Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere - 17th Earl of Oxford - unknown artist after lost original 1575 National Portrait Gallery, London

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (12 April 1550–24 June 1604) was an Elizabethan courtier, lyric poet, and patron of the arts. He was known during his time as a poet, playwright, sportsman, patron of numerous writers and of at least two acting companies and a company of musicians. He was probably born at Castle Hedingham in Essex to John de Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford and the former Margery Golding.

Oxford received a broad education and maintained a large library . He was one of the leading patrons of the Elizabethan age with some 28 works dedicated to him, including works by Edmund Spenser, Arthur Golding, and John Lyly, between 1564 and 1599. Oxford performed military service in the 1570 (Northern rebellion) and at Flanders (1585).

Oxford was first nominated as a candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare's plays in 1920 By J. Thomas Looney, an English schoolteacher, a claim that a majority of historians and literary scholars reject, but which has been supported by many prominent scholars and jurists.

Early life

Baptised Edward, a name unique in the de Vere family, perhaps as a compliment to the then king Edward VI, de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, and raised in the Reformed Faith. His father, though never of consequence in the Tudor court, was a sportsman and hunter of note, and among his son's earliest accomplishments were mastery of riding, shooting and hawking. His father's circle included many distinguished scholars and poets, such as the statesman and Cambridge don Sir Thomas Smith, like Oxford's father a staunch Protestant, and the poets Baron Sheffield, Arthur Golding and the Earl of Surrey. He was one of the small number of noblemen who retained a company of actors. Edward de Vere, like most children of his class, was raised by surrogate parents. He matriculated as an impubes or immature fellow-commoner of Queen's College in November 1558, where he remained one year. Thereafter, he was apparently, tutored for three years by Thomas Fowle, a former fellow at St. John's, in the household, and under the supervision of, Sir Thomas Smith. An early taste for literature is evident from in his purchases of books by Chaucer, Plutarch (in French), Cicero, and Plato (probably in Latin).

On the death of his father on 3 August 1562, the twelve-year-old Oxford became the 17th Earl of Oxford and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, inheriting an annual income of approximately £2250.

Because the 16th Earl held land from the Crown by knight service, Oxford became a royal ward, and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, the Secretary of State, a leading member of Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council, and one of her chief advisors. His wardship lasted until 1571, when he maintained his majority. Sometime before October 1563, Oxford's mother, Margery, married a Gentleman Pensioner named Charles Tyrrell, the sixth son of Sir Thomas Tyrrell of East Horndon. Oxford's mother died five years later, on 2 December 1568. Oxford's stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in 1570, leaving bequests to Oxford and to Oxford's sister, Mary de Vere, in his will.

As a ward, under Sir William Cecil's supervision Oxford studied French, Latin, writing, drawing, cosmography, dancing, riding and shooting. At Cecil House he was tutored briefly by Laurence Nowell, one of the founding fathers of Anglo-Saxon studies. While de Vere was in Cambridge, Arthur Golding, who also lived at the time at Cecil House, published his Th’ Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius. Though originally intending it for the 16th Earl, he dedicated it to his young nephew, attributing to him an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. . It reads:

"It is not unknown to others, and I have had experience thereof myself, how earnest a desire Your Honor hath naturally graffed in you to read, peruse, and communicate with others, as well as the histories of ancient times and things done long ago, as also the present estate of things in our days, and that not without a certain pregnancy of wit and ripeness of understanding."

During the Queen's visits to Cambridge and Oxford universities in 1564 and 1566, Oxford, who was part of her entourage, was granted, along with a dozen other visitors, an unearned M.A by the University of Cambridge on 10 August 1564 and an M.A from the University of Oxford on 6 September 1566. On 1 February 1566 he was admitted to Gray's Inn, perhaps as a courtesy admission. He purchased no known legal books. John Brooke later interpreted the gift as a token of Cambridge's acknowledgement of the young de Vere's virtue and learning. In the dedication of his The Staff of Christian Faith (1577), he wrote:

