Palsgrave, John

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John Palsgrave (pălz´grāv, pôlz´–), d. 1554, English scholar, educated at Oxford and at the Univ. of Paris. Palsgrave was tutor to Henry VIII's daughter Mary (later Mary I), who used her influence in his behalf after he had taken holy orders. His most important work was his Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse (1530), written to instruct the English in the rules of French grammar. It has value today chiefly as a source of information about transitional stages of the English language of that period.