Sir Henry Savile (30 November 154919 February 1622) was an English scholar and mathematician, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton. He endowed the Savilian chairs of Astronomy and of Geometry at Oxford University, and was one of the scholars who translated the New Testament from Greek into English. He was a Member of the Parliament of England for Bossiney in Cornwall in 1589, and Dunwich in Suffolk in 1593. Life He was the son of Henry Savile of Over Bradley, Stainland, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, a member of an old county family, the Saviles of Methley, and of his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ramsden. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1561. He then became a Fellow of Merton College in 1565. He established a reputation as a Greek scholar and mathematician by voluntary lectures on Ptolemy's Almagest, and in 1575 became Junior Proctor of the university. In 1578 he travelled on the continent of Europe, where he collected manuscripts, and is said to have been employed by Queen Elizabeth as her resident in the Low Countries. On his return he was named Greek tutor to the Queen. In 1583, Lord Burghley appointed Savile, with John Chamber and Thomas Digges, to sit on a commission to consider whether England should adopt the Gregorian calendar, as proposed by John Dee. In 1585 he was established as Warden of Merton by a vigorous exercise of the interest of Burghley and Secretary Walsingham. He proved a successful and autocratic head of house, generally unpopular with Fellows and undergraduates, but under him the college flourished. His translation of four books of the Histories of Tacitus, with the learned Commentary on Roman Warfare (1591), enhanced his reputation. He also sat in Parliament as one of the two members for Bossiney in 1589 and for Dunwich (both were notorious rotten boroughs) in 1593. On 26 May 1596 he obtained the provostship of Eton College, the reward of persistent begging. He was not qualified for the post under the statutes of the college, for he was not in holy orders, and the Queen was reluctant to name him. Savile insisted with considerable ingenuity that the Queen had a right to dispense with statutes, and at last he got his way. In February 1601 he was put under arrest on suspicion of having been concerned in the rebellion of