Career
Machyn"s Chronicle, which was written between 1550 and 1563, is primarily concerned with public events: changes on the throne, state visits, insurrections, executions and festivities. Judging from his enthusiastic account of the disinterment of Edward the Confessor in 1557, Machyn was apparently a Catholic himself. The brief reign of Lady Jane Grey, and the dangers of speaking up for the losing side, are duly recorded.
Machyn"s diary comes to an end in 1563, in all likelihood because of his death.
Machyn sold funeral trappings, which explains why so much of his diary is concerned with minute accounts of funerals in London. Very little is known of the author
He is remarkably absent from his own diary. On only two occasions does he refer to his own age (56 in 1554, 66 in 1562).
The (mis)spelling in this diary gives a rare insight into the pronunciation of the times.
