I’d like to play history major and add a few minor factoids to our consideration of Caxton’s historical context.

Concerning the delay between when Malory wrote the work and when Caxton printed it: I think that’s easily explained by the fact Malory had supported the losers of the War of the Roses (the Lancastrians). Thus a little bit of time to let that cool and the work stand more on its own rather than with the immediate association of Malory would seem advisable.

Moreover, there would have been a strong incentive to produce a work unifying England after the War of the Roses. Not only had it divided England between the two factions, but it ultimately proved meaningless. The Lancastrians lost, but there were no Yorkists to take the throne. The title thus passed to an obscure part of the family: the Tudors. Not only were they a new dynasty, but they weren’t English.

They were Welsh. Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, made an effort to legitimate his reign primarily by good governance: he assigned Archbishop John Morton to improve the taxing and bureaucratic systems of the realm. Moreover, he, like the Angevin patronage of Geoffrey (via Robert of Gloucester) encouraged the proliferation of Arthurian mythology and iconography to legitimate his Welshness. He named his heir apparent and favoured son Arthur (Henry VIII was actually not trained as a monarch, but instead was left to basically enjoy himself as a youth. The death of his elder brother Arthur thus was considered a rather traumatic event in term of succession.)

Malory also breaks the tradition of English praise of Gawaine, which I would also attribute to historical events. Edward I’s invasion of Scotland had converted the two peoples into bitter foes in a sort of perpetual war, and thus it seems Gawaine’s Celtic origins ceased to be exotic and instead became borderline treasonous. Thus, Gawaine ceased to be the champion of Albion in Malory.