While usually harmless, Mike is not above using underhanded tactics to get his way — in A Hole in the Heart ( series 3 ), he steals a story from Marty because viewers are responding positively to it, while in Addicted to Fame, he demands that Geoffrey's television show be cancelled because he is jealous of the attention his friend is getting.

Many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey's Historia, including Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, Arthur's wife Guinevere, the sword Excalibur, Arthur's conception at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann and final rest in Avalon.

Geoffrey's account of Merlin Ambrosius ' early life in the Historia Regum Britanniae is based on the story of Ambrosius in the Historia Brittonum.

Geoffrey's story was incorporated into Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles in 1577, where it was found by William Shakespeare and used as the basis of his romance, Cymbeline.

Although credited uncritically well into the 16th century, since the 17th century it has been credited with little value as history-when events described, such as Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain, can be corroborated from contemporary histories, Geoffrey's account can be seen to be wildly inaccurate-but it remains a valuable piece of medieval literature, which contains the earliest known version of the story of King Lear and his three daughters, and introduced non-Welsh-speakers to the legend of King Arthur.

Nevertheless, a " traditional " story arose blending Geoffrey's fiction with known history, implying that the future King Edwin of Northumbria had actually spent his youth in Gwynedd, growing up alongside Iago's grandson, the future King Cadwallon.

Geoffrey's narrative emphasizes Lucius ' virtues, and gives a detailed, if fanciful, account of the spread of Christianity during his reign.

Geoffrey's account spread widely through the Middle Ages and after, and Catigern has appeared in adaptations of Geoffrey, and occasionally, in other derivative works.

Although the themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey's version of events often served as the starting point for later stories.

There is clear evidence for a knowledge of Arthur and Arthurian tales on the Continent before Geoffrey's work became widely known ( see for example, the Modena Archivolt ), as well as for the use of " Celtic " names and stories not found in Geoffrey's Historia in the Arthurian romances.

Geoffrey's version of Constantine was included in the various later adaptations of the Historia, which were widely regarded as authentic in the Middle Ages.

The Welsh redactions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, Brut y Brenhinedd, associate him with Ynys Afallach, which is substituted as the Welsh name for Geoffrey's Insula Avalonsis ( Island of Avalon ), but this is fanciful medieval etymology and it is more likely his name derives from the Welsh word afall " apple tree " ( modern Welsh afal " apple ", afalllen " apple tree " cf.

Purportedly an account of the wizard Merlin's later adventures, it elaborates some episodes from Geoffrey's more famous earlier work, Historia Regum Britanniae.

This toponymical connection parallels Geoffrey's association of King Leir with Leicester and Coel with Colchester, and William of Malmesbury's assertion that Gawain was king of Galloway ; in the Middle Ages no principle of historiography was more solidly established than the idea that places took their names from persons.

The dispute was settled once more when the pope stepped in and ratified Geoffrey's election, thus enabling a reconciliation between the king and the archbishop at Tours in June.

Geoffrey appealed to the king, who was then in Maine ; Richard overruled Walter, restored Geoffrey's estates, and pardoned him in return for a payment of 1000 marks and the promise of 1000 more to follow.

Geoffrey protested to the king after Richard forbade Geoffrey's projected journey to Rome and in retaliation the king confiscated Geoffrey's estates once more.

Geoffrey's description of Caerleon is probably based on his personal familiarity with the town and its impressive Roman ruins ; it is less clear that Caerleon was associated with Arthur before Geoffrey.

The textual sources for Arthur are usually divided into those written before Geoffrey's Historia ( known as pre-Galfridian texts, from the Latin form of Geoffrey, Galfridus ) and those written afterwards, which could not avoid his influence ( Galfridian, or post-Galfridian, texts ).

The Welsh form of the name is given as Blaiddyd in manuscripts of the Brut Tysilio ( Welsh translations of Geoffrey's Historia ).

These episodes appear in many later adaptations of Geoffrey's account.

