Sir John Harington

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Sir John Harington

after Thomas Cockson (Coxon)
line engraving, (1591)
3 1/8 in. x 2 1/2 in. (79 mm x 65 mm) paper size
Given by James Lungley Douthwaite, 1958
Reference Collection
NPG D31630

Sitterback to top

  • Sir John Harington (baptised 1560-1612), Wit and writer; translator of 'Orlando Furioso'. Sitter in 10 portraits.

Artistback to top

Events of 1591back to top

Current affairs

Sir Walter Ralegh succeeds Sir Christopher Hatton as Captain of the Guard.
Robert Cecil (later Earl of Salisbury) is knighted and made a Privy Councillor.
The naval commander Sir Richard Grenville is killed in battle fighting the Spainish in the Azores.
The royal favourite Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex lands in France with an English army to aid the Protestant Henry IV of France.

Art and science

Sir John Harington publishes the first English translation of the epic romance poem Orlando Furioso by the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto.
The playwright Christopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus is performed for the first time.
William Shakespeare writes the Taming of the Shrew.

International

French bishops recognize the Protestant Henri IV as King of France despite his excommunication by Pope Gregory XIV.
Dimitri Ivanovitch, son of Ivan IV (the Terrible) and heir of Feodor I, Tsar of Russia, is murdered, possibly at the command of the Tsar's brother-in-law, Boris Godunov.

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