HEYWOOD, JOHN (b. 1497), English dramatist and epigrammatist, is generally said to have been a native of North Mimms, near St Albans, Hertfordshire, though Bale says he was born in London. A letter from a John Heywood, who may fairly be identified with him, is dated from Malines in 1575, when he called himself an old man of seventy-eight, which would fix his birth in 1497. He was a chorister of the Chapel Royal, and is said to have been educated at Broadgates Hall (Pembroke College), Oxford. From 1521 onwards his name appears in the king's accounts as the recipient of an annuity of ten marks as player of the virginals, and in 1538 he received forty shillings for "playing an interlude with his children" before the Princess Mary. He is said to have owed his introduction to her to Sir Thomas More, at whose seat at Gobions near St Albans he wrote his Epigrams, according to Henry Peacham. More took a keen interest in the drama, and is represented by tradition as stepping on to the stage and taking an impromptu part in the dialogue. William Rastell, the printer of four of Heywood's plays, was the son of More's brother-in-law, John Rastell, who organized dramatic representations, and possibly wrote plays himself. Mr A. W. Pollard sees in Heywood's firm adherence to Catholicism and his free satire of legal and social abuses a reflection of the ideas of More and his friends, which counts for much in his dramatic development. His skill in music and his inexhaustible wit made him a favourite both with Henry VIII. and Mary. Under Edward VI. he was accused of denying the king's supremacy over the church, and had to make a public recantation in 1554; but with the accession of Mary his prospects brightened. He made a Latin speech to her in St Paul's Churchyard at her coronation, and wrote a poem to celebrate her marriage. Shortly before her death she granted him the lease of a manor and lands in Yorkshire. When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne he fled to Malines, and is said to have returned in 1577. In 1587 he is spoken of as "dead and gone" in Thomas Newton's epilogue to his works.