Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Charles Jennens (1700 - 20 November 1773) was an English landowner and patron of the arts, who assembled the text for five of Handel's oratorios: Saul, Israel in Egypt, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Messiah, and Belshazzar. Much of this served to promote his own views concerning kingship (he was a supporter of the deposed Stuart line). Jennens was born in Leicestershire and educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He lived at Gopsall, till 1747 together with his father, unmarried, melancholic and extravagant. His neighbours called him Suleyman the Magnificent. Lord Guernsey was his second cousin. Jennens was friendly with Edward Holdsworth, sending the poet and classical scholar letters. He became a non-juror, interested in "primitive Christianity" and John Chrysostom. Jennens was an anti-Deist, in those days very popular. Richard Kidder's book A Demonstration of the Messias influenced him.