Did medieval people drink water/take baths? (coming soon)
How many witches were burned in the Middle Ages?
(coming soon)
Who were the Druids? (coming soon)
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Was King Arthur real? When did he live? Was there really a Round Table? Where was Camelot? Was there really a Holy Grail/Lady of the Lake/100 other characters and places?
The compendium of literature concerning King Arthur, his family, his court, his and their activities - collectively known as The Matter of Britain - is vast. Arthurian stories were the best sellers of their day in western Europe along with being universally accepted as unquestioned history up until relatively modern times. And even in spite of Academia's (necessarily) skeptical eye, the tales continue to fascinate and inspire and be continually refashioned and reimagined.
But - short answers! Although there is much debate about this or that historical figure, there is no overall agreement on any of them being the True Arthur. Nor is it at all certain he was a king - the earliest mentions of him describe him as Dux Bellorum (War Duke/Chieftain) or speak of him in terms of a great hero - but not a king. The best guess among those that think there was an actual person behind the legends (as opposed to him being a completely fictional character from the first) is that he was born sometime in the late 5th century and died around 540. And with so much doubt about the existence of Arthur himself, it's no surprise the people around him - Merlin, Guinevere, Lancelot, Gawain, the Lady of the Lake, Morgan Le Fay, Percival - are even more insubstantial and uncertain. Likewise the location of Camelot can't be determined, with locations in Wales, England, and Scotland being argued for.
Up until the 12th century, most mentions of Arthur were to be found in Welsh poetry and the body of lore known as The Triads, but in 1140, a Welsh cleric, Geoffrey of Monmouth, published Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) which included a detailed account of Arthur's reign. Coming as it did in a moment when the literary arts were blossoming all over western Europe, it was seized upon by multiple authors who reworked and expanded on Geoffrey's stories, introducing elements such as Guinevere and Lancelot's tragic romance and the Quest for the Holy Grail, a process that has continued - with occasional lapses of interest for a generation or so - right up to the present day.
A prominent Arthurian scholar once said (in paraphrase) that if we remove Arthur from history, it leaves an Arthur-sized hole and that's basically my take on it as well. We will probably never know for certain Arthur's true identity or have any definitive list of his deeds and actions, but the body of lore surrounding his name has undoubtedly shaped western European culture and history and continues to do so. And therein does Arthur truly live, the Once and Future King.
A complete reading list of works concerning Arthur or featuring him as a character would probably go for dozens of pages. For someone wanting an easy-to-read, readily-available starting place, I would recommend Mary Stewart's trilogy of "The Crystal Cave," "The Hollow Hills," and "The Last Enchantment" which basically follows Geoffrey of Monmouth's work. Of the assorted films and shows that have been made, "Excalibur" remains the most impressive in my opinion.
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