[2] Leir became exiled from Britain and fled to Cordelia in Gaul, seeking a restoration of his throne which had been seized by the husbands of his other daughters.

After Leir's death three years later, Cordelia's husband Aganippus died, and she returned to Britain and was crowned queen.

[2] Cordelia ruled peacefully for five years until her sisters' sons, Cunedagius and Marganus, came of age.

In Shakespeare's version, Cordelia's invasion of Britain is unsuccessful; she is captured and murdered, and her father does not retake the throne.

Before Shakespeare, the story was also used in Edmund Spenser's epic The Faerie Queene and in the anonymous play King Leir.