Early translations and adaptations of Geoffrey's Historia, such as Wace's Norman French Roman de Brut, Layamon's Middle English Brut, were named after Brutus, and the word " Brut " came to mean a chronicle of British history.

There have been relatively few modern attempts to challenge this notion that the Historia Regum Britanniae is primarily Geoffrey's own work, with scholarly opinion often echoing William of Newburgh's late-12th-century comment that Geoffrey " made up " his narrative, perhaps through an " inordinate love of lying ".

Well over 200 manuscript copies of Geoffrey's Latin work are known to have survived, and this does not include translations into other languages.

Brut y Tywysogion (" Chronicle of the Princes "), a major chronicle for the Welsh rulers from the 7th century to loss of independence, is a purely historical work containing no legendary material but the title reflects the influence of Geoffrey's work and in one sense can be seen as a " sequel " to it.

Henry appears to have written this part of the Historia Anglorum before he knew about Geoffrey's work, leading J. S. P. Tatlock to conclude that Geoffrey borrowed the passage from Henry, rather than the other way around.

In the Middle Welsh translations of Geoffrey's work known collectively as Brut y Brenhinedd, Heli's name was restored to Beli and his father renamed to Manogan.

Dyfnwal Moelmud is referred to in Welsh tradition, predating Geoffrey's work, as a lawmaker but there are no native sources for Geoffrey's elaboration of that tradition.

He should also not be confused with Eldol, Consul of Gloucester who lives generations later in Geoffrey's work.

Much of the work appears to be derived from Gildas's 6th century polemic The Ruin of Britain, Bede's 8th century Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the 9th century History of the Britons ascribed to Nennius, the 10th century Welsh Annals, medieval Welsh genealogies ( such as the Harleian Genealogies ) and king-lists, the poems of Taliesin, the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen, and some of the medieval Welsh Saint's Lives, expanded and turned into a continuous narrative by Geoffrey's own imagination.

Geoffrey's work is greatly important because it brought the Welsh culture into British society and made it acceptable.

However, Geoffrey's work is highly romanticized and contains little trustworthy historical fact, rendering his account of Arvirargus suspect.

* Prophetiae Merlini: Geoffrey presented a series of apocalyptic narratives as the work of the earlier Merlin who, until Geoffrey's book came out, was known as " Myrddin ".

The work, Geoffrey's only known poem, was written in Latin verse ( hexameter ).

How much of Geoffrey's Historia ( completed in 1138 ) was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown.

Thus, for example, around 60 manuscripts are extant containing Welsh-language versions of the Historia, the earliest of which were created in the 13th century ; the old notion that some of these Welsh versions actually underlie Geoffrey's Historia, advanced by antiquarians such as the 18th-century Lewis Morris, has long since been discounted in academic circles.

The popularity of Geoffrey's Historia and its other derivative works ( such as Wace's Roman de Brut ) is generally agreed to be an important factor in explaining the appearance of significant numbers of new Arthurian works in continental Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly in France.

Robert was inspired by Wace's Roman de Brut, an Anglo-Norman adaptation of Geoffrey's Historia.

Louis VII agreed to recognise Geoffrey's son Henry as the new duke in 1151 in exchange of concessions in Norman Vexin.

It is not until the 13th-century French prose romances, including the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, that Camelot began to supersede Caerleon, and even then, many descriptive details applied to Camelot derive from Geoffrey's earlier grand depiction of the Welsh town.

One might suppose Rica to be another name for Gorlois ( though Welsh translations of Geoffrey name him Gwrlais ), but we also have in Geoffrey's account a Gormant the Irish who is king of Ireland ( based on the villain of the French chançon de geste called Gormant et Isenbart ) and this Gormant might be hiding here also as Gormant ap Rica, this being a possible corruption of Gormant Ireland.

In the later part of 1186, after the death of King Henry's son Geoffrey – who was Duke of Brittany – King Philip II of France demanded that Geoffrey's daughters be placed in the French king's custody, and that the duchy of Brittany, which Geoffrey had ruled in right of his wife, be surrendered into French royal custody.