In his own day Polydore Vergil was admired chiefly for his full, easy Latin style and his knowledge of Greek. The Italian learning he displayed in his antiquarian works brought him powerful patrons and helped him advance at the English court, where he discovered his life's work: the Anglica Historia (1534), a history of England that, in the present day, has gained him the title of "Father of English History." Although he wrote his history in self-conscious imitation of Livy, Sallust, and Suetonius, Vergil gave a distinctly Tudor shape to the English past. He provided the chronicler Edward Hall with a coherent vision of fifteenth-century England; and, since William Shakespeare frequently worked out of Hall, Vergil's literary achievement is not without bearing on the history of the English stage.

Vergil was born about 1470 at Urbino, Italy. Virtually nothing is known about his youth and early education. His grandfather Antonio...