"Arthur himself, our famous king, was mortally wounded, and was taken to the Isle of Avalon, that his wounds might be nursed," records Geoffrey of Monmouth in his The History of the kings of England (261). Geoffrey, a 12th century cleric, writes this line detailing the mystical disappearance of his most popular figure, King Arthur, from historical memory. Using freely both established historical writers before him - such as Nennius, Bede and Gildas - and other mysteriously hinted at sources, Geoffrey attempts to fashion a narrative that will provide a history for the island of Britain and its people, the Britons. It is modeled on the style of Romantic literature, a popular trend in growing influence at the time, and is capped by Geoffrey's tragic figure of King Arthur (Gransden 186). King Arthur provides Geoffrey with the element of a warrior and fiercely individual hero needed for his historical work. Arthur enabled Geoffrey to achieve his personal goals in writing history and to generate an energizing character of national identity for the British, which is celebrated and remembered even today. Although Arthur is shown to function as a literary character more than a historical figure in Geoffrey's The History of the Kings of Britain, he is still a crucial element in this tale that retells and reimagines Britain's medieval past. Monmouth, like that of its famous King Arthur, is full of shadows and gaps, adding to the questions surrounding his writings. Nothing is known about his early life, and a birth date around 1100 is considered more of a plausible hypothesis than a fact (Loomis 72). The “Geoffrey of Monmouth” identity was constructed… halfway through the card… The British are a source of hope and racial unity. Without his famous King Arthur and his legendary history of heroic deeds, Geoffrey of Monmouth would not have become an important part of the development of English literature, and the British would not have had their "once and future king". The history of the kings of England. Trans. Lewis GM Thorpe. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966. Print.Gillingham, John. "The Context and Purpose of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of England", Anglo-Norman Studies 13 (1990). Gransden, A., Historical Writing in England c. 550–c. 1307 (London, 1974). Loomis, Roger Sherman, ed. Arthurian literature in the Middle Ages: a collaborative history. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959. Print. Nennius. British history and Welsh annals. Ed. John Morris. vol. 8. London: Phillimore, 1980. Print. Sources from the Arthurian period.