Raphael Holinshed, who probably belonged to a…
October 1587 CE
Raphael Holinshed, who probably belonged to a Cheshire family, from roughly 1560 has lived in London, where he had been employed as a translator by Reginald Wolfe, who was preparing a universal history.
After Wolfe's death in 1573 the scope of the work had been abridged, and it appears, with many illustrations, as the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, two volumes (dated 1577).
The Chronicles had been compiled largely uncritically from many sources of varying degrees of trustworthiness.
The texts of the first and second (1587) editions are expurgated by order of the Privy Council.
Holinshed, who died around 1580, is remembered chiefly because his Chronicles enjoy great popularity and will become a quarry for many Elizabethan dramatists, especially Shakespeare, who will find, in the second edition, material for Macbeth, King Lear, Cymbeline, and many of his historical plays.