"For if in the opinion of all men, there can be found no one more fitte, for patronage and defence of learning, then the skilfull: for that he is both wyse and able to iudge and discerne truly thereof. I vnderstanding righte well that your honor hathe continually, euen from your tender yeares, bestowed your time and trauayle towards the attayning of the same, as also the vniuersitie of Cambridge hath acknowledged in graunting and giuing vnto you such commendation and prayse thereof, as verily by righte was due vnto your excellent vertue and rare learning. Wherin verily Cambridge the mother of learning, and learned men, hath openly confessed: and in this hir confessing made knowen vnto al men, that your honor being learned and able to iudge as a safe harbor and defence of learning, and therefore one most fitte to whose honorable patronage I might safely commit this my poore and simple labours." (STC 12476)

On 23 July 1567, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an unarmed under-cook evidently in the Cecil household, while practising fencing with Edward Baynham, a Westminster tailor, in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand. The coroner's inquest, with 17 juryman, one of whom was Oxford's servant, and another Cecil's protégé the future historian Raphael Holinshed, made the following finding:

'Thomas Brynchnell, an under Cook, was hurt by the Erle of Oxford at Cecill-houss, whereof he dyed, and by a Verdict found felo de se, with running upon a Poynt of a Fence Sword of the said Erle.'

Brincknell was, the finding concluded, drunk at the time and instigated by the devil when he ran and fell upon de Vere's foil, and gave himself the fatal wound. Cecil later recalled that he attempted to have the jury find for Oxford as acting in self-defence rather than Brincknell committing suicide.. In his recent biography, Stanford University's Alan Nelson argues that:

'In the Brincknell incident, Oxford learned a lesson which largely determined the next thirty years of his life: he could commit no act, however egregious, that his powerful guardian Cecil would not personally forgive and persuade others to forget.'

Court years

By indenture of 1 July 1562, Oxford's father, the 16th Earl, had arranged a marriage for him with one of the sisters of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. However when Oxford became a royal ward, this contract was allowed to lapse, and on 16 December 1571 he was forced to marry Lord Burghley's fifteen-year-old daughter, Anne Cecil — a surprising choice since Oxford was of the oldest nobility in the kingdom whereas Anne was not originally of noble birth, her father having only been raised to the peerage that year by Queen Elizabeth to enable the marriage of social inequals. As master of the queen's Court of Wards, however, Burghley had the power to arrange the marriages of his wards or impose huge fines upon them. Oxford's marriage produced five children, a son and daughter who died young, and three daughters who survived infancy. The Earl's daughters all married into the peerage: Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby; Bridget married Francis Norris, 1st Earl of Berkshire; and Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, one of the “INCOMPARABLE PAIRE OF BRETHREN” to whom William Shakespeare's First Folio would be dedicated.

In 1570, Oxford performed military service in Northern England and Scotland, the first of at least three campaigns he participated in. By this time he was a major figure in the Elizabethan court and a leading contender for the affection of Elizabeth I. In a letter of 11 May 1573, one contemporary, Gilbert Talbot, wrote that Oxford had lately grown in great credit with the Queen, and "were it not for his fickle head he would pass any of them shortly". Oxford remained in favour for many years, was noted for his dancing and grand entertainments, and won top honors in several tilting tournaments at court.

He toured France, Germany and Italy in 1575-6, and was thought to be of Roman Catholic sympathies, as were many of the old nobility. On his return across the English Channel in April 1576, Oxford's ship was hijacked by pirates, who stripped him naked, apparently with the intention of murdering him, until they were made aware of his noble status, upon which he was allowed to go free, albeit without most of his possessions. Further controversy ensued after he found that his wife had given birth to a daughter during his journey. Gossip speculated that the child was not his, and Oxford complained that her father's handling of the birth date had made Ann become "the fable of the world". Thus he refused to live with her from 1576 until 1581.

In December of 1580, Oxford accused two of his Catholic friends, Lord Henry Howard and Charles Arundel, of treason, and denounced them to the Queen, asking mercy for his own Catholicism, which he repudiated. Both Howard and Arundel later received pensions from Philip II, and furnished Spain with intelligence against England, suggesting that Oxford's allegations against them in 1581 were not without merit. After fleeing to the house of the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, on the night of 25 December 1580, Howard and Arundel gave themselves up to the authorities, were placed under arrest, and in turn denounced Oxford, accusing him of a laundry list of crimes, including plotting to murder a host of courtiers, such as Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Leicester. The charges against Oxford were not taken seriously at the time, although the libels found their way into some historical accounts and Oxford's reputation was thereafter tarnished. Charles Arundel later fled England in December 1583 for fear of arrest, was declared guilty of high treason in 1585, and died in exile in Paris in 1587. Lord Henry Howard was again arrested in 1583 and 1585, but remained in England throughout Queen Elizabeth's reign, and was created Earl of Northampton by her successor, King James I.

