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An Arthurian Chronology
  HISTORY LITERATURE THE ARTS
       
Lucius Artorius Castus serves as
AD 175 praefectus of the Legio VI    
Victrix in Britain.
Stilicho withdraws troops from
401 or 402    
Britain for the defense of Italy.
Alans, Vandals, and Sueves
cross the frozen Rhine, invading
31 Dec. 406    
the Gallic provinces of the
Roman Empire.
The army in Britain elects a
406-7 series of usurpers: Marcus,    
Gratian, and Constantine III.
Constantine III crosses to Gaul
407    
with troops from Britain.
Britain is devastated by Saxon
408 or 410    
incursions.
The Britons revolt from the
Empire and set up independent
409 rule.  The Romans can no longer    
hold on to Britain, which is
henceforth ruled by "tyrants." 
Alaric’s Visigoths sack Rome. 
The western emperor Honorius
410 sends a rescript to the cities of    
Britain urging them to see to
their own defense.
St. Germanus visits Britain to
429    
combat the Pelagian heresy.
Some Britons send a letter to
c.430-54 Agitius (Aëtius) asking for aid    
against the barbarians.
Palladius named first bishop of
431 Ireland; succeeded some time     
afterwards by Patrick.
Witnesses in Gaul observed that
some portion of Britain had
c.441    
fallen into the hands of the
Saxons.
Plague infects Britain and much
c.443-c.450    
of Europe.
c.445 St. Germanus makes a second    
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visit to Britain.
The first of the two
c.452   anonymous Gallic  
Chronicles is compiled.
Britons convene a council and
decide to hire Saxon
mercenaries.  The superbus
tyrannus settles the Saxons in
northeastern Britain, from
c.455-c.485    
whence they rebel.  The British
survivors turn to Ambrosius
Aurelianus, who leads them to a
series of victories over the
Saxons.
Riothamus, king of the Britons,
c.468    
fights the Visigoths in Gaul.
The Battle of Mount Badon and
c.485 slaughter of the Saxons.  The    
birth of Gildas.
The second Gallic
c.511    
Chronicle is compiled.
Entry for the Battle of
518   Badon in the Annales  
Cambriae.
521 The birth of St. Columba.    
Gildas writes the De
c.529    
Excidio Britanniae.
Entry for the Battle of
539   Camlann in the Annales  
Cambriae.
Bubonic plague devastates
542-49 Constantinople, eventually    
reaching to Britain and Ireland.
St. Columba establishes a
563-65 monastery on Iona, and begins    
his mission among the Picts.
According to the Annales
Cambriae, the Battle of
573   Arfderydd in which  
Gwenddolau fell and
Myrddin went mad.
The Battle of Dyrham.  The
British towns of Gloucester,
577    
Cirencester, and Bath fall to the
Saxons.
The Battle of Catraeth.  British
c.590 warband from Din Eidyn wiped    
out by the Saxons.
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Papal missionaries led by St.

