Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

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The Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, unknown artist after lost original, 1575, National Portrait Gallery, London
Born	12 April 1550 Castle Hedingham, Essex
Died	24 June 1604 (aged 54) Kings Place in Hackney
Title	Earl of Oxford
Tenure	1562 – 1604
Other titles	Viscount Bulbeck
Nationality	English
Locality	Essex
Offices	Lord Great Chamberlain
Spouse(s)	Anne Cecil Elizabeth Trentham
Issue	Elizabeth Stanley, Countess of Derby Bridget Norris, Countess of Berkshire Frances(died before age 3) Susan Herbert, Countess of Montgomery Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford Sir Edward Vere (illegitimate)
Parents	John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford Margery Golding
Signature

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (12 April 1550 – 24 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. He had a reckless, unpredictable, and violent nature that precluded him attaining any court or government responsibility, and coupled with the Crown's misuse of his family estates while he was its ward, ultimately led to his financial and personal ruin.^[1] In spite of this, Oxford was renowned as a patron of the arts, lyric poet, and playwright. Since the 1920's, he has been the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.

Oxford was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth. While he received an excellent education in the household of her Principal Secretary, Sir William Cecil,^[2] he suffered all his life from financial difficulties, largely due to the gross mismanagement of his estate by the Queen and Burghley, and the ruinous debt Elizabeth placed upon him at his marriage to Burghley's daughter, Anne Cecil.^[3]

Oxford was a champion jouster, travelled widely throughout Italy and France, and is acknowledged as having introduced Italian fashions to the English court. He served briefly in the Northern Rebellion and the Anglo-Spanish War.^[4]

An important courtier poet,^[5] he was praised as a playwright, although none of his plays survive.^[6] He was noted for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599 some 33 works were dedicated to him by his uncle, Arthur Golding, and other renowned authors, including John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday.^[7] From 1580 until his death, Oxford was the patron of a company of players,^[6] and for a brief time, patron of the first Blackfriars Theatre.^[8]

Early life

He was born on 12 April 1550 at the de Vere ancestral home, Castle Hedingham,^[9] the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford and his second wife, Margery Golding. The de Vere family, originally from France, had settled in England before the Norman Conquest. Alberic, or Aubrey de Vere, sided with William the Conqueror, and after 1066 was rewarded with many estates, as well as being made hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England, one of the six Great Officers of State.

Heir to the second oldest inherited earldom in England,^[2] the infant received a gilded christening cup from Edward VI. The name of Edward, unique in the de Vere family, was probably chosen to honour the young king's gesture.^[9] The young peer was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant Reformed Faith. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville,^[10] and a younger sister, Mary.^[11]

Both the 16th Earl and the Countess of Oxford had established court connections, John accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, Margery being appointed a Maid of Honor in 1559. The Countess of Oxford was the half-sister of Arthur Golding, the scholar who translated Ovid's Metamorphoses into English, who would become one of his nephew's tutors. John de Vere was also a patron of a playwright and a company of actors known as "Oxford's Men", who travelled the country in summer and resided at Hedingham in winter.

Like many children of nobility, de Vere was raised by surrogate parents. At nine, he was part of the household of Sir Thomas Smith^[12]. Smith was not among those granted annuities by the 16th Earl,^[13] but Edward's tutor, Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was rewarded with one in 1558.^[14] In November he matriculated as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, in Queens' College, Cambridge, and in January 1559 he was admitted as a fellow commoner in St John's, while still remaining resident at Queens'. In March 1559 his name disappeared from the Queens' college registers; he did not graduate with his classmates in the Lent term of 1562.^[15]

An Untimely Death and A Corrupt Wardship

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the Queen's Secretary of State and Oxford's father-in-law, c. 1571.

