Francis Kynaston

Sir Francis Kynaston or Kinaston (1587–1642) was an English poet, lawyer, courtier, and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622. He is noted for his translation of Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde into Latin verse (as rime royal, Amorum Troili et Creseidae Libri Quinque, 1639). He also made a Latin translation of Henryson's The Testament of Cresseid.

Life
Kynaston was born at Oteley, near Ellesmere, Shropshire, the eldest son of Sir Edward Kinaston and his wife Isabel Bagenall, daughter of Sir Nicholas Bagenall. His father was High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1599. On 11 December 1601 Kynaston matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford. He graduated Bachelor of ArtsB.A.]] from St Mary Hall, Oxford on 14 June 1604, and M.A. at Oxford on 11 November 1611. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1611.

In 1621 Kynaston was elected Member of Parliament for Shropshire. He became esquire of the body to Charles I on the King's accession in 1625.

At court Kinaston was the centre of a literary coterie. In 1635 he founded an academy of learning, called the Musæum Minervæ, for which he obtained a license under the great seal, a grant of arms, and a common seal; Charles also contributed from the treasury. On 27 February 1636 Prince Charles, the Duke of York, and others visited the museum, and a masque by Kinaston, entitled Corona Minervæ, was performed in their presence. In July of the same year Sir George Peckham bequeathed money to the institution.

Shortly after this, Kynaston was preoccupied with a certain ‘hanging furnace,’ recommended by him to the lords of the admiralty for ships of war.

Kinaston died in 1642, and was buried at Oteley. The museum appears to have perished with the death of its founder. Its site was marked by Kynaston's Alley, Bedfordbury.

Kynaston married Margaret Lee, daughter of Sir Humphry Lee, 1st Baronet in 1613. They had one son, Edward (c.1613 - 1656).

Writing
Kinaston published a translation of Chaucer's ‘Troilus and Cressida,’ with a commentary, prefaced by fifteen short poems by Oxford writers, including William Strode and Dudley Digges (Oxford, 1635). Kinaston also contributed to the Musæ Aulicæ by Arthur Johnston, a rendering in English verse of Johnston's Latin poems, London, 1635, and was author of an heroic romance in verse, Leoline and Sydanis, containing some of the legendary history of Wales and Anglesey, published with Cynthiades: Sonnets to his Mistresse (technically not precisely of the sonnet form) addressed by Kinaston to his mistress under the name of Cynthia (London, 1642).

Recognition
He was knighted by James I at Theobalds on 21 December 1618. '

His poetry was included in the New Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1950.