12 Facts About Holinshed's Chronicles

Holinshed's Chronicles, known as Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, is a collaborative work published in several volumes and two editions, the first edition in 1577, and the second in 1587.

Holinshed's Chronicles have been a source of interest because of their extensive links to William Shakespeare's history plays, as well as King Lear, Macbeth and Cymbeline.

Recent studies of the Holinshed's Chronicles have focused on an inter-disciplinary approach; numerous literary scholars have studied the traditional historiographical materials through a literary lens, with a focus on how contemporary men and women would have read historical texts.

Holinshed's Chronicles would have been a primary source for many other literary writers of the Renaissance such as Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser and George Daniel.

Holinshed's Chronicles wanted the work to be printed in English, and he wanted maps and illustrations in the book as well.

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Holinshed's Chronicles acquired many of John Leland's works, and with these he constructed chronologies and drew maps that were up-to-date.

Holinshed's Chronicles narrative is characterised by a set of rhetorical figures and thematic paradigms that establish the national, royal, chivalrous and heroic ideals that define a state, its monarch, its leaders, and the political role of the common people.

However, the Holinshed's Chronicles lacked any descriptions of Macbeth's character, so Shakespeare improvised on several points.

Holinshed's Chronicles is spurred on by his wife, who is ambitious and desires the title of queen for herself.

In Holinshed's Chronicles, Banquo is shown as a scheming character: he is an accomplice in Macbeth's murder of Duncan.

Holinshed's Chronicles succeeds in killing Banquo, but his son, Fleance, flees to Wales.

Primary difference in the Holinshed's Chronicles is the continuation of the feuding through the children of the sisters; the sons of Gonerilla and Regan rise up against and imprison Cordelia, leading to a period of civil war, and Cordelia commits suicide.