Editing Pseudohistory (section)

==== Historical falsification ====
[[File:Vortigern-Dragons.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae|History of the Kings of Britain]]'', a scene from which is shown in this fifteenth-century illumination, was a popular work of pseudohistory during the [[Middle Ages]].]]

In the eighth century, a forged document known as [[Donation of Constantine]], which supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the [[Pope]], became widely circulated.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Before Jon Stewart |url=http://archives.cjr.org/feature/before_jon_stewart.php |access-date=February 19, 2017 |newspaper=[[Columbia Journalism Review]] |archive-date=May 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507222608/https://archives.cjr.org/feature/before_jon_stewart.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the twelfth century, [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] published the ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae|History of the Kings of Britain]]'', a pseudohistorical work purporting to describe the ancient history and origins of the British people. The book synthesises earlier Celtic mythical traditions to inflate the deeds of the mythical [[King Arthur]]. The contemporary historian [[William of Newburgh]] wrote around 1190 that "it is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from [[Vortigern]] onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thorpe |first=Lewis |title=The History of the Kings of Britain |page=17}}</ref>