Who Was Raphael Holinshed?

Raphael Holinshed (1529-1580) was an English chronicler who wrote the Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was a source of material for Shakespeare in an age where there were no copyright laws. There is almost nothing known about Holinshed. During his time, there was the printing press and it seems Holinshed was hired to compile histories or stories from what is now Great Britain. It is unclear how Holinshed compiled the stories. Did he sit in a pub and listen to stories? Did he travel from county to county talking to commoners? Did he sit in a library and chase vague facts that he could then spin? In age with no internet and no real fact-checking, it doesn’t seem likely that the stories were matched too closely with reality. For Shakespeare, that didn’t matter.

I think of Holinshed as similar to the Brothers Grimm, who collected stories from commoners and nobles alike. Grimm attempted to be objective and were scholars of linguistics. There goals weren’t creative or political. They were collectors. I assume this to be true of Holinshed as the stories on Scotland and Ireland were grappled with by the Privy Council. Some stories were considered harmful to Queen Elizabeth and pages were removed. If Holinshed was engaging in complete fabrication he would have been more careful politically.

What I find interesting is how potent the Chronicles were to Shakespeare. It would be like picking up a book on the history of the USA or England now and creating masterpiece after masterpiece and winning the Nobel Prize and other literary awards. This should be a lesson to writers, inspiration can come from anywhere.