Muriel St. Clare Byrne OBE (1895–1983)[1] was a historical researcher, specialising in the Tudor period and the reign of Henry VIII of England.
Born Hoylake, Cheshire, England 31 May 1895, she was the granddaughter of the naval architect and yacht designer St Clare John Byrne with whom she and her mother lived when her father (Henry) died in 1905.
Byrne devoted a lifetime to the study of Tudor England, gathered together and edited primary sources and published these, including the Lisle Letters, and the Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, as well as publishing books which were entirely her own work, such as Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, Elizabethan Home and Common or Garden Child.
However, the difficulties with deciphering the handwriting and the inconsistent spelling, resulted in Byrne spending almost 50 years producing the six volumes of her work.
It required donations from many people including Queen Elizabeth II, to get the work published in 1981 on Byrne's 86th birthday.