Henry Machyn (1496/1498 – 1563)[1] was anEnglishclothier anddiarist in 16th centuryLondon.
Machyn'sChronicle, which was written between 1550 and 1563, is primarily concerned with public events: changes on the throne, state visits, insurrections, executions and festivities. Machyn wrote his diary during a turbulent period in England: theReformation, initiated byHenry VIII and carried through byEdward VI, was followed by the return toCatholicism (and burning of heretics) under QueenMary I of England. Judging from his enthusiastic account of the disinterment ofEdward the Confessor in 1557, Machyn was apparently a Catholic himself. The brief reign ofLady Jane Grey, and the dangers of speaking up for the losing side, are duly recorded. He circulated libellous information about the Protestant preacherJohn Véron, for which he made penance atPaul's Cross in November 1561.[2] Machyn's diary comes to an end in 1563, in all likelihood because of his death.
Machyn sold funeral trappings, which explains why so much of his diary is concerned with minute accounts of funerals in London. Very little is known of the author; he is remarkably absent from his own diary. On only two occasions does he refer to his own age (56 in 1554, 66 in 1562). He was parish clerk ofHoly Trinity the Less and made entries in the church register.[3][4]
The (mis)spelling in this diary gives a rare insight into the pronunciation of the times.[5] That is to say (since there was no strictly correct spelling at that time) that the spelling used in the manuscript, if it represents Machyn's speech accurately and consistently, provides an insight into one of the many and various patterns of English pronunciation of his time.
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