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Geoffrey of Monmouth, Latin name Gaufridus Monemutensis c.1100-c.1154
Welsh chronicler and ecclesiastic

Thought to be the son of Breton parents, he studied at Oxford, was archdeacon of Llandaff or Monmouth (c.1140) and was appointed Bishop of St Asaph (1152). He compiled a fictitious history of Great Britain, Historia Regum Britanniae (c.1136), which traced the descent of British kings back to the Trojans, and he claimed to have based it on old Welsh chronicles that he alone had seen. Composed before 1147, it brought enduring romance by introducing the legends of King Arthur to European literature.