Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama.

Although well known in his own time, Kyd fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins (an early editor of The Spanish Tragedy) discovered that Kyd was named as its author by Thomas Heywood in his Apologie for Actors (1612). A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare's.

Thomas Kyd was the son of Francis and Anna Kyd and was baptised in the church of St Mary Woolnoth in the Ward of Langborn, Lombard Street, London on 6 November 1558. The baptismal register at St Mary Woolnoth carries this entry: "Thomas, son of Francis Kydd, Citizen and Writer of the Courte Letter of London". Francis Kydd was a scrivener and in 1580 was warden of the Scriveners' Company.

Andrew John Gurr (born 23 December 1936) is a contemporary literary scholar who specializes in William Shakespeare and English Renaissance theatre.

Born in Leicester, Gurr was raised in New Zealand, and educated at the University of Auckland and at Cambridge University. He has taught at the Universities of Wellington, Leeds, and Nairobi (1969–73); at the latter institution he was also head of his department. He taught at the University of Reading before his retirement.

Gurr co-wrote a 1981 study of Katherine Mansfield (with Claire Hanson) and two books on African literature; but he is best known for his books on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and the theatre of that historical era— books that are recognized and utilized as essential references on English Renaissance drama. He has authored a wide range of articles for both scholarly journals and general-interest periodicals, and has edited several of Shakespeare's plays and several plays in the John Fletcher canon. He was chief academic advisor to the project to rebuild the Globe Theatre in London and also advised on the construction of the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia, where he has also lectured at the Blackfriars Conference and for Mary Baldwin College's M.Litt/MFA Program. For ten years (1988–98), Gurr was the editor of the Modern Language Review.

Julian Stewart Thomas (born 1959) is a British archaeologist, publishing on the Neolithic and Bronze Age prehistory of Britain and north-west Europe. Thomas has been Vice President of the Royal Anthropological Institute since 2007, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of Manchester since 2000, and is former Secretary of the World Archaeological Congress. Thomas is, perhaps, best known as the author of academic publication, Understanding the Neolithic in particular, and for his work with the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

Born in Epsom, Surrey, Thomas studied archaeology at the University of Bradford – where he was acquired a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) in Archaeological science in 1981 – before transferring to the University of Sheffield and achieving a Master of Arts (M.A.) (in 1982), and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (in 1986), for his research on the "social and economic change in the Neolithic of Wessex and the Upper Thames valley".

Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – 1220) also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.

The Jutland Chronicle gives evidence that Saxo was born in Zealand (Danish: Sjælland). It is unlikely he was born before 1150 and it is supposed that his death could have occurred around 1220. His name Saxo was a common name in medieval Denmark. The name Grammaticus ("the learned") was first given to him in the Jutland Chronicle and the Sjælland Chronicle makes reference to Saxo cognomine Longus ("the tall").

He lived in a period of warfare and Danish expansion, led by Archbishop Absalon and the Valdemars. The Danes were also being threatened by the Wends who were making raids across the border and by sea.Valdemar I had also just won a civil war and later Valdemar II led an expedition across the Elbe to invade Holstein.