Oxford fathered an illegitimate son by Anne Vavasour, Sir Edward Vere, in 1581, and for this offence was imprisoned in the Tower of London for several months, and later placed under house arrest and banished from court. By Christmas of 1581, after a five year separation, Oxford had reconciled with his wife, Anne Cecil. However his affair with Anne Vavasour led to a fray in the streets of London in 1582 with Anne Vavasour's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a courtier in favour with the Queen. On 3 March 1582, Oxford fought with Knyvet, and both men were 'hurt', Oxford 'more dangerously,' and Oxford's man 'Gerret' was slain. Oxford's injury perhaps resulted in the lameness mentioned in his letter to Lord Burghley of 25 March 1595. He returned to court in June of 1583. In 1585, Oxford served at Flanders with Sir John Norreys, commander of 5,000 to 6,000 English and Dutch soldiers fighting against Spain.

Later years

Portrait of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, by Marcus Gheeraedts

In 1586 he was granted an annual pension of £1,000 by the Queen. It has been suggested that the annuity may also have been granted for his services in maintaining a group of writers and a company of actors, and that the obscurity of his later life is to be explained by his immersion in literary and dramatic pursuits. As noted above, he was indeed a notable patron of writers including Edmund Spenser, Arthur Golding, Robert Greene, and Thomas Churchyard. In addition to patronizing the creative work of John Lyly and Anthony Munday, both considered important sources for and influences on Shakespeare, he employed them as secretaries, although for how long is not clearly known. According to at least one 17th century source (Anthony A. Wood), he also employed for some time the Democritean philosopher Nicholas Hill as a secretary.

He volunteered to serve against the Spanish Armada in 1588, but refused his post as commander of the port town of Harwich.

His first wife Anne Cecil died in 1588 at the age of 32. In 1591, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour. This marriage produced his heir, Henry, Lord Vere, later the 18th Earl of Oxford.

Oxford seemed destined to enjoy greater favour under King James, whose accession he supported, than he had during the latter years of Queen Elizabeth's reign. On 18 July 1603, the King granted Oxford's decades-long suit to be restored to the offices of steward of Waltham Forest and keeper of the King's house and park at Havering, and on 2 August 1603 the King confirmed Oxford's annuity of £1000. Less than a year later, Oxford died on 24 June 1604 of unknown causes at Brooke House in Hackney. He was buried on 6 July at St John-at-Hackney, although his cousin, Percival Golding (son of Arthur Golding), reported a few years later that he was buried at Westminster Abbey. Contrary to much which has been written on the topic, Oxford died a relatively wealthy man, having acquired property in 1580 which by the time of his death had been extensively developed, and was considered to be worth £20,000.

Patronage

Oxford was one of the leading patron of the arts and drama of Elizabethan England, with at least thirty-three works of literature, history, philosophy, theology, music, military theory, and medicine, dedicated to him. Stephen May, commenting on this tradition, calls him “a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments” whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning.”

The focus of his patronage, however, was literary, with 13 of the books presented to him either original or translated works of world literature. Authors dedicating their works to de Vere include Arthur Golding, Edmund Spenser, Thomas Watson, Robert Greene, John Lyly, Anthony Munday, and Thomas Churchyard, the latter three writers all having been employed by de Vere for various periods of time. In 1583, Oxford bought the lease of the troubled Blackfriars Theatre, re-organized its activities and theatrical companies, and eventually turned over its operation to his secretary, John Lyly, with whom he acted as co-producer. He also patronized musicians, including the composers William Byrd and John Farmer, supported a band of tumblers, and sponsored two acting companies, "Oxford's Men" and "Oxford's Boys". His extensive patronage, considerable debts incurred as a royal ward, as well as possible mismanagement of his estates, forced the sale of his ancestral lands.

Works patronized by Oxford include Thomas Underdown's influential historical novel Aethiopica (1569), the first Latin translation of Baldassare Castiglione's Courtier (1571),Thomas Bedingfield's (1573) translation of Jerome Cardan's de Comforte (sometimes called "Hamlet's Book"), John Lyly's second Euphues novel, Euphues and His England (1580), Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia (1581), and the first epistolary instruction manual to use English letters as models (Angel Day's English Secretary, 1586).

