(c. 1314). One of the two earliest surviving MSS. This abbreviated version of Vera historia is incorporated into the Chronicle of Hailes Abbey. London, BL Cotton Titus MS A. xix (late 15th century). London, Gray's Inn MS 7 (c. 1340). One of the two earliest surviving MSS. It was previously owned by the Franciscan friary in Chester. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 186 (early 16th century). A fragmentary text. May be a direct copy of BL Cotton Titus MS A. xix (see above). Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal MS 982 (3rd quarter of the 14th century). Contains the First Variant version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, into which the Vera historia is interpolated at the end of Geoffrey's account of the Battle of Camlann. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale MS Lat. 6041D (late 14th century). Included at the end of an abbreviated version of the First Variant of the Historia regum Britanniae. Date and place of composition The date of the Vera historia cannot be pinned down with any certainty, though its clear debt to the Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) and the date of its earliest manuscripts show that it must have been written some time between the mid-12th century and the late 13th century. One mention in the text of an archbishop of St Davids opens the possibility that it was written at the beginning of the 13th century, when the churchman Gerald of Wales and others were negotiating for St Davids to be recognized as a metropolitan see. By an alternative line of reasoning, the Vera historia'''s claim that Avalon, Arthur's resting place, was in Gwynedd, and silence as to the alternative identification of Avalon with Glastonbury, could point to its being written before the alleged discovery of King Arthur's body at Glastonbury c. 1190. The fact that the two oldest manuscripts were formerly held by religious houses in the Welsh Marches, combined with the location of the story in Gwynedd, suggests that this work was written in Wales. More specifically, it may be a product of Aberconwy Abbey in Conwy, Gwynedd, a Cistercian monastery founded by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1198. Llywelyn was a supporter of the campaign to recognize St Davids as an archbishopric; his foundation at Aberconwy was often involved in his diplomatic causes; and it is also known to have had links with Hailes Abbey, whose chronicle incorporated a shortened version of the Vera