasons, he turned to a life of crime.With 26 men, he ambushed the Duke of Buckingham and tried to murder him. He stole livestock, and extorted money with menaces. He was accused of rape on two occasions. Leading a small army of 100 men, he attacked Combe Abbey, terrifying the monks and stealing their money and valuables. Malory was arrested and spent most of the 1450s in various prisons without ever coming to trial. He made his escape twice and was bailed out on two other occasions.Malory was one of a number of gang leaders who exploited the increasing breakdown of law and order across England. Central government was weak under Henry VI, who suffered from bouts of insanity. Local disorder thrived. Richard, Duke of York ruled as Regent during the illness of Henry VI, who came from the house of Lancaster. When Henry recovered in 1455, Richard was not about to relinquish power. Civil war broke out as the houses of York and Lancaster fought for the throne in the Wars of the Roses.By 1462, Malory had been released from prison and was fighting with the powerful Earl of Warwick on the side of the Yorkists. He joined a campaign to re-take the Northumbrian castles at Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanbrugh. When Warwick later switched his allegiance to the Lancastrian cause, Malory followed. It was a political miscalculation. In 1468, he was specifically excluded from the list of Lancastrians granted pardon by the new Yorkist king, Edward IV. Malory was back in prison.It was during this second imprisonment, in London’s Newgate Prison, that Malory began occupying his time in writing the work he called “the whole book of King Arthur and his noble knights of the Round Table”. Malory’s book was re-titled Le Morte Darthur by William Caxton who produced the first printed edition in 1485. Caxton’s was the only known version of Malory’s text until the discovery of this manuscript in 1934.When Henry VI briefly regained the throne in October 1470, all Lancastrian political prisoners in London’s jails were freed. Just five months later, Malory died and was buried in Greyfriars Churchyard – just across the road from Newgate Prison. -- source link

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