ABSTRACT
On 17 November 1558 the Catholic Queen Mary died and was succeeded by the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. William Byrd was then eighteen or nineteen years old. Evidence that he was already sufficiently skilled to have collaborated with older and more experienced composers is found in a set of part-books that once belonged to a Dr Gyffard. 1 Since the books’ repertoire consists largely of liturgical pieces designed for the Sarum Use, which was discarded on Mary’s death, the bulk of their contents can be assigned to her reign (though one of the composers, John Taverner, died before she came to the throne). 2