On 28 July 1562, only a few days before his death, the 16th Earl had made a will in which he had named Robert Dudley a supervisor. Dudley, later made First Earl of Leicester by the Queen, was already reputed to be her lover.^[16]

Because the 16th Earl held land from the Crown by knight service, after his father's sudden death, Oxford became a royal ward of the 29 year-old Queen, and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her Secretary of State and chief advisor.^[17] In the following year, the Queen, by a grant made on 22 October 1563, expressed her desire to 'benefit' Robert Dudley and turned over the core lands of the Oxford earldom to him for an annual rent. This grant was unprecedented in the annals of the Court of Wards; the usual procedure was for the Queen to dispose of a royal ward’s lands outright for a cash sum to cover his wardshop expenses. It is probable that, because Robert Dudley had limited finances at the time, the Queen took liberties with the wardship system in order to directly benefit him.^[16]

In this transaction was the foundation for Oxford's later financial ruin. Leicester's stewardship of other properties reveals a customary practice of stripping lands of their assets, leaving them worthless. It is likely that the de Vere lands were mismanaged in a similar fashion during Leicester’s tenure, with the estate servants serving Dudley's interests, not Oxford's.^[18]

Twelve-year-old Edward was now the 17th Earl of Oxford and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500.^[19] Cecil, who was also Master of the Court of Wards and would have known what predations had been made on the estate, allowed the young Earl to spend upwards of £1,000 per annum during the wardship: his tailor's bills alone, from the age of 12 to 16, totalled some £600.^[20] It was only in later years that he frequently upbraided Edward for his prodigal extravagance.

In his last will and testament, the 16th Earl appointed six executors, including his Countess and his heir. However, administration of the will was granted to only one of the executors, the 16th Earl's former servant, Robert Christmas. Shortly after this appointment Robert Christmas entered Robert Dudley’s service. Margery Golding’s surviving letters show that she was not only prevented from administering her husband’s estate or playing any role in her son Edward’s life, she was also persecuted by Christmas.^[21]

Due to John de Vere's changing his will days before his death making Dudley a supervisor, its usurped administration by a servant of Dudley's, and the unique nature of the Queen’s grant to Dudley, there is much speculation as to whether Dudley had anything to do with the 16th Earl's death. Throughout his lifetime Leicester was repeatedly accused of being responsible for the deaths of persons who stood in the way of his considerable ambitions and interests, or whose death benefitted him financially.^[18] The only primary and real beneficiary of the 16th Earl's death was Robert Dudley, and the 16th Earl had been in good health and attending to his affairs only a few weeks prior to his death.^[22] The cause of his sudden demise on 3 August 1562 remains unknown; but it was not the result of a lingering illness.^[23]

Early Education

Surrounded by Cecil's impressive library and gardens, Edward's daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. Free time was to be devoted to riding, shooting, walking, and other "commendable exercises."^[24] During his first year at Cecil House Oxford was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the premier scholar of Anglo-Saxon studies, who alone possesed the only known copy of Beowolf.^[25] Nowell's letter to Cecil stating: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required" and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford's intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him.^[26] However, since his program of studies indicates that at age 12 Oxford was sufficiently fluent in French and Latin to read the epistles and Gospels of the day in those languages, it is most probably the latter.^[27] In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th’ Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.^[28]

In 1563 Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then the wife of Edward Windsor, 3rd Baron Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of Oxford’s parents in the Ecclesiastical court. Oxford’s maternal uncle, Arthur Golding, argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.^[29]

At some point before October, Edward's mother, the widowed Countess of Oxford, married Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner of much lower rank.^[30] In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the annual amount of £666, which Edward's father had specified in his will should be available to his son through his minority, be entrusted to herself and other persons of substance. The late Earl had made this provision so that when his son reached the age of majority he would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery; this last would end his wardship though cancelling his debt with that Court, and convey the powers attached to his title. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne.^[31] Oxford's stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.

On 10 August 1564 Oxford was among 17 nobles, knights and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and another by Oxford University on a Royal progress in 1566.^[32] On 1 February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.^[33] A notable feature of the Elizabethan Inns of Court was a tradition of mounting dramatic productions and hosting various touring companies of players.

