Historia Regum Britanniae

Timeline

1. c. 1136–1138Oxford / around Monmouth · EnglandGeoffrey claimed to translate from an ancient British book, but actually wrote a history of kings from Brutus, a descendant of Troy, down to the 7th century, drawing on Welsh legends, early Latin chronicles, and invented genealogies. Dedicated to Robert of Gloucester (and in some manuscripts to Waleran of Meulan), on the eve of the civil war between Stephen and Matilda.
2. 1138–1155Manuscript networks of England and Normandy · BritainWithin a dozen years of its composition, numerous Latin manuscripts appeared. French adaptations such as Wace's Roman de Brut brought Arthur's court, Merlin's prophecies, and the myth of British kingship into Angevin-Norman courts, turning the work from a historiographical experiment into a cross-linguistic literary source.
3. c. 1155Courts and cities of Western Europe · Western EuropeLater French chivalric romances such as those by Chrétien de Troyes, though far removed from Geoffrey's chronological framework, still relied on the stage of Arthurian kingship and ancient British history he established. Modern national historiography reduced it to pseudohistory, but its literary influence has not ended.