His father,
James Stanyhurst, was
Recorder of Dublin, and Speaker of the
Irish House of Commons in 1557, 1560 and 1568. His grandfather was Nicholas Stanihurst,
Mayor of Dublin from 1542 to 1543. His mother was Anne Fitzsimon, daughter of Thomas Fitzsimon, who served as
Recorder of Dublin. Richard was sent to Peter White's
Kilkenny College after which, in 1563, he continued to
University College, Oxford, where he took his degree five years later. At Oxford, he became intimate with
Edmund Campion. After leaving the university he studied law at
Furnival's Inn and
Lincoln's Inn. He contributed in 1587 to ''
Holinshed's Chronicles "a playne and perfecte description" of Ireland, and a History of Ireland during the reign of Henry VIII'', which were severely criticized in
Barnabe Rich's
New Description of Ireland (1610) as a misrepresentation of Irish affairs written from the English standpoint. After the death of his wife, Janet Barnewall, daughter of Sir
Christopher Barnewall (whom he praised warmly in his contribution to Holinshed), in 1579, Stanyhurst went to the
Netherlands. After his second marriage, which took place before 1585, to Helen Copley, he became active in the
Catholic cause. He lived in the
bishopric of Liège, where he got in touch with the
Paracelsan movement gathered around
Ernest of Bavaria (1554–1612). From then, Stanyhurst analysed the relationships between medicine and chemistry. In the early 1590s, he was invited to
Spain by King Philip II, who became seriously ill. Stanyhurst worked at the great alchemical laboratory in
El Escorial. At the same time, he informed the state of Catholics' interest in England. After his wife's death in 1602 he took
holy orders, and became chaplain to the
Archduke Albert of Austria in the
Netherlands. He had two sons, Peter and
William Stanyhurst, both of whom became
Jesuits. He never returned to England, and died at
Brussels, according to
Anthony à Wood. ==Works==