Knightmare: Victorian opposition leader refers to ‘King Arthur’ during condolences for Queen

The transcript of Victoria’s parliamentary condolence motions for Queen Elizabeth has been amended after the state’s opposition leader, Matthew Guy, erroneously referred to King Arthur as an example of the British monarchy’s proud history.

Guy’s office on Wednesday said he had misspoken during a special sitting of parliament on Tuesday for MPs to swear allegiance to King Charles III and pay tribute to the Queen after her death last week.

“The monarchy of the United Kingdom is certainly one of history’s most enduring institutions. Tracing its history back as far as the petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and early medieval Scotland, it is an institution that can draw on centuries of history,” Guy told the lower house.

“In all those times, among all those monarchs, from figures well known – King Arthur, Henry VIII and so on – the longest reigning of them all was Queen Elizabeth II.”

King Arthur is a legendary figure who featured in stories as head of the kingdom of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table.

Historians have never confirmed King Arthur existed, although some speculate he was a real figure and led the Britons in battle against Saxon invaders in the fifth or sixth century. Henry VIII’s older brother was named Arthur on the basis of claims by his father, Henry VII, to be a descendant of King Arthur.

Guy’s office said the opposition leader simply “misspoke/misread”, and his speech was amended in Hansard overnight to refer to King Alfred, who in the ninth century ruled Wessex – one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that later made up modern England.

According to the Victorian parliament’s website, Hansard editorial policy allows for grammatical mistakes and obvious factual errors to be corrected.

The hashtag #KingArthur was briefly trending on Twitter after Guy’s speech, with several users, including government minister Lily D’Ambrosio, sharing clips from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which parodies the myth of King Arthur.

Liberal MP Georgie Crozier told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning she hadn’t heard Guy’s speech.

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“Clearly it was a slip of the tongue,” she said.

Later in his speech, Guy described Queen Elizabeth II as a “symbol of stability”, who “knew and understood and respected the role that as a hereditary monarch she found herself in”.

“Being in public life – as we all are in this chamber – is but a tiny fragment of an insight into the public pressure, the judgment and the expectation that a role like hers would have carried for her whole life,” he said.

“But to all of us it is clear that Queen Elizabeth II never flinched. She always seemed to hold herself with grace and with that very British stoicism, and we all thought she would endure seemingly forever.”

Victoria’s parliament has adjourned for one week as a mark of respect. It will return for two final sitting days next week ahead of the November state election.