Nicholas Harpsfield

Nicholas Harpsfield (1519–1575) was an English historian and a

Born in 1519 in the parish of St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, in the City of London, he was the younger brother of John Harpsfield, the two being sons of John Harpsfield, a gentleman and a mercer, and his wife whose name is unknown. His paternal grandparents were Nicholas Harpsfield, a Clerk of the Signet, and his wife Agnes Norton. His uncle Nicholas Harpsfield, who had been educated at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford, and then at the University of Bologna, was a doctor of canon law and an official of the Archdeacon of Winchester.^[1]

Early life and exile

Harpsfield was educated at

Harpsfield defiantly opposed the new regime of Elizabeth I, opposing the election of Matthew Parker and refusing to subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer. At some point between 1559 and 1562, he was committed to Fleet Prison, together with his brother John Harpsfield, for his refusal to swear the Oath of Supremacy. He remained in prison until his release on health grounds in 1574, sixteen months before his death.

Works

• The life and death of Sr Thomas Moore, knight, sometymes Lord high Chancellor of England
• The life of our Lorde Jesus Christe
• Cranmer's Recantacyons
• Treatise on the Pretended Divorce Between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
• Dialogi sex contra summi pontificatus, monasticae vitae, sanctorum, sacrarum imaginum oppugnatores, et pseudomartyres
• Historia Anglicana ecclesiastica

References