Christopher Ocland (died ''c''. 1590) was an English writer and school master. Ocland was born in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

and was headmaster of St Saviour's Grammar School in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

from 1562 to 1579. In approximately 1574 Ocland became the first master of

Richard Pate Richard Pate or Pates (1516–1588) was an English landowner and Member of Parliament for Gloucester (UK Parliament constituency), Gloucester in the Parliament of 1559 and 1563–1567. His parliamentary career is detailed in the History of ...

's grammar school in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

.Ross Kennedy, �
Ocland, Christopher (''d''. in or after 1590)
��, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 9 Dec 2014. In 1580 he published at his own expense his major work, the ''Anglorum proelia'' (‘The Battles of the English’), a Latin poem of almost 3500 Latin hexameters on the subject of England's military history from the reign of

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...

. He updated the poem with ''Eirēnarchia, sive, Elizabetha'' (1582) which included celebratory pen portraits of the leading men of Elizabethan England. Ocland's patriotism was commended at Queen Elizabeth's court and a republication of the two poems combined in a single edition appeared in 1582, prefaced with a command signed by

Her Majesty's Privy Council The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...

that the poem should be taught in every grammar and free school in England. In 1585

John Sharrock John Sharrock (born 16 February 1944) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong in the VFL during the 1960s. Football Sharrock played most of his career as a half forward flanker and was a premiership player in 1963, hi ...

translated the two poems into English under the titles ''The Valiant Actes and Victorious Battails of the English Nation'' and ''Elizabeth Queene''.

Notes

1590s deaths 16th-century English poets English male poets {{England-writer-stub