Though he is not himself the greatest of the knights of the Round Table (that title belongs to Lancelot), Arthur is nevertheless the king and lord of that company: He is the one presiding over this lost period in history when chivalry thrived. As such, he has the special honor of numbering one of the greatest of England’s kings ever to have lived. The reverence showed to Arthur in Le Morte d’Arthur is perhaps less personal and more idealistic; his knights serve the principle of courtesy, which Arthur embodies, more than they do Arthur the man. This is why certain knights, such as Tristram and Lancelot, occasionally battle Arthur.

Arthur was probably a historical figure, though the legends of his magnificence are outlandishly exaggerated. Thomas Bulfinch called him “the little prince of the Silures (South Wales)” in reference to his comparative insignificance within the historical arc of England (Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch’s Mythology. Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006. p. 350). Mentions of him in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century account of British kings mark him as a brave warrior against the Saxon invaders, but later storytellers embellished this characterization to the point of making Arthur a kind of Christ figure or superhero.