Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (3 of 8)

This is the legendary bedrock of English history, the sprawling chronicle that William Shakespeare consulted when crafting his greatest plays. Compiled in 1577 by Raphael Holinshed and a team of scholars, this volume traces England's story from its mythical founding by the first king, Mulmucius, through the tumultuous reigns of his warlike sons Brennus and Belinus, down to the iron years of William Rufus, the red-faced conqueror's son who ruled with cunning and cruelty. Here you'll find the temple of peace, the first seeds of English law, and brothers turned enemies who led armies against each other. Written in vigorous 16th-century prose that mixes thunderous battles with careful genealogies, this is history as it was first imagined: part fact, part legend, and entirely mesmerizing. Shakespeare mined these pages for Macbeth, King Lear, and Cymbeline. What you hold is where England began, told in the raw language of those who lived to tell it.