Thomas Tallis (c 1505 – 23 November 1585) was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician during the often stormy sixteenth century in England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of its earliest composers. Little is known about his early life, but there seems to be agreement that he was born around 1505, in the latter part of the reign of Henry VII. His first known appointment to a musical position was as organist of Dover Priory