Augustine arrive at Canterbury. 
597    
The death of St. Columba at
Iona.
Aneirin composes Y
St. Kentigern (Mungo) a British  Gododdin.  St. Columbanus
missionary in Strathclyde, writes his first letter to Pope
c.600  
founds the first church in Gregory I.  The Irish epic
Glasgow. Táin Bó Cuailnge is in
circulation.
The kingdom of the Gododdin is
638    
destroyed.
St. Adomnán, abbot of Iona,
Glastonbury Abbey is founded
688 begins his Life of St.  
by the King of Wessex.
Columba. 
Bede completes his 
731   Ecclesiastical History of the  
English People.
c.786 First Viking raids on Britain.    
Charlemagne crowned Holy English poet Cynewulf
800  
Roman Emperor in Rome active. 
Composition of the Historia
c.830    
Brittonum.
Kenneth mac Alpin unites the
Scottish and Pictish thrones,
843-50     
becoming the first king of
Scotland.
Th early date argued for the
1019    
Life of Saint Goueznou.
The four branches of the
c.1050    
Mabinogi are collected.
Norman invasion of England and
1066    
the battle of Hastings.
Lifric of Llancarfan, Life of
c.1090    
St. Cadoc .
The date of the manuscript
in BM Harley 3859 which
The Perros Relief, in 
contains the Historia
Brittany, illustrating a 
c.1100   Brittonum and the Annales
scene from the legend 
Cambriae.  The final version
of Arthur and St. Efflam.
of Culhwch ac Olwen
appears in writing.
Caradoc of Llancarfan's Life
Early 12th cent.    
of St. Gildas.
The Life of St. Carannog
12th cent.
and The Life of St. Iltud
c.1120-40     The Modena Archivolt, in
northern Italy, depicting the
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rescue of Guinevere.
c.1120 The Life of St. Padarn
William of Malmesbury,
The Early History of
c.1125
Glastonbury and The Deeds
of the English Kings.
Geoffrey of Monmouth 
completes his History of the
Kings of Britain,
c.1136-38    
incorporating  an earlier
work, The Prophecies  of
Merlin.
Geoffrey publishes his Life
c.1150    
of Merlin.
Geoffrey is elected Bishop of St.
1151    
Asaph.
The Treaty of Westminster,
witnessed by Geoffrey of
1153 Monmouth, recognizing Henry     
Plantagenet, son of Matilda, as
the heir of King Stephen.
Wace publishes his Roman
1155    
de Brut.
Arthur is depicted in a 
mosaic on the floor of 
1165    
the Norman cathedral in
Otranto, Italy.
Alanus de Insulus, English
c.1167-83 Prophecies of Merlin
Ambrosius.
Marie de France writes her
c.1170    
Arthurian lays.
Chrétien de Troyes writes
c.1170-91    
his five Arthurian romances.
The poet Thomas writes his
1175    
Tristan.
Eilhart von Oberge writes
1180    
his Tristrant .
Glastonbury monks excavate the
c.1190  Layamon publishes his Brut.  
grave of Arthur and Guinevere.
Béroul writes his Tristan;
Richard I gives "Excalibur" to
Gerald of Wales writes The
1191 King Tancred of Sicily on  
Journey through Wales and
crusade.
The Description of Wales.
c.1193-99 Gerald of Wales writes The
Instruction of a Prince.
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Oldest manuscripts
containing the Welsh Triads;
the Welsh romances Owain,
 13th cent.    
Ystoria Peredur ab Efrawg,
and Geraint ab Erbin are
written. 
Robert de Boron composes
c.1200   Merlin and Joseph  
d'Arimathea. 
Raoul de Houdenc
composes Meraugis de
c.1200-25    
Portlesguez and La
Vengeance Raguidel.
King John captures and executes
1202    
his nephew, Arthur of Brittany.
Wolfram von Eschenbach
writes Parzifal.  Gottfried
1210    
von  Strassburg writes his
Tristan.
1210-25    The Perlesvaus is written.  
The French Vulgate cycle is
1215-35    
written.
Gerald of Wales writes
c.1216
Speculum Ecclesiae .
The first Arthurian 
1220s    
illluminated MSS.
The Prose Tristan is
1250    
completed.
The Black Book of
Carmarthen, which contains
the poems The Stanzas of
c.1250   the Graves, Pa Gur, and  
Geraint son of Erbin . The
anonymous French romance
L'Atre Périlleux.
The Tristan story is 
illustrated on tiles at 
1270    
Chertsey Abbey, 
England.
Edward I visits Glastonbury
1278 Abbey for the reinterment of    
Arthur's bones.
The Book of Aneirin, which
Late 13th cent.    
contains the Gododdin .
Early 14th cent.   The Book of Taliesin, which  
contains The Spoils of
Annwfn, The Battle of the
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Trees, The Prince's Chair,

The Poem of the Horses, and
Uther Pendragon's Elegy.
First mention of Arthur as
1310    
one of the Nine Worthies.
Edward III promises to establish
1344    
a new Order of the Round Table.
The stanzaic Le Morte
Original construction of the
Arthur is written; the date of
c.1350   Winchester Round 
the White Book of
Table.
Rhydderch.
The alliterative Morte
Arthure is written; the date
c.1400   of the Red Book of Hergest,  
which contains the poem
The Dream of Rhonabwy.
An anonymous English poet
1400   completes Sir Gawain and  
the Green Knight.
       
Sir Thomas Malory
completes Le Morte
1470    
D’Arthur , while in 
prison.
Henry Tudor defeats Richard III
William Caxton publishes
at Bosworth Field, fighting
1485 Malory's Le Morte  
under the banner of the Red
D’Arthur.
Dragon.
Henry VII's first son is
1486    
christened Arthur at Winchester.
The death of Arthur Tudor,
1502    
Prince of Wales.
Catherine of Aragon gives
1511    
Henry VIII a son named Arthur.
Henry VIII shows the
visiting emperor Charles V
the Winchester Round
1522    
Table, then bearing a painted
figure of Arthur with
Henry's visage.
 Leland identifies South Cadbury
1542    
as Camelot.
Queen Elizabeth gives her
1587     royal commendation to an
Arthurian pageant.
 Publication of Spenser's
1590 and 1596    The Faerie Queene  
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In his Britannia, William

Camden includes an
1607    
engraving of the
Glastonbury Cross.
King Arthur, or the 
British Worthy, a masque by
1691     
John Dryden and Henry
Purcell.
Thomas Love Peacock’s
1829 satirical romance, The
Misfortunes of Elphin
Tennyson composes and
1834-85    publishes various versions  
of his Idylls of the King.
Formation of the Pre- 
1848      Raphaelite Brotherhood 
in London.
Matthew Arnold writes the
1852     
poem Tristram and Iseult.
William Morris publishes
The 
1858     
Defence of Guenevere, and
Other Poems.
The first presentation of
1865      Wagner's Tristan und 
Isolde.
Sidney Lanier's A Boy's
1880    King Arthur, a retelling of  
Malory.
Algernon Charles
Wagner produces his final
Swinburne writes the poem
1882    opera, Parsifal , a year
Tristram of 
before his death.
Lyonesse.
 J.W. Waterhouse's most
1888      famous painted version of
The Lady of Shalott.
 Mark  Twain writes A 
1889    Connecticut Yankee in King  
Arthur's Court.
Howard Pyle writes and
1903-10    illustrates his famous  
retellings of Malory.
Edwin Arlington Robinson's
1917-27    three Arthurian poems are   
published.
T.S. Eliot composes the
poem The Waste Land , with
1922     
its Arthurian and Grail
imagery.
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John Cowper Powys writes

1932     
A Glastonbury Romance .
T.H. White writes his first 
1938    Arthurian novel, The Sword  
in the Stone.
Charles Williams publishes
Taliessin through Logres
1938 and 1944     
and The Region of the
Summer Stars.
Jean Cocteau's film, 
1943     
L'Eternel Retour.
Bing Crosby stars in the film
musical A Connecticut 
1949     
Yankee in King Arthur's 
Court.
1951 John Cowper Powys' novel,
Porius: A Romance of the
Dark Ages
Four of T.H. White's
Arthurian  novels are
1958     
published together as The
Once and Future King.
Walt Disney's animated film
Rosemary Sutcliff's novel,
1963    The Sword in the 
Sword at Sunset .
Stone.
The film version of the 
1967     
musical Camelot.
Mary Stewart begins her
1970    Merlin trilogy with The  
Crystal Cave.
Susan Cooper’s novel The
1973
Dark is Rising .
Robert Bresson's film 
1974     
Lancelot du Lac.
The comic film Monty 
1975     
Python and the Holy Grail.
Publication of John
Steinbeck's  unfinished
1976     
novel, The Acts of King
Arthur.
Thomas Berger's satiric Eric Rohmer's film 
1978   
novel, Arthur Rex . Perceval le Gallois.
Parke Godwin's novel,
1980    
Firelord.
John Boorman's film 
1981     
Excalibur.
1982    Marion Zimmer Bradley's  
novel, The Mists of Avalon;
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Phyllis Ann Karr's novel,

The Idylls of the Queen.

Parke Godwin's novel,

1984    
Beloved Exile.
Stephen R. Lawhead's "The
Pendragon Cycle" (novels):
Taliesin (1987), Merlin
1987-97    
(1988), Arthur (1989),
Pendragon (1994), and
Grail (1997).
Diana L. Paxson's Tristan
1988    
novel, The White Raven.
Terry Gilliam's film The 
1991     
Fisher King.
Jerry Zucker's film First
1995     
Knight.
Bernard Cornwell's "The
Warlord Chronicles"
(novels): The Winter King
1995-97    
(1995), Enemy of God
(1996), and Excalibur
(1997).
1998     
1999
2000
Jack Whyte’s novel Uther
2001 (in the Camulod Chronicle
series).

Sources
Lacy, Norris J., Geoffrey Ashe, and Debra N. Mancoff. The Arthurian Handbook, 2nd ed. (New York,
1997).

Lacy, Norris J. (ed.) The New Arthurian Encyclopedia (New York, 1991).

Snyder, Christopher A. An Age of Tyrants: Britain and the Britons, AD 400-600 (University Park, PA,
1998).

Snyder, Christopher A. The World of King Arthur (New York and London, 2000).

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