1460?-1524

British Physician

Aclassical scholar and physician, Thomas Linacre is remembered for being "the founder and prime mover of English medicine." Linacre served as personal physician to King Henry VIII. With permission from Henry VIII, he founded the Royal College of Physicians in London, an institution through which he and a body of educated physicians decided who could practice medicine in greater London. Members of the college were charged with the authority to examine and license physicians. Later in his life, Linacre published volumes of Latin grammar before leaving medicine in 1520 to become a Roman Catholic priest.

Linacre was born in Canterbury, Kent, England around 1460. He was educated at Oxford from 1480-1484, then traveled through Italy studying Greek and Latin classic literature. In Italy he studied medicine at the University of Padua, receiving a degree in 1496. Upon his return to England in 1500 he earned another degree...