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He was born at Dinton in Wiltshire on May 1 1602, the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral.
His patron (Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford) apprenticed him to the composer John Coprario, which probably brought Lawes into contact with Charles, Prince of Wales at an early age. Both William and his elder brother Henry received court appointments after Charles succeeded to the British throne as Charles I. William was appointed as 'musician in ordinary for lutes and voices' in 1635 but had been writing music for the court prior to this.
William Lawes spent all his adult life in Charles's employ. He composed secular music & songs for court masques (and doubtless played in them) as well as sacred anthems and motets for Charles's private worship. He is remembered today for his sublime viol consort suites for between three and six players. His use of counterpoint and fugue and his tendency to juxtapose bizarre, spine-tingling themes next to pastoral ones in these works made them disfavoured in the centuries after his death; they have only become widely available in recent years.
When Charles's dispute with Parliament broke into civil war, Lawes joined the Royalist army and was given a post in the King's Life Guards, which was intended to keep him out of danger. Despite this, he was 'casually shot' by a ParliamentarianA parliamentarian is a specialist in parliamentary procedure. The adjective parliamentarian refers to any person or thing especially associated with a parliament (see parliamentary system). A Parliamentarian (as an upper-cased noun) often labels a Member in the massacre of Royalists at Rowton Heath, near ChesterThis article is about Chester in England. For other towns named after Chester see Chester (disambiguation). Chester is the county town of Cheshire in the north-west of England, close to the border with Wales. It is one of the best-preserved walled cities on September 24September 24 is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years). There are 98 days remaining. Events 622 Muhammad completes his hegira from Mecca to Medina 1493 Christopher Columbus departs on his second expedition to the New World 1664 Netherlands surren 1645. The author of his epitaph closed it with a lachrymose punA pun (also known as paronomasia is a play on words that transposes the meanings of words with similar sounds. This is usually for humorous effect, although one well known pun of serious intent is found in the Bible: Matthew 16. 18: "Thou art Peter [ Gree on the fact that he died at the hands of those who denied the divine right of kings: