Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was born on 12 April, 1550, at Castle Hedingham in Essex. The de Veres traced their ancestry back to before the conquest in 1066 by William of Normandy, who was accompanied by a fighting de Vere. The line carried the bluest of blue blood, probably more of it than Queen Elizabeth, since she was the daughter of Henry 8th and a commoner, Anne Boleyn.
His father died while Edward was still a minor, causing the new earl to became a royal ward. He attended Queen's College, Cambridge, and was awarded a Master of Arts degree by both Oxford and Cambridge universities. At the age of twenty-one, Lord Edward regained control of his estates and married Anne Cecil, daughter of Lord Burghley in 1571. The marriage, although it produced three surviving daughters, was not happy; Anne died in 1588. He traveled to France, Germany, Italy, Greece in 1574-75. He was retained under house arrest for a short time and, following the birth to Anne Vavasour of an illegitimate child fathered by him in 1581 (Sir Edward Vere), was briefly in the Tower of London. Thomas Brinknell was killed by deVere at sword point. A jury, guided by Cecil, brought in a verdict acquitting Oxford of any responsibility for the young man’s death.
Both William Webbe (A Discourse of English Poetrie, 1586) and George Puttenham (The Arte of English Poetrie, 1589) ranked him first among Elizabeth's courtier poets, and some two dozen poems are signed or ascribed to De Vere in manuscript or published form. De Vere's poetry first appeared in the 1576 publication of The Paradise of Dainty Devices, then in The Arte of English Poetrie (1589), The Phoenix Nest (1593), England's Helicon (1600) and England's Parnassus (1600). In 1622, Henry Peacham (The Complete Gentleman) would list De Vere as first among the poets of the Elizabethan period. As an experimental lyric poet, De Vere used 11 different metrical and stanzaic forms in the two dozen poems, including fourteener couplets, the English sonnet, tetrameters, and trimeters.
De Vere was also active as a dramatist at this time. Though none of his masques and plays survive. Throughout the 1580s, De Vere maintained a band of tumblers as well as two theater companies, Oxford's Boys and Oxford's Men. Evidence of De Vere's lifelong interest in learning were the numerous contemporary tributes to his patronage. Among the 33 works dedicated to the Earl, Authors dedicating works to De Vere include Edmund Spenser, Arthur Golding, Robert Greene, John Hester, John Brooke, John Lyly, Anthony Munday, and Thomas Churchyard. Possible mismanagement of estates led to the sale of all his inherited lands. He was briefly given military commands in 1585 in Holland and in 1588 during the conflicts with the Spanish Armada. In 1586, to rescue him from bankruptcy, the Queen granted the Earl an annual pension of £1,000. An Amount equivalent to one milion dollars today!
In the early 1590s, he married his second wife, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen’s maids. He died in June 1604, probably from plague, at King’s Place in Hackney, located in the London suburb of Stratford. He left no will and is presumed buried in St Augustine’s church in the same parish.
Much has been written about the true authorship of the works of William Shakespeare. There is great evidence that Edward de Vere is that author. Extensive research has been conducted on this subject. Those believing that deVere wrote the works of Shakespeare are called Oxfordians. There are numerous Oxford Societies which have been created by scholars who subscribe to this theory. Rather than go into details here, please refer to the following sites for an interesting comparison between de Vere and Shakespeare. The case is compelling.
www.deverestudies.comoxford.html
www.free-books.orgshakespeareEdwardDeVere-17EarlOxford.htm
Sources:
www.luminarium.orgrenlitdeverebio.htm
www.free-books.orgshakespeare/EdwardDeVere-17EarlOxford.htm
