Malory says Uther's heir was raised in secret, the lords refused the boy who pulled the sword, and the common people made him king

The sword in the stone is legend. Specialists hold Arthur to be a mythological or folkloric figure. The sword story does not appear in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of about 1137; it was introduced around 1200 by Robert de Boron. Thomas Malory, who probably began his book in prison in the early 1450s and finished it by 1470, gives the version printed by William Caxton in 1485. Merlin makes King Uther hand over his newborn son, and the child is raised by Sir Ector without knowing who he is. On his deathbed Uther names Arthur his heir "upon forfeiture of my blessing." After his death, "Then stood the realm in great jeopardy long while." A sword appears in a stone with the words "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England." The boy Arthur pulls it out for his foster brother Kay, who claims it as his own. The lords refuse to be ruled by "a boy of no high blood born" and postpone the test to Candlemas, then Easter, then Pentecost. Each time Arthur alone draws the sword. The commons cry out, "We will have Arthur unto our king, we will put him no more in delay," and he is crowned. The Winchester manuscript of Malory was found in 1934.