On 23 July 1567, while practising fencing with Edward Baynham in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest held the following day, the jury, which included Oxford's servant and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell was drunk when he ran onto Oxford's blade, causing his own death.^[34] Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find for Oxford's acting in self-defence.^[35]

On 22 April 1569 Oxford received his first vote, cast by his kinsman Lord Howard of Effingham, for membership in the Order of the Garter. In spite of his high rank, he never attained this dignity, although he received many votes over the years.^[36]

Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato.^[37] In the same year Thomas Underdowne dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'.^[38] Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee in the winter of 1570 and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.^[39]

In November of 1569, after recovering from an illness, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth hesitated to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for him under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. Oxford and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court; an important component in the friendship was that Sussex's role at court was to personally select plays to be performed, and overseeing their rehearsal. The two served as an adversarial parellel to Philip Sidney and his uncle Robert Dudley. Sussex and Leicester's emnity was well-known; they had come to blows more than once in the Council chamber, and when Sussex succumbed to consumption in 1583 his dying words were, "Beware of the Gypsy [Leicester]; you do not know the beast as well as I do."^[40]

Coming of age

The Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain, carrying the Sword of State with Elizabeth I

On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buc recalled predictions that 'he was much more like...to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom'.^[41] Sadly, this prophecy was never fulfilled.

Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572,^[42] Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for until another decade. During his minority as her ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the corrupt wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.^[43]

By 1572, Oxford was a court favorite of Elizabeth's.^[44] He participated in the tilt, tourney and barrier in May, where he received chief honours, his prowess winning admiring comments from participants.^[45] In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France.^[46] His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.^[47]

Marriage

On 1562, John de Vere had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon for Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of 18, he would choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.

In February 1571, Sir William Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley, greatly reducing the gap in rank between himself and his ward, the premiere earl of England. That summer Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's eldest daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Fourteen-year-old Anne had been much sought after, and had already been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, having entertained the idea of her marrying the earl of Rutland instead. However, Oxford's superior rank would make theirs a dynastic marriage, far more advantageous for Cecil's family than de Vere's.^[48] The wedding was deferred until Anne's maturity, and finally took place in concert with the marriage of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Lord Herbert, on 16 December 1571 at Whitehall, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English nobles of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies.^[49] Burghley gave Oxford a marriage settlement of land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford's livery fees, and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.^[50]

The Royal Palace of Whitehall, where Oxford wed Anne Cecil, some one hundred years after the wedding.

Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669,^[51] but even though he was of age and married, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licenced to enter on his lands in May.^[52] He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside to pay his father's debts until 1583. In addiiton, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, Oxford entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.^[53]

In 1572, de Vere's first cousin and closet relative, the Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth: the Ridolfi plot, and was executed on Tower Hill on 2 June for treason. He had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was reported that he had plotted to provided a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.^[54]

The following summer Oxford planned to travel to Ireland, but the financing he expected from Burghley did not arrive; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.^[55] Elizabeth repeatedly turned down his requests for naval and military appointments. Affectionately known as her "Boar" or her "Turk," discord arose between them, and on 1 July, Oxford bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, 'carrying a great sum of money with him'. Instead of finding himself in serious trouble for acting as though he were joining forces with the Catholics, Elizabeth sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back within the month. By August, Oxford had demonstrated his loyalty to the Queen when approached by her exiled rebel subjects in Flanders, winning back her favour.^[56]

Foreign travel

Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs.^[57] Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In first contract he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.^[58]

Oxford left England in the first week of February, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. The glad news that Anne was pregnant had reached him while he was in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced outrage at the rumors, which probably worsened the situation.^[59]. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, where he met with the scholar Sturmius, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan.^[60] Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.^[61]

On January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which still the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them.^[62] In March his licence to travel was renewed for a further year. For reasons unknown, Oxford left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one report published 15 years later has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily.^[63] A note indicates that Benedict Spinola and his brother had paid out over £4,000 to Oxford in France and Venice for his 15 month long continental tour, while in England over 100 tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.^[64]

On Oxford's return across the Channel in April, his ship was hijacked by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.^[65]

A Troubled Homecoming

On his return he refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken conviction that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family.^[66] He allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he himself was not present, and stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf.^[67] He was estranged from Anne for five years, during which time he concerning himself with literary and musical patronage.

