Gueneuer the wife of king Arthur, hir beautie and dishonest life,
great disagreement among writers touching Arthur and his wiues to the
impeachment of the historie, of his life and death._

THE XIIIJ. CHAPTER.


The occasion that mooued king Henrie the second to cause his nephue
the foresaid abbat to search for the graue of king Arthur, was, for
that he vnderstood by a Welsh minstrell or Bardh (as they call him)
that could sing manie histories in the Welsh language of the acts of
the ancient Britains, that in the forsaid churchyard at Glastenburie,
betwixt the said two pillers the bodie of Arthur was to be found
sixtéene foot déepe vnder the ground. Gyraldus Cambrensis affirmeth,
that the trée in the which Arthurs bodie was found so inclosed, was an
oke, but other suppose that it was an alder trée, bicause that in the
same place a great number of that kind of trées doo grow, and also
for that it is not vnknowne, that an alder lieng vnder ground where
moisture is, will long continue without rotting.

¶ By the finding thus of the bodie of Arthur buried (as before ye haue
[Sidenote: As for example in a caue néere a water called pond
perilous at Salisburie, where he and his knights should sléepe armed,
till an other knight should be borne that should come and awake them.
_Will. Malmes. lib. 1. de regibus Ang._]
heard) such as hitherto beleeued that he was not dead, but conueied
awaie by the fairies into some pleasant place, where he should remaine
for a time, and then to returne againe, and reigne in as great
authoritie as euer he did before, might well perceiue themselues
deceiued in crediting so vaine a fable. But yet (where it might