Raphael Holinshed

Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, probably born around 1525, and is remembered above all for his part in The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande. Published in 1577, the work gathered history, legend, and political narrative into an ambitious multi-volume account of the British Isles.

Holinshed worked as an editor and compiler rather than as a solitary author, drawing together material from several contributors. Although many details of his life remain uncertain, reliable reference sources agree that his reputation rests on the extraordinary reach of the Chronicles, which became widely read in late Tudor England.

His lasting fame comes from the afterlife of that book. Writers of the English Renaissance turned to Holinshed for plots, characters, and historical episodes, and Shakespeare famously used it as a source for several history plays and tragedies, helping to carry Holinshed’s work far beyond its own century.