In February 1577, it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July, she was linked with Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. His mother, the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Lord Burghley that 'my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn'. Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initally withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life.^[68]

On 15 December, the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter.^[69] Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.^[70]

Mounting Debt and Turbulent Life At Court

Queen Elizabeth I. The so-called Phoenix Portrait, c. 1575

Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.

In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher’s expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage.^[71] In July 1577 he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, a property which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572.^[72] As soon as Castle Rising was granted to him, he sold it, as well as two manors and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition.^[73] The ‘gold’ ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.^[74]

In 1576 eight poems by Oxford were published in The Paradise of Dainty Devises; all poems in the collection were meant to be sung. Oxford's poems 'create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time.'^[75] The next year, John Brooke dedicated an English translation of Guy de Brès' The Staff of Christian Faith to Oxford.^[76]

Oxford's poems from this time begin to lament the loss of his good name and fear of a decaying reputation. He was so taken with Italian culture and language during his travels that after his return he became known as the "Italian Earl" at court. He introduced many Renaissance fashions to court, and presented Elizabeth with perfumed, decorated gloves. These immediately became fashionable in England; for many years the scent was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume".

In the summer of 1578 Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia.^[77] The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End, where Gabriel Harvey dedicated his Gratulationes Valdinenses to the Queen. The work consists of four ‘books’, the first addressed to the Queen, the second to Leicester, the third to Lord Burghley, and the fourth to Oxford, Sir Christopher Hatton, and Leicester's nephew Philip Sidney, with whom he would famously quarrel. Harvey's dedication to Oxford is a double-edged criticism, praising his English and Latin verse and prose, yet advising him to 'put away your feeble pen, your bloodless books, your impractical writings'.^[78] A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice requested Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46 year old Elizabeth and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused on the grounds that he 'would not give pleasure to Frenchmen'.^[78]

In April the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, wrote to King Philip of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return.^[79] Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage, Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that 'all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men'. The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, Oxford did not take it further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped.^[80] The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined to his chambers, and was not released until early February.^[81]

Oxford openly quarrelled with Leicester about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'.^[82] In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester,^[83] satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.^[84]

By April 1580, Oxford had followed his father's tradition and taken over the Earl of Warwick's playing company, which consisted of both men and boys, and may have included the famous comedian, Richard Tarleton.^[85] In June, Burghley wrote to John Hatcher, Vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, requesting that "Oxford's Men" be allowed to perform there; Hatcher denied the request.^[86]

A Catholic Plot

Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III.^[87] Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, Oxford flirted with Catholicism; after his return from Italy he was reported to have embraced the religion. But just as quickly, late in 1580 he denounced a group of Catholics, among them Charles Arundel, Francis Southwell and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism.^[88] Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and he was detained under house arrest for a short time.^[89]

Leicester is credited for having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage.^[90] Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".^[91][92]

The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundel to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell.^[93] Arundel refused Oxford's offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Council member did the pair gave themselves up.^[94]

During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to cast doubt on Oxford as a witness against them, and demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown.^[95] The extensive list to discredit Oxford included everything that might show him in a bad light, and included: demonology, heresy, treason, homosexuality with his English and Italian servants ('buggering a boy that is his cook and many other boys'), habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers and declaring that Elizabeth had a bad singing voice.^[96] Since both Howard and Arundel later received pensions from Philip II, and furnished Spain with intelligence against England, Oxford's allegations against them appear to have merit.^[97]

Despite these efforts, Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundel was not freed until October or November.^[98] In the meantime Oxford was at liberty, and won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.^[99]

On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason.^[100]Arundel eventually fled to Spain and put himself in the service of the Philip II. Oxford later insisted that 'the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven' and that 'my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth.'^[101] This vehement statement has led many historians to conclude that Henry Howard was instrumental in turning the Earl against his wife and daughter in 1576.

