Background
He was the third son of William Latymer of Freston, Suffolk, and his wife Anne, daughter of Edward Bokinge of Ashbocking, Suffolk.
He was the third son of William Latymer of Freston, Suffolk, and his wife Anne, daughter of Edward Bokinge of Ashbocking, Suffolk.
He was chaplain to Anne Boleyn, and is best known for his biography of her, the Chronickille of Anne Bulleyne. He was among the group of evangelicals, including Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker, who gathered round Anne Boleyn as Queen and patron of the reformers. He became one of her chaplains.
Hugh Latimer apparently did not, though the coincidence of names has led to confusion on this point.
Anne Boleyn was already detained on the charges that would bring about her death. Latymer was allowed to send his books ahead, to Joan Wilkinson.
His reputation was not damaged. He graduated Master of Arts 1536 at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
This was by special grace after seven years of study.
He was rector of Witnesham, Suffolk, from 1538 to 1554, presented by Edward Latymer, and also in 1538 was appointed by the king Master of the College of Street Laurence Pountney, though this appointment was ended in 1547, since Edward VI dissolved the College and sold it to John Cheke. He became involved in the trial and downfall of Edmund Bonner, after Bonner"s Paul"s Cross sermon of 1 September 1549 was the subject of a complaint by Latymer and John Hooper, who were monitoring lieutenant Latymer made no objection to the dissolution, and with others received a pension.
Under Queen Mary, he lost a number of preferments.
The Chronickille was written for Elizabeth I of England, and concentrates on the religious aspects of her mother Anne Boleyn"s life. Prominent in the Queen"s 1564 visit to Cambridge, he was Clerk of the Closet and Doctor of Divinity