Writing

Oxford was described as both a poet and a playwright in his own lifetime, but only a small corpus of his poems and songs are extant under his own name, the dates of which (and in some cases the authorship) are uncertain; most of these are signed "Earle of Oxenforde" or "E.O.". During his lifetime, Oxford was lauded by other English poets, both for his patronage and for his literary, scholarly, and musical avocations (for example, see one of the epistolary sonnets to Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene). In 1589 the author of the anonymously published Arte of English Poesie (1589), usually identified as George Puttenham, wrote:

"And in her Majesties time that now is are sprong up an other crew of Courtly makers Noble men and Gentlemen of her Majesties owne servauntes, who have written excellently well as it would appeare if their doings could be found out and made publicke with the rest, of which number is first that noble Gentleman Edward Earle of Oxford” (STC 20519).

Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia (1598) listed Oxford as a playwright, describing him as among "the best for comedy".

B.M. Ward attributed 24 poems to Oxford in in his 1928 edition of Hundredth Sundrie Flowres, the 1573 collection of poetry attributed to soldier of fortune and poet George Gascoigne. His attribution has not gained academic acceptance.

Oxford’s surviving correspondence focuses mainly on business affairs such as the Cornish tin monopoly and his ongoing desire for several royal monopolies and stewardships. Oxford maintained both adult and children's theatre companies, and a letter from the Privy Council in March 1602 shows his active intervention on behalf of a "third" acting company who liked to play at "the Bores head":

". . . the seruants of or verey good L. the Earle of Oxford, and of me the Earle of Worcester, beinge ioyned by agrement togeather in on Companie (to whom, vpon noteice of her Maiesties pleasure at the suit of the Earl of Oxford, tolleracion hath ben thaught meete to be graunted, notwithstandinge the restraint of our said former Orders), doe not tye them selfs to one certaine place and howse, but do chainge there place at there owne disposition, which is as disorderly and offensiue as the former offence of many howses. And as the other Companies that are alowed, namely of me the L. Admirall and the L. Chamberlaine, be appointed there certaine howses, and one and noe more to each Companie. Soe we doe straightly require that this third Companie be likewise to one place. And because we are informed the house called the Bores head is the place they haue especially vsed and doe best like of, we doe pray and require yow that the said howse . . . may be assigned onto them, and that they be verey straightlie Charged to vse and exercise there plaies in noe other but that howse, as they will looke to haue that tolleracion continued and avoid farther displeasure."

Two of Oxford’s "literary" letters were published in 1571 (1572 (New style)) and 1573. The first of these was written in Latin as a dedicatory epistle to Bartholomew Clerke's Latin translation of Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano (The Courtier), while the second, written in English with accompanying verses, was an epistle to Thomas Bedingfield's English translation of Cardanus' Comfort (from the Latin of De consolatione libri tres by the Italian mathematician and physician Girolamo Cardano). The latter book, published at Oxford’s command, has sometimes been called “Hamlet’s book” because of several close verbal and philosophical parallels between it and Shakespeare’s play, particularly a passage on the unsavoriness of old men’s company, to which Hamlet seems to refer in his satirical banter with Polonius (re: plum-tree gum, plentiful lack of wit, most weak hams, etc.), as well a passage with remarkable similarities to Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy.

Sample poems by Oxford

(Untitled)

Were I a king I might command content;
Were I obscure unknown should be my cares,
And were I dead no thoughts should me torment,
Nor words, nor wrongs, nor love, nor hate, nor fears
A doubtful choice for me of three things one to crave,

A kingdom or a cottage or a grave.

Love Thy Choice

Who taught thee first to sigh, alas, my heart ?
Who taught thy tongue the woeful words of plaint ?
Who filled your eyes with tears of bitter smart ?
Who gave thee grief and made thy joys to faint ?
Who first did paint with colours pale thy face ?
Who first did break thy sleeps of quiet rest ?
Above the rest in court who gave thee grace ?
Who made thee strive in honour to be best ?
In constant truth to bide so firm and sure,
To scorn the world regarding but thy friends ?
With patient mind each passion to endure,
In one desire to settle to the end ?
Love then thy choice wherein such choice thou bind,

As nought but death may ever change thy mind.