During the early 1580's it is likely that the Earl lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge.^[102] He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.^[103]

During this time, several works were dedicated to Oxford, Geoffrey Gates' Defense of Military Profession and Anthony Munday's Mirror of Mutability in 1579,^[104] and John Hester's A Short Discourse . . . of Leonardo Fioravanti, Bolognese, upon Surgery, John Lyly's Euphues and his England, and Anthony Munday's Zelauto in 1580.^[105] In the dedication to Zelauto, Munday also mentioned having delivered the now lost Galien of France to Oxford for his 'courteous and gentle perusing'. Both Lyly and Munday were in Oxford's service at the time.^[106] In addition, in his A Light Bundle of Lively Discourses Called Churchyard's Charge, and A Pleasant Labyrinth Called Churchyard's Chance, Thomas Churchyard promised to dedicate future works to the Earl.^[107]

Scandal and Banishment from Court

Anne Vavasour, Maid of Honour to Elizabeth I, mother of Oxford's illegitimate son.

Oxford's triumph was short-lived. On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, had given birth to a son, and that 'the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas'. Oxford was captured and imprisoned in the Tower, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere.^[108] On 9 June the Privy Council wrote to Sir William Gorges that Oxford had been released from the Tower the previous day.^[109]

While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been 'brought up in your Lordship's father's house'.^[110] Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July,^[111] but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581.^[112]

Oxford was banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton, Phillip Sydney's friend and Oxford's enemy, who was actively encouraging poetic ridicule of Oxford. Burghley should have been aware of their relationship, so this may been a way to honor the Earl's request, yet serve his family's interests first.

In Christmas 1581 Oxford reconciled with his wife, Anne,^[113] but his affair with Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded and his servant killed, reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured.^[114] There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's men on 18 June, and a third 6 days later, where it was reported that Knyvet had 'slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight'.^[115] In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house 'as well as a lame man might';^[116] it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter.

Oxford's reputation was being compromised by unpaid debts. The February 1583 Close Rolls contain a record of Oxford's being forced to swear before the Queen that he acknowledged a debt of £2,000 in connection with yet another indenture, this one from the sale of the Earls Hall manor in Cockfield, Suffolk.^[117]

Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was slain that month,^[118] and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts 'to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord and Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet'.^[119] Since Hatton's aversion to the Earl was well-known, whatever energy he expended on Oxford's behalf is open to question.

On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, and died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.^[120]

Oxford's two-year exile from court ended a month later; after some harsh words Elizabeth allowed him to return at his pleasure.^[63] However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.^[121]

In this troubled period Thomas Watson dedicated his Hekatompathia or Passionate Century of Love to Oxford, noting that the Earl had taken a personal interest in the work.^[115]

Middle years

On 6 April 1584, Oxford and Anne's daughter, Bridget, was born,^[122] and two works were dedicated to Oxford, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages and music.^[123]

Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which alienated him from his principal source of income.^[124] Moreover, because Oxford's lands were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt.^[125] To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his lands were willing to repay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in installments- that is, if he could persuade the Queen to let them do so.^[126]

Portrait of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.

Now his thirties, for a time Oxford held a lease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars. In a document dating around 1585, Sir William More of Loseley complained that his property in the Blackfriars had gotten into the hands of a succession of sub-lessees, including Oxford and Lyly, after More had leased it to Richard Farrant.^[127]

According to Chambers, the companies working at the Blackfriars under Lyly and Evans in 1583-84 were 'a combination of Oxford's boys, Paul's and the Chapel'. 'The Earl of Oxford his servants' received £20, paid to them through Lyly, for performances in January and March of 1584, and on New Year's Day 1585, a troupe performed at court under the name of 'John Symons and other his fellows, servants to th' Earl of Oxford'. "Oxford's Men" continued to perform at court, in the countryside, and in London. They also had success touring the provinces, as indicated by records of performances from the years 1580-87. In that last year, the company was one of four principal companies performing in London. Oxford also patronized a company of musicians, as evidenced by payments in 1584–85 by the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple to "the Earl of Oxford's musicians".

