Christ, which were
named, the first Hector of Troy, of whom the history is comen both in
ballad and in prose, the second Alexander the Great, and the third
Julius Caesar, Emperor of Rome, of whom the histories be well known and
had. And as for the three Jews, which also were to-fore the incarnation
of our Lord, of whom the first was duke Joshua which brought the
children of Israel into the land of behest, the second David king of
Jerusalem, and the third Judas Machabeus, of these three the Bible
rehearseth all their noble histories and acts. And since the said
Incarnation have been three noble Christian men, stalled and admitted
through the universal world into the number of the nine best and worthy.
Of whom was first the noble Arthur, whose noble acts I purpose to write
in this present book here following. The second was Charlemain, or
Charles the Great, of whom the history is had in many places, both in
French and in English. And the third and last was Godfrey of Boloine, of
whose acts and life I made a book unto the excellent prince and king of
noble memory, King Edward the Fourth.

The said noble gentlemen instantly required me to imprint the history of
the said noble king and conqueror King Arthur, and of his knights, with
the history of the Saint Greal, and of the death and ending of the said
Arthur; affirming that I ought rather to imprint his acts and
noble feats, than of Godfrey of Boloine, or any of the other eight,
considering that he was a man born within this realm, and king and
emperor of the same: and that there be in French divers and many noble
volumes of his acts, and also of his knights. To whom I answered that
divers men hold opinion that there was no such Arthur, and that all
such books as been made of him be feigned and fables, because that some
chronicles make of him no mention, nor remember him nothing, nor of his
knights. Whereto they answered, and one in special said, that in him
that should say or think that there was never such a king called Arthur
might well be aretted great folly and blindness. For he said that there
were many evidences of the contrary. First ye may see his sepulchre in
the monastery of Glastonbury. And also in Policronicon, in the fifth
book the sixth chapter, and in the seventh book the twenty-third
chapter, where his body was buried, and after found, and translated into
the said monastery. Ye shall see also in the history of Bochas, in his
book De Casu Principum, part of