So far, in our geographical scan to find areas in which falsettists operated during the Renaissance, England has been notable by its absence. Notable, because the view we have received through Deller and his early followers is that the historical home of the falsettist was not the Continent, but England. As we have seen, part of this received view is skewed, since the falsettist certainly was known in mainland Europe from the early Renaissance onwards. But was the falsettist known in England at the time, or does that part of the picture also need amending?

Perhaps the first point to make here is a bald statement of fact: not one reference to falsetto singing has so far come to light from England during the Renaissance. Indeed, between those ambiguous prohibitions in the middle of the twelfth century, and a remark by Thomas Campion in 1613, falsetto singing as a definable phenomenon seems to vanish without trace for over four hundred years. If falsetto singing existed at all in England, one place we might expect to find mention of it would be in the words of the Lollards and Reformers, since in their efforts to condemn the ceremonies of the church, men such as John Wycliffe, and later writers John Bale and Thomas Becon, painted gaudy word-pictures, painstakingly detailing every perceived exoticism and excess.