Raphael Holinshed

Little is known for certain about Raphael Holinshed’s life, but he is remembered as an English chronicler of the 16th century. He is most closely associated with Holinshed’s Chronicles, a large historical work published in 1577 and expanded in 1587.

The Chronicles set out to tell the histories of England, Scotland, and Ireland in a broad, continuous narrative. Holinshed worked as part of a team rather than entirely alone, gathering and organizing material from many earlier sources into a form that became widely read.

His lasting fame comes from the book’s influence. Renaissance writers drew on it for plots, characters, and historical detail, and it became one of the major sources for several of Shakespeare’s history plays and tragedies.