SOURCE: Patterson, Annabel. “Local Knowledge: ‘Popular’ Representation in Elizabethan Historiography.” In Place and Displacement in the Renaissance, edited by Alvin Vos, pp. 87-106. Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1995.

In the following essay, Patterson examines Holinshed's treatment of the lower classes in the Chronicles, suggesting that such interest in “local knowledge” illuminates the importance of displaying the various aspects of an entire culture in order to comprehend the process of forming a society.

In time of this rebellion, a priest that by a butcher dwelling within five miles of Windsor had been procured to preach in favor of the rebels, and the butcher (as well for procuring the priest thereto, as for words spoken as he sold his meat in Windsor) were hanged: the priest on a tree at the foot of Windsor bridge, and the butcher on a paire of new gallowes set...