Draft:The Light of Britayne

The Light of Britayne; a Recorde of the honourable Originall and Antiquitie of Britaine (1588) is a book written and illustrated by Henry the Elder. It is an early history of the British Isles, and aims to trace the descent of the British from Brutus of Troy. Located inside the book is a portrait of Elizabeth I.

Background


Lyte dedicated this work, as well as another notable publication titled A niewe Herball (1578) to Elizabeth I of England. He presented a copy of this work to the queen on 24 November 1588, when she went in state to St. Paul's Cathedral to return thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Lyte wrote two small works on the same subject in 1592, which have never been printed. The manuscripts are described as ‘written with the author's own hand very neatly, an. 1592, the character small, lines close, some words in red ink, and others only scored with it,’ and he says that the latter contains ‘many pretty fancies which may be of some use … by way of reply for Oxon against the far-fetch'd antiquities of Cambridge’