On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge, which Oxford appears to have ignored.^[128] It is also possible that in spite of Oxford's returning to his wife, the reconciliation was in danger from malign outside influences. Two scurrilous tracts, entitled Leicester's Commonwealth and A Letter of Estate, surfaced in 1584 and exposed Leicester's many crimes and faults, including his ambition for the crown. They were published in France, and there is strong evidence that, due to their writing style, they were Oxford's work. An addition to the Commonwealth accuses Leicester of "sowing discord" between many nobles and their wives, and "attempted" to do the same in Oxford's marriage.^[129] Whether or not Oxford was indeed the author, the allegation is that Leicester was in some way attempting to exert a corrupting influence on the great houses of England. There is speculation that Leicester may have had a role in Oxford's estrangement from Anne while he was on his contintal tour.^[130]

In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for the King's safety.^[131] Later that summer the Earl was commissioned to command a company of horse in the Low Countries. On 21 October William Davison reported that "My Lord of Oxford is returned this night into England, upon what humour I know not."^[132]

Annuities from the crown generally averaged less than £20; Elizabeth usually granted her favorites either lands or monopolies. But in 1586, Elizabeth granted Oxford a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise.^[133]. James would continue the grant after her death. In October of that year Oxford was at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire for the trial of the Queen of Scots, and was among the peers who on 13 October 'went unto her in her lodging', and 'remained with her almost the space of two hours, signifying unto her that if she would not come forth before the Commissioners they would proceed against her' in her absence.^[134]

In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford,^[135] and William Webbe wrote in his Discourse of English Poetry that:

I may not omit the deserved commendations of many honourable and noble Lords and gentlemen in her Majesty's court which in the rare devices of poetry have been and yet are most excellent skilful, among whom the right honourable Earl of Oxford may challenge to himself the title of the most excellent among the rest.^[136]

Oxford and Anne's daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, there is record of daughter, Frances, who was buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown, presumably she was between one and three years of age.^[137]

In July Elizabeth granted the Earl lands which had belonged to Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees.^[138] Earlier in the year a plan had finally been devised for the purchasers of Oxford's lands to pay his debt to the Court of Wards, and at the end of November it was arranged that they would pay the whole debt of approximately £3,306 over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.^[137] By 1 July 1591 only £800 remained unpaid.^[139]

On 5 June 1588 Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.^[140]

In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada; Oxford as among those 'great and honourable personages' who flocked to the English Channel in the service of their Queen.^[141] On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel".^[142] The Earl was offered governemnt of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.^[143]

In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion of Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis.^[144] in January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron.^[145] Widowed, weary of the unsettled life of a courtier, and anxious to provide for his children and himself, Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manoral lands of Denbigh in Wales if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and abandoning his suit to regain the Forest of Essex.^[146]

In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property.^[147] Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of Oxford's servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England.^[148]The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved.^[94] In June Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.^[149]

In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva.^[150] The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a 'crew' of courtier poets;^[151] he also considered Oxford among the best comic playwrights of the day.^[152] In 1590 Edmund Spenser appended a sonnet to Oxford in The Faerie Queen.^[153] Composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.^[154]

Remarriage and suits to the Queen

On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham.^[155] The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis' sister,Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, she gave birth to Oxford's only surviving son and heir, Henry de Vere, at Stoke Newington.^[156]

Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage.^[157] On 7 February 1592 he sold Colne Priory to Roger Harlakenden, who purchased it for his son, Richard;^[158] the sale resulted in decades-long lawsuits against Harlakenden for fraud.^[159]

Castle Hedingham, the de Vere family seat since the Norman Conquest.

In return for Oxford's acquiescing to Elizabeth's command to abandon his claim against the Crown for the Forest of Essex, she promised to grant him a licence to