Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a celebrated chronicler and ecclesiastic of twelfth century. He was a priest and collector of old welsh scripts as well as compilations of Nennius, a historian. He was a Welsh priest known as compiler of what he called a "History of the Early Kings of Britain," from that of Brut, through the story of King Arthur and others, such as King Lear, down to that of Cadwallo, a Welsh king, who died in 689.

He was born in Monmouth, where he was educated in a Benedictine monastery. In 1152, he was made bishop of St. Asaph. He was a priest at Henry I's court.

He wrote in Latin, but he contributed in the development of the national psyche at the time when people were just beginning to feel nationhood.

His Latin "Chronicon sive Historia Britonum" contains a circumstantial account of British history compiled from Gildas, Nennius, and other early chroniclers, interwoven with current legends and pieced together with additions from his own fertile imagination, the whole professing to be a translation of a chronicle found in Brittany; this remarkable history is the source of the stories of King Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin, and of Arthur and his knights as they have since taken shape in English literature. He died about 1154.

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