According to tradition, King Arthur of England died.
Mort d’Arthur
According to legend, Arthur was the son of King Uther Pendragon and Igerna, wife of Corlois, Duke of Cornwall, who Uther had cuckolded. They later married when Corlois died in battle. It is unlikely Arthur really existed, and he is not found in chronicles before Norman times, five centuries after his supposed death.
On the death of Uther, Arthur became king. He went to war against the Anglo-Saxons, whom he defeated with great slaughter in a place called Mount Badon. He then went on to defeat the Scots and Picts, then conquered Ireland, Iceland, Gothland and the Orcades, followed by Denmark, Norway and Gaul. He supposedly defeated the Gallic governor Flollo at Paris, after nine years of trying to subdue the Gauls.
He returned to his native land, gathered all the princes together and was crowned again, after which representatives from Rome bore a letter from Lucius Tiberius, the procurator of Rome, demanding that he relinquish all the lands that he had taken from Rome, and also that he pay the tribute that Britain had formerly paid to the Imperial power.
King Arthur entrusted his kingdom to his nephew Modred and his queen Guanhumara (Guinevere), and crossed the Channel to France, disembarking at Mont St Michael, where he slew a Spanish giant, who had carried away Helena, the niece of Hoel of Brittany. Arthur engaged Tiberius in France, and defeated him. He was marching with his troops to Rome, passing the Alps, when he got disastrous news from Britain – Modred had conspired with and married the queen, taking the crown. Arthur left half his forces in France under command of Hoel of Brittany, and landed the other half at Rutupiae, or Richborough, Guanhumara fleeing to a nunnery in penitence, where she spent the remainder of her days.
Modred was killed by Arthur's men. After three battles with him, Arthur finally killed him in battle, but was mortally wounded himself. They carried Arthur to the Isle of Avalon (Glastonbury, home today of the Glastonbury Festival) but were unable to heal him. This tale of the legendary King Arthur comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth and was written in 1147.
“Medieval authors disagree about the precise fate of King Arthur following his final, man-to-man battle with Mordred. Geoffrey of Monmouth writes that, in 542, King Arthur ‘was mortally wounded and was carried off to the Isle of Avalon, so that his wounds might be attended to.’ No mention is made of a burial; later in the twelfth century, Wace diverges from his source, Geoffrey, writing that the last battle occurred in 642, and moreover that ‘Arthur is yet in Avalon, awaited of the Britons; for they say and deem he will return from whence he went and live again.’” Source
