Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

• 1. Noble Birth And Wardship

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  On the 12th of April 1550, Edward de Vere entered the world at Hedingham Castle in Essex. He was the only son of John de Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. His father died on the 3rd of August 1562 when Edward was just twelve years old. This event transformed him from a boy into the 17th Earl of Oxford overnight. The Crown claimed his lands as part of knight service obligations. Queen Elizabeth I placed him under royal wardship. Sir William Cecil, the Queen's principal advisor, took charge of the young earl's household. Cecil House became the center of Edward's daily life for several years. His studies included dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. Laurence Nowell served as his tutor for eight months before departing. A letter from Nowell to Cecil described the thirteen-year-old student as either intractable or too precocious for the teacher to handle. In May 1564, Arthur Golding dedicated a historical work to his nephew, praising his natural desire to read ancient histories and understand current events. The young earl received honorary Master of Arts degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford universities between 1564 and 1566. He studied law at Gray's Inn starting in February 1567. On the 23rd of July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House, seventeen-year-old Edward killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook employed by the household. A coroner's jury found that Brincknell had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Edward's blade. The cook was not buried in consecrated ground, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a stillborn child shortly after her husband's death. Cecil later wrote that he tried to have the jury find the killing was self-defense.

• 2. European Travels And Scandals

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  In January 1575, Elizabeth issued a license allowing Edward de Vere to travel abroad. He left England in the first week of February 1575 with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Before departing, he sold manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire for £6,000 to three trustees. His ship was seized by pirates from Flushing on his return across the Channel in April 1576. They stripped him to his shirt and might have murdered him until one recognized him. In Paris, news reached him that his new wife Anne was pregnant. He sent her many extravagant presents during the coming months. Somewhere along the way, his mind became poisoned against Anne and the Cecils. He became convinced the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at these rumors. In mid-March 1576, he traveled to Strasbourg before making his way to Venice via Milan. Although his daughter Elizabeth was born at the beginning of July, Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September. He remained in Italy for a year, captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics. John Stow recorded that he introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable. These included embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth owned a pair decorated with perfume known as the Earl of Oxford's perfume. In January 1576, he wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints regarding creditors' demands. Benedict Spinola had lent him over £4,000 for his fifteen-month continental tour. Upon returning to England in 1576, he sold manors in Devonshire. By the end of 1578, he had sold at least seven more properties. On the 23rd of March 1581, Sir Francis Walsingham informed the Earl of Huntingdon that Anne Vavasour, one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honor, had given birth to a son two days earlier. The Earl of Oxford was avowed to be the father who had withdrawn himself with intent to pass the seas. Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London along with Anne and her infant. He was released on the 8th of June but remained under house arrest until July. While under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin to him. In March 1582, a skirmish occurred in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed. Another fray happened on the 18th of June, followed by a third six days later when Knyvet reportedly slew a man of the Earl of Oxford's retinue.

• 3. Theatrical Patronage And Company

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  Beginning in 1580, Edward de Vere patronized both adult and boy acting companies alongside musicians. Records show he also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of premises used by boy companies in Blackfriars. He gave this property to his secretary, writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans as manager of the new company composed of Children of the Chapel and Children of Paul's. Evans turned his talents to playwriting until June 1584 when the original lease was voided. In 1584, 1585, the Earl of Oxford's musicians received payments for performances in Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Players remained active until 1602. Between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his thirty-three dedications, thirteen appeared in original or translated literary works. This represented a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. Steven W. May described Oxford as a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests whose biography exhibited lifelong devotion to learning. The composer John Farmer dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting his patron's love of music. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all poems in the collection were meant to be sung. Oxford's contributions were almost the only genuine love songs in that anthology. His poem What cunning can express appeared in The Phoenix Nest in 1593 and was republished in England's Helicon in 1600. Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart appeared in The Teares of Fancie in 1593. Brittons Bowre of Delight published If women could be fair and yet not fond under Oxford's name in 1597, though modern attribution remains uncertain.

• 4. Financial Ruin And Court Exile

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  Oxford's financial situation steadily deteriorated throughout the 1580s. He had sold almost all his inherited lands by this point, cutting off what had been his principal source of income. Properties served as security for unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards. To avoid losing everything, purchasers agreed to pay his debt in installments. In 1586, he petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial condition. Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annual payment continuing at her pleasure or until otherwise provided. This annuity later continued by James I. De Vere's widow Elizabeth petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of their eleven-year-old son Henry. Henry ultimately received a £200 annuity for life. Between 1591 and 1592, Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates including Castle Hedingham which went to Lord Burghley held in trust for his three daughters from his first marriage. He commissioned servant Roger Harlakenden to sell Colne Priory. Harlakenden undervalued the land then purchased it under his own son's name alongside other parcels not meant for sale. The suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades without settlement during his lifetime. From March to August 1595, Oxford actively importuned the Queen to operate tin mines in Cornwall competing with Lord Buckhurst. He wrote to Burghley enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation. His letters indicated he pursued this suit into 1596 and renewed it again three years later but remained unsuccessful obtaining the tin monopoly. In October 1595, Oxford wrote to brother-in-law Sir Robert Cecil about friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex partly over property claims. In July 1600, Oxford requested Sir Robert Cecil's help securing an appointment as Governor of Isle of Jersey citing unfulfilled promises. During this time he was listed on Pipe rolls as owing £20 for subsidy. After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford became party to complicated litigation regarding lands reverting to Crown by escheat at Danvers attainder.

• 5. Poetic Works And Literary Reputation

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  Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely within courtly circles throughout his life. Three poems titled When wert thou born desire, My mind to me a kingdom is, and Sitting alone upon my thought repeatedly appear in surviving sixteenth-century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem appeared in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte dated January 1572. Bedingfield dedicated the work to Oxford setting forth reasons why he should publish it. William Webbe named him as most excellent among Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie placed him first on lists of courtier poets including excerpts from When wert thou born desire as examples of excellence and wit. Francis Meres Palladis Tamia named Oxford first by social rank among seventeen playwrights listed as best for comedy. He also appeared first on lists of seven Elizabethan courtly poets honoring poetry with pens and practice in Henry Peacham's Compleat Gentleman published in 1622. Steven W. May described Oxford as Elizabeth's first truly prestigious courtier poet whose precedent conferred genuine respectability upon later efforts by Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh. C.S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows faint talent but remains mostly undistinguished and verbose. Nelson stated contemporary observers like Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale compared to those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson. His known poems are astonishingly uneven ranging from fine to execrable quality. One poem cries out against loss of good name creating defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse.

• 6. Oxfordian Authorship Controversy

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  The Oxfordian theory proposes that Edward de Vere wrote plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare. J. Thomas Looney introduced this theory through a book published in 1920. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has remained among most popular alternative authorship theories since the 1920s. No competent student of period historical or literary evidence has ever taken this theory seriously according to founding premise false statements. There is nothing especially mysterious about William Shakespeare who is well-documented as expected for man of his time. None of contemporaries or associates expressed doubt about authorship of poems and plays. Nothing about de Vere suggests he possessed great talent nor reason to suppose suppression of talents. Rhys Ifans portrayed Edward de Vere in 2011 drama film Anonymous which made the theory central theme. The theory continues influencing modern literary debate despite lack of academic acceptance. Critics note no scholarly Shakespearian of standing goes along with Oxfordian claims today. The movement persists primarily outside mainstream academia while maintaining dedicated followers worldwide.