Polydore Vergil as Arthurian Witness: On King Arthur and Count Hoyer the Red in the Mansfeldische chronica (1572) of Cyriakus Spangenberg

Abstract:

Cyriakus Spangenberg (d. 1604), a prominent Protestant theologian, seeks to trace and celebrate the history of the comital House of Mansfeld in his dynastic chronicle, Mansfeldische chronica (Eisleben, 1572). There, he includes a brief biographical entry on King Arthur that links the Round Table to Hoyer the Red, imagined progenitor of the Counts of Mansfeld and Arthurian paladin (fl. ca. 550 AD). Spangenberg’s intertwined material on King Arthur and Count Hoyer, we have found, draws on the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Johannes Agricola, Wirnt von Grafenberg, and Polydore Vergil. Polydore is a surprising choice as an Arthurian arbiter and sympathetic voice, given his reputation for skepticism about Galfridian lore and the place of King Arthur in British history. Spangenberg’s willingness to promote Polydore’s witness reveals that, in this important early modern case of reception, contemporary and modern critical assessments fail to align.