[2] As a protégé of Sir Thomas Smith, Eden associated with intellectuals such as John Cheke and Roger Ascham and served in a minor Treasury position from 1544 to 1546.
[1] Eden set out to translate Vannoccio Biringuccio's De la pirotechnia into English and had completed the first 22 chapters in 1552, but he made the mistake of lending out the manuscript and was unable to retrieve it.
[3] The new protector, the Earl of Northumberland, wishing to challenge Spain's global empire and open up the Far East to European trade, spurred publications that helped to encourage this.
Under his direction, Eden in 1552 became secretary to Sir William Cecil and in 1553 published A Treatyse of the Newe India, translating part of Sebastian Muenster's Cosmographia.
[4][1] In September 1573 de Ferrieres wrote to Queen Elizabeth I of England requesting that Eden be admitted as one of her Poor Knights of Windsor.