Aleyn, Charles

(d. 1640)

   Aleyn was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and became a master in Thomas Farnaby's celebrated school in St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. Subsequently he was private tutor to Sir Edward Sherburne, commissary-general and clerk of the ordnance, author as well as poet. Sidney College claims that he was a pioneering newspaper editor and translator of Aesop's Fables. Aleyn was buried in the churchyard of St. Andrew's, Holborn. His main publications: The Battailes of Crescey and Poictiers, 1631, reprinted in 1633. The Historie of Henrie of that name the Seventh King of England, 1638. The History of Eurialus and Lucretia, 1639. The Battailes of Crescey and Poictiers describes in detail the sights and sounds and the horrors of combat.

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. SETIS: The Scholarly Electronic Text and Image Service (http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au). Sidney Sussex College Cambridge (www.sid.cam.ac.uk).