Woman's Changeableness

If women could be fair and yet not fond,
Or that their love were firm not fickle, still,
I would not marvel that they make men bond,
By service long to purchase their good will;
But when I see how frail those creatures are,
I muse that men forget themselves so far.
To mark the choice they make, and how they change,
How oft from Phoebus do they flee to Pan,
Unsettled still like haggards wild they range,
These gentle birds that fly from man to man;
Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist
And let them fly fair fools which way they list.
Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,
To pass the time when nothing else can please,
And train them to our lure with subtle oath,
Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease;
And then we say when we their fancy try,

To play with fools, O what a fool was I.

Shakespearean authorship question

Main article: Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship

The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford(1550–1604), wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. While a large majority of scholars reject all alternative candidates for authorship, there is increased interest in various authorship theories. Since the 1920s, Oxford has been the most widely accepted anti-Stratfordian candidate.

Oxfordians point to the acclaim of Oxford's contemporaries regarding his talent as a poet and a playwright, his reputation as a concealed poet, and his personal connections to London theatre and the contemporary playwrights of Shakespeare's day. They also note his long term relationship with Queen Elizabeth I, his knowledge of Court life, his extensive and multilingual education, his academic and cultural achievements, and his wide-ranging travels through France and Italy to what would later become the locations of many of Shakespeare's plays.

The case for Oxford's authorship is also based on perceived similarities between Oxford's biography and events in Shakespeare's plays, sonnets and longer poems; parallels of language, idiom, and thought between Oxford's personal letters and the Shakespearean canon; and underlined passages in Oxford's personal bible, which Oxfordians believe correspond to quotations in Shakespeare's plays. Confronting the issue of Oxford's death in 1604, Oxfordian researchers cite examples they say imply the writer known as "Shakespeare" or "Shake-speare" died before 1609, and point to 1604 as the year regular publication of "new" or "augmented" Shakespeare plays stopped.

Supporters of the standard view, often referred to as "Stratfordian" or "mainstream", dispute all Oxfordian contentions. Aside from their main argument against the theory — the issue of Oxford's 1604 death — they assert that connections between Oxford's life and the plots of Shakespeare's plays are conjectural or coincidental.

Popular culture

• In March 2010 Roland Emmerich began filming Anonymous, starring Rhys Ifans and Vanessa Redgrave, which posits in cinematic terms how Edward de Vere's writings came to be attributed to William Shakespere of Stratford.
• Oxford is one of the primary characters in Amy Freed's 2001 play The Beard of Avon.
• Oxford and the Shakespeare authorship question are central to the plot of Sarah Smith's 2003 novel Chasing Shakespeares, which she also adapted into a play.
• The Oxfordian theory is present in Jennifer Lee Carrell's thriller Interred With Their Bones.
• The YA novel Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach is centered on Oxford and the authorship question.
• Leslie Howard's classic 1943 anti-Nazi film, Pimpernel Smith, features several speeches by the protagonist "Horatio" Smith, a professor of archaeology at Cambridge, concerning Oxford as the true writer of Shakespeare's plays. The movie plays on the well-documented Nazi-interest in Shakespeare; in the movie, the claim is made by Smith's counterparts the principal Nazi character's assertion that Shakespeare was in fact German.

References

• Nelson, Alan H (2003), Monstrous Adversary: the life of Edward de Vere,17th Earl of Oxford, Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-0-85323-678-8
• Ward, Bernard M (1928), The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604: From Contemporary Documents., John Murray

Bibliography

• Anderson, Mark. "Shakespeare" by Another Name: The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, The Man Who Was Shakespeare. Gotham, 2005 (expanded paperback edition 2006).

• Anderson, Verily. The De Veres of Castle Hedingham. Terence Dalton, 1993 . ISBN 978-0-86138-062-6

• Dewar, Mary. Sir Thomas Smith: A Tudor Intellectual in Office. London: Athlone, 1964.

• Drury, Paul and Richard Simpson. Hill Hall: A Singular House devised by a Tudor intellectual. London: The Society of Antiquaries, 2009.ISBN978-0-85431-291-7.

• Nelson, Alan H. Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Liverpool English Texts and Studies 40. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2003.

• Ogburn, Charlton.The Mysterious William Shakespeare: The Myth and the Reality. Dodd, Mead & Co.,1984

• Ward, B.M. The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604: From Contemporary Documents. London: John Murray, 1928.

External links

• De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
• Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
• Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford: Bard or not the Bard?