Polydore Vergil and John Leland on King Arthur

The question of how the Tudor dynasty deployed the Arthurian myth is one that continues to be debated. ² From a literary historian’s perspective, however, there is one key fact: without doubt, Spenser’s great poem, The Faerie Queene, linked the Arthurian legend with an imperial vision of the English monarchy. ³ Nor was Spenser alone in his interest in Arthur: Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion, for example, examined the topographical aspects of the story, and other minor poets and playwrights throughout the period wrote about la mattère de Bretagne. ⁴ Even if the situation is not entirely clear in all its political ramifications, then, Arthur certainly played an important role as symbol of the monarch and imperial splendour in the literature of the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. ⁵ And this widespread association of Arthur with the Tudor throne, nationalism, and cultural concerns forms the backdrop to a particularly vehement scholarly battle between the Italian historian Polydore Vergil and the English antiquary John Leland.