diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 9dc734c..6a5f3f2 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -20,9 +20,7 @@
     os: osx
     osx_image: xcode8.3
     env: TOXENV=py27 OPENSSL=1.1.0
-  - python: "2.6" # these are just to make travis's UI a bit prettier
-    env: TOXENV=py26
-  - python: "2.7"
+  - python: "2.7" # these are just to make travis's UI a bit prettier
     env: TOXENV=py27
   - python: "3.4"
     env: TOXENV=py34
@@ -33,8 +31,6 @@
   - env: TOXENV=pypy
 
   # Also run the tests against cryptography master.
-  - python: "2.6"
-    env: TOXENV=py26-cryptographyMaster
   - python: "2.7"
     env: TOXENV=py27-cryptographyMaster
   - python: "3.4"
@@ -46,8 +42,6 @@
   - env: TOXENV=pypy-cryptographyMaster
 
   # And current minimum cryptography version.
-  - python: "2.6"
-    env: TOXENV=py26-cryptographyMinimum
   - python: "2.7"
     env: TOXENV=py27-cryptographyMinimum
   - python: "3.4"
@@ -82,7 +76,6 @@
   # Let the cryptography master builds fail because they might be caused by
   # cryptography changes that are beyond our control.
   allow_failures:
-  - env: TOXENV=py26-cryptographyMaster
   - env: TOXENV=py27-cryptographyMaster
   - env: TOXENV=py34-cryptographyMaster
   - env: TOXENV=py35-cryptographyMaster
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 2447414..080b30e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@
 Backward-incompatible changes:
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-*none*
+* The minimum ``cryptography`` version is now 2.2.1.
+* Support for Python 2.6 has been dropped.
 
 
 Deprecations:
diff --git a/doc/introduction.rst b/doc/introduction.rst
index beededf..a810fbb 100644
--- a/doc/introduction.rst
+++ b/doc/introduction.rst
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 Later it was maintained by `Jean-Paul Calderone`_ who among other things managed to make pyOpenSSL a pure Python project which the current maintainers are *very* grateful for.
 
 Over the time the standard library's ``ssl`` module improved, never reaching the completeness of pyOpenSSL's API coverage.
-Despite `PEP 466`_ many useful features remain Python 3-only and pyOpenSSL remains the only alternative for full-featured TLS code across all noteworthy Python versions from 2.6 through 3.5 and PyPy_.
+Despite `PEP 466`_ many useful features remain Python 3-only and pyOpenSSL remains the only alternative for full-featured TLS code across all noteworthy Python versions from 2.7 through 3.5 and PyPy_.
 
 
 Development
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index c22cb95..138d91c 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -3,11 +3,6 @@
 strict = true
 testpaths = tests
 
-[sdist]
-# Forcibly regenerate the manifest on Python 2.6. This is default behavior on
-# 2.7+ making this option deprecated. This should be removed once we drop 2.6.
-force_manifest = 1
-
 [bdist_wheel]
 # We are a pure-Python project so a single wheel is enough.
 universal = 1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 85252e9..5e80f0c 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -77,7 +77,6 @@
             'Operating System :: POSIX',
 
             'Programming Language :: Python :: 2',
-            'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.6',
             'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
             'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
             'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.4',
@@ -95,16 +94,14 @@
         package_dir={"": "src"},
         install_requires=[
             # Fix cryptographyMinimum in tox.ini when changing this!
-            "cryptography>=2.1.4",
+            "cryptography>=2.2.1",
             "six>=1.5.2"
         ],
         extras_require={
             "test": [
                 "flaky",
                 "pretend",
-                # pytest 3.3 doesn't support Python 2.6 anymore.
-                # Remove this pin once we drop Python 2.6 too.
-                "pytest>=3.0.1,<3.3.0",
+                "pytest>=3.0.1",
             ],
             "docs": [
                 "sphinx",
diff --git a/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py b/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py
index b5dd442..f3c9db0 100644
--- a/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py
+++ b/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py
@@ -113,12 +113,6 @@
 ]
 
 try:
-    _memoryview = memoryview
-except NameError:
-    class _memoryview(object):
-        pass
-
-try:
     _buffer = buffer
 except NameError:
     class _buffer(object):
@@ -1702,7 +1696,7 @@
         # Backward compatibility
         buf = _text_to_bytes_and_warn("buf", buf)
 
-        if isinstance(buf, _memoryview):
+        if isinstance(buf, memoryview):
             buf = buf.tobytes()
         if isinstance(buf, _buffer):
             buf = str(buf)
@@ -1729,7 +1723,7 @@
         """
         buf = _text_to_bytes_and_warn("buf", buf)
 
-        if isinstance(buf, _memoryview):
+        if isinstance(buf, memoryview):
             buf = buf.tobytes()
         if isinstance(buf, _buffer):
             buf = str(buf)
@@ -1802,12 +1796,8 @@
         # This strange line is all to avoid a memory copy. The buffer protocol
         # should allow us to assign a CFFI buffer to the LHS of this line, but
         # on CPython 3.3+ that segfaults. As a workaround, we can temporarily
-        # wrap it in a memoryview, except on Python 2.6 which doesn't have a
-        # memoryview type.
-        try:
-            buffer[:result] = memoryview(_ffi.buffer(buf, result))
-        except NameError:
-            buffer[:result] = _ffi.buffer(buf, result)
+        # wrap it in a memoryview.
+        buffer[:result] = memoryview(_ffi.buffer(buf, result))
 
         return result
 
diff --git a/tests/test_ssl.py b/tests/test_ssl.py
index 03dd935..1d6bb9f 100644
--- a/tests/test_ssl.py
+++ b/tests/test_ssl.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 from gc import collect, get_referrers
 from errno import ECONNREFUSED, EINPROGRESS, EWOULDBLOCK, EPIPE, ESHUTDOWN
-from sys import platform, getfilesystemencoding, version_info
+from sys import platform, getfilesystemencoding
 from socket import MSG_PEEK, SHUT_RDWR, error, socket
 from os import makedirs
 from os.path import join
@@ -99,10 +99,6 @@
 
 
 skip_if_py3 = pytest.mark.skipif(PY3, reason="Python 2 only")
-skip_if_py26 = pytest.mark.skipif(
-    version_info[0:2] == (2, 6),
-    reason="Python 2.7 and later only"
-)
 
 
 def join_bytes_or_unicode(prefix, suffix):
@@ -2867,7 +2863,6 @@
         assert count == 2
         assert client.recv(2) == b'xy'
 
-    @skip_if_py26
     def test_short_memoryview(self):
         """
         When passed a memoryview onto a small number of bytes,
@@ -3004,7 +2999,6 @@
             assert client.recv_into(output_buffer, flags=MSG_PEEK) == 2
             assert output_buffer == bytearray(b'xy\x00\x00\x00')
 
-    @skip_if_py26
     def test_memoryview_no_length(self):
         """
         `Connection.recv_into` can be passed a `memoryview` instance and data
@@ -3012,7 +3006,6 @@
         """
         self._no_length_test(_make_memoryview)
 
-    @skip_if_py26
     def test_memoryview_respects_length(self):
         """
         When called with a `memoryview` instance, `Connection.recv_into`
@@ -3021,7 +3014,6 @@
         """
         self._respects_length_test(_make_memoryview)
 
-    @skip_if_py26
     def test_memoryview_doesnt_overfill(self):
         """
         When called with a `memoryview` instance, `Connection.recv_into`
@@ -3030,7 +3022,6 @@
         """
         self._doesnt_overfill_test(_make_memoryview)
 
-    @skip_if_py26
     def test_memoryview_really_doesnt_overfill(self):
         """
         When called with a `memoryview` instance and an `nbytes` value that is
@@ -3078,7 +3069,6 @@
                 ) == str(w[-1].message))
         assert client.recv(1) == b"x"
 
-    @skip_if_py26
     def test_short_memoryview(self):
         """
         When passed a memoryview onto a small number of bytes,
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index bcb2f48..cbf6693 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [tox]
-envlist = {pypy,py26,py27,py34,py35,py36}{,-cryptographyMaster,-cryptographyMinimum},py27-twistedMaster,pypi-readme,check-manifest,flake8,docs,coverage-report
+envlist = {pypy,py27,py34,py35,py36}{,-cryptographyMaster,-cryptographyMinimum},py27-twistedMaster,pypi-readme,check-manifest,flake8,docs,coverage-report
 
 [testenv]
 whitelist_externals =
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 deps =
     coverage>=4.2
     cryptographyMaster: git+https://github.com/pyca/cryptography.git
-    cryptographyMinimum: cryptography==2.1.4
+    cryptographyMinimum: cryptography==2.2.1
 setenv =
     # Do not allow the executing environment to pollute the test environment
     # with extra packages.