Edward Grimeston

Edward Grimeston (died 1640) was an English sergeant-at-arms and one of the most active translators of his day.

He was sworn in as sergeant-at-arms to assist the Speaker in the Parliament of England on 17 March 1609/10. He married a daughter of Armiger Strettly. He had a son, Edward, and Sir Harbottle Grimston was his nephew. He was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster, on 14 December 1640.

Edward Grimestone published several large and influential histories, dedicating them to Sir Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk. George Eld printed and published Grimestone's A General Inventory of the History of France (1607), and in conjunction with stationers Adam Islip, M. Flesher, and William Stansby, Grimestone's A General History of the Netherlands (A. Islip and G. Eld, 1609), The General History of Spain (A. Islip and G. Eld, 1612), The General History of the Magnificent State of Venice (G. Eld and W. Stansby, 1612), and A General History of France (G. Eld and M. Flesher, 1624).

Grimestone's histories were used for source material by several well-known seventeenth-century playwrights. The General History of Spain (1612) was likely the source for Philip Massinger's Believe as You List, and A General Inventory of the History of France (1607) was the primary source for George Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois, and The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron.

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