Later on, King Uther falls very ill. All his enemies take their chances and go to war against him. Merlin tells him that they'll never defeat "the Northern army" unless King Uther himself joins the soldiers on the battle field. Uther protests that he's super sick. Merlin says it can't be helped, he really must go on the battle field. Since King Uther basically does everything that Merlin says, he agrees to being carried onto the battle field on a kind of stretcher hung up between horses. The Northern army is defeated, but after they get back home, King Uther, unsurprisingly, falls unconscious and is about to die. Merlin makes him wake up, Uther says Arthur is gonna be king, and then he dies.
Now, things would have been simple if Arthur had simply grown up as crown prince in Uther's castle, rather than being adopted away to this random dude Sir Ector for no reason. But as things stand, it's not that easy to convince the realm to accept this seemingly random kid as the new king. Really, my best guess as to why Merlin adopted Arthur away in the first place, was that he wanted to see to what extent Uther really thought with his dick, and how far he was willing to go merely to get the magic to glamour-rape a hot duchess. Merlin's like "will you do anything I ask? Really? Anything? Will you give me your first-born child?" and when Uther goes "yeeeees I'll do anything for sex with Igraine!" Merlin was probably like "uh... okay... Hadn't really expected you to agree to this one… but I guess I better take this child then, and arrange something…?"
Anyway. Merlin goes over to the Bishop of Canterbury and discusses how to convince everyone in England - everyone is now at war with everyone else after Uther's death, btw - that Arthur is their rightful king. He thinks a Christmas miracle might do the trick. So the Bishop sends for all the lords and gentlemen of the realm, tells them to go to the biggest church in London for Christmas, and the rightful king of England will be revealed. Sir Tomas Malory adds that the biggest church in London might be Saint Paul's, but he's not quite sure. It's important to him not to simply make shit up! This is, after all, historical records, not some kind of fantasy novel!
Then Merlin sets up this famous sword-and-stone combo, and a sign saying that whoever manages to draw this sword, is the rightful king of England. All the lords and gentlemen try, but no one succeeds.
Later, on New Year's Day, there's a big joust. Arthur's adoptive family, Sir Ector and big brother Sir Kay, come to partake of the joust, but Kay forgot his sword at home. Arthur then gets the sword out of the stone for him, and makes, like, the worst humble-brag about it: "Oh, I just wanted to get a sword for my big brother, so I casually borrowed that one, it was just sitting there anyway". The sword is placed ceremonially in the middle of the churchyard, with a big sign declaring that whoever draws the sword will be king! Like, seriously, no way he really just grabbed the sword all casual, not realizing the ramifications.
When Sir Ector finds out that Arthur drew the sword, he reveals to him that he was adopted, something Arthur had never been told before… because reasons.
However. All of this was not, after all, sufficient to make Arthur king. First he has to put the sword back again (every time he puts it back, it gets magically stuck again), and draw it once more, with more witnesses. But people still aren't satisfied that he really is the rightful king, so he gotta do the whole thing again at Candlemass, to show lords and gentlemen that weren't there the first time as well as people who have already seen him do it but still can't quite believe it. And then he's got a further sword show at Easter! Eventually, after even more sword shows, he's crowned king by Pentecost.
Next there's some war with Northern England, Scotland and Wales, and Arthur eventually conquers them… only then does Merlin reveal to the people that Arthur is actually the son of Uther and Igraine! So, really. So much unnecessary trouble by adopting him off to some rando knight.
Next: Even more war, with people who don't consider magic swords a reasonable basis of government.
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