caption death_date religion birth_place birth_date known_for image article_title name occupation
merlin geoffrey of monmouth 's '' historia regum britanniae '' . prophesies for vortigern , from a manuscript of c. 1155 roman catholic possibly monmouth , wales c. 1100 his chronicle '' la historia regum britanniae '' cotton claudius b vii f. 224 merlin vortigern.jpg geoffrey of monmouth
 geoffrey of monmouth cleric
geoffrey of monmouth

geoffrey of monmouth -lrb- , -rrb- -lrb- c. 1100 -- c. 1155 -rrb- was a welsh cleric and one of the major figures in the development of british historiography and the popularity of tales of king arthur .
he is best known for his chronicle '' '' -lrb- `` history of the kings of britain '' -rrb- , which was widely popular in its day and was credited , uncritically , well into the 16th century , being translated into various other languages from its original latin , but which is now considered historically unreliable .
