What most people want to know is, was there really a King Arthur?

But right now, there is no good way to really, truly know that.

History is supposed to be made up of the things we know to be true; anything else is called fiction, speculation, legend, myth and a variety of other names.

What we know to be true:

• in the Middle Ages (from about 800 to about 1400 A.D.), there was no King Arthur in England
• in the Dark Ages (from about 500 to about 800 A.D.), there may have been a King Arthur, but no one has substantial proof
• the Roman armies left Britain around 410 A.D. This left the people living in Britain without protection. The Saxons started to raid and invade not long afterward
• the people who lived in Britain during this time had been heavily influenced by the Romans, and were probably Christian and quite civilized
• Gildas, a monk living in the sixth century (after King Arthur would have died), wrote a book about the Saxon invasion. He explained how Britain was invaded by the Saxons, and mentions a battle at a place called Mt. Badon. That battle kept the Saxons from taking over the whole of Britain, and halted their advance for a time. Gildas does not specifically name King Arthur, but the Arthurian legend seems to fit inside Gildas' history quite well.
• there are signs from the archaeological record that there was a period of time when the Saxons were stopped from continuing to take over the whole island. This gives us a hint that Gildas was at least partly right, and gives us another hint, that King Arthur, or someone similar, was fighting the Saxons at that time.