Maurice Kyffin is not a household name--not even among Elizabethan literary historians. He was, however, one of Renaissance England's exemplary scholar-soldiers. He was not only an accomplished poet and translator, capable of producing fluent verse and prose in English, Latin, and Welsh, but he became a high-ranking military official, serving as a soldier and paymaster in Elizabeth's major foreign campaigns.

Kyffin's origins and early career are obscure. William Prichard Williams, in his 1908 edition of Kyffin's Deffynniad Ffydd Eglwys Loegr (1595), states that Kyffin was an increasingly common surname at that time and that the author has been confused with at least three other Maurice Kyffins. His exact birthdate remains unknown, but it was most likely in the early 1560s. His father, Thomas, though illegitimate, was of noble extraction, as was his mother, Catrin Iengaf. Both sides of the family had coats of arms, and the arms that Maurice later...