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Here is a quote from the Holinshed project to show the
importance of the Chronicles and what an interesting mix the contributors
were
The Chronicles are “at once the crowning achievement
of Tudor historiography and the most important single source for contemporary
playwrights and poets, above all Shakespeare, Spenser, Daniel, and Drayton….
Among the authors and revisers were moderate Protestants (Raphael Holinshed,
John Hooker), militant Protestants (William Harrison, Abraham Fleming),
crypto-Catholics (John Stow), and Catholics (Richard Stanihurst, Edmund
Campion). The upshot was a remarkably multi-vocal view of British history
not only because of the contrasting choices of style and source material
but also because the contributors responded very differently to the politics
and religion of their own age….The importance of Holinshed's Chronicles
for the understanding of Elizabethan literature, history, and politics
cannot be overestimated. “ |
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