The Period of Richard Stanyhurst's Chaplaincy to the Archduke Albert

Abstract

Though during the last years of his life Richard Stanyhurst, best known to English literature for his early translation of Virgil's Aeneid, was one of the chaplains to the court of Albert and Isabel, the exact time of his appointment has not, so far as I can ascertain, been known. Two registers in the General archives at Brussels containing Albert's household accounts for the years 1612 to 1618 (Chamhre des Comptes 1837 and 1838), give us much more precise information on this subject. They not only record current salary payments from September 1612 onwards hut tell us retrospectively in 1618, the year of his death, that he assumed his duties as chaplain on 29 June 1607 and suggest that as late as 2 July 1618 he was alive hut his death was probably imminent.