Thomas Walsingham (literary patron)

This article is about the sixteenth-century courtier and literary patron. For the fifteenth-century chronicler of the Peasants' revolt, see Thomas Walsingham.

Sir
Thomas Walsingham
MonarchElizabeth I
Personal details
Bornc. 1561
England (disputed)
Died11 August 1630(1630-08-11) (aged 69)
Scadbury, Kent
Resting placeSt Nicholas's Church, Chislehurst, Kent
SpouseAudrey Walsingham

Sir Thomas Walsingham (c. 1561 – 11 August 1630) was a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I and literary patron to such poets as Thomas Watson, Thomas Nashe, George Chapman and Christopher Marlowe. He was related to Elizabeth's spymaster Francis Walsingham and the employer of Marlowe's murderer Ingram Frizer. This connection is one of the reasons offered for suggesting that Marlowe's death may have been linked with intelligence work, and not a dispute over a bill for food and accommodation, as in the coroner's verdict.