Nine Worthies

The Nine Worthies is a three-part grouping of exemplary figures: three pagans, three Jews, and three Christians. In William Caxton’s preface to his printed history of King Arthur, it gives Arthur a place in a universal company of celebrated rulers and heroes, while making him the foremost of the Christian three. The scheme thus serves not merely as a list but as an argument for remembering Arthur and publishing his story.

The Three Groups

Caxton names Hector of Troy, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar as the three pagans, all placed before the Incarnation of Christ. Their histories, he says, were well known in both ballad and prose, a claim that presents them as figures already established in different forms of literary memory.

The three Jewish Worthies are Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus, likewise placed before the Incarnation. Caxton identifies Joshua as the duke who brought the children of Israel into the promised land, David as king of Jerusalem, and Judas Maccabeus as the third of the group. Their noble histories and deeds, he points out, are recounted in the Bible.

The Christian group belongs to the period after the Incarnation. Caxton names Arthur first, Charlemagne second, and Godfrey of Bouillon third. He notes that histories of Charlemagne were available in many places in French and English, while he himself had made a book about Godfrey’s deeds and life for King Edward IV. The comparison places Arthur within a recognized Christian succession without treating the other two figures as unknown.

Arthur’s Precedence and Caxton’s Case for Printing

Caxton’s preface presents the Worthies as part of the case made by English gentlemen who repeatedly asked why he had not printed the history of the Holy Grail, Arthur, his knights, and Arthur’s death. They argued that Arthur deserved priority among the nine because he had been born within the realm and had been its king and emperor. In their view, his deeds and those of his knights merited print at least as much as the deeds of Godfrey or the other Worthies.

Caxton initially reports the objection that Arthur might never have existed: some chronicles omit him, and critics therefore regard the books about him as fables. His interlocutors answer by appealing to purported material and written evidence, including Arthur’s sepulchre at Glastonbury, a seal associated with him at Westminster, Gawaine’s skull at Dover, the Round Table at Winchester, and accounts in chronicles and histories. Caxton says these considerations made it unreasonable to deny that there had been a king named Arthur, reputed one of the nine Worthies and chief of the Christian three. The argument records the preface’s reasoning; it does not independently establish the historical authenticity of the claims it cites.

The preface also stresses the uneven circulation of Arthurian writing. Caxton says that more books about Arthur’s deeds had been made abroad than in England, in languages including Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and French. He had read French volumes beyond the sea, while many works in Welsh and French, and some in English, were not available in English in anything like their full extent. He undertook to print an English book from a copy based on Sir Thomas Malory’s reduction of French books, presenting the work as a means of bringing Arthur’s histories to readers in their own language.

Moral and Literary Purpose

The Worthies frame helps Caxton present Arthur’s story as both national memory and moral instruction. He urges readers to remember and follow the good and honest actions found in the book, while rejecting the vicious conduct that brings punishment, shame, and rebuke. His preface describes the histories as showing courtesy, humanity, friendship, courage, love, virtue, and sin; the paired examples are meant to guide conduct as well as provide pleasure in reading.

Arthur’s position as first among the Christian three gives this educational appeal a prominent figure around whom to gather. The scheme supplies a concise measure of his renown, while Caxton’s larger argument turns that renown into a reason for printing: Arthur belongs among the world’s exemplary figures, yet his histories remain comparatively underrepresented in English. The Nine Worthies therefore connects the prestige of a transnational tradition with Caxton’s specific project of making Arthur’s deeds and lessons more accessible to English readers.