Houghton STC 13247 - Mischeefes mysterie

John Vicars (1582, London – 12 April 1652,

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

Greyfriars, London In London, the Greyfriars was a Conventual Franciscan friary that existed from 1225 to 1538 on a site at the North-West of the City of London by Newgate in the parish of St Nicholas in the Shambles. It was the second Franciscan religious ho ...

) was an English contemporary biographer, poet and polemicist of the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. His best-known work is ''English Worthies'' or ''England's Worthies'', whose full title is ''England's Worthies under whom all the Civil and Bloudy Warres since Anno 1642 to Anno 1647 are related''.

Life

Descended from a

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

family, he was educated at

and

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

(though it is unknown if he graduated from the latter). He then left Oxford to return to Christ's Hospital as its Usher, a post he then held until his death. During the War itself he favoured

Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

and opposed the Independents. He survived the war and died in 1652.

Sources

Online text of ''England's Worthies''
*. 1582 births 1652 deaths English biographers People from the City of London People of the English Civil War People educated at Christ's Hospital Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford English male poets Male biographers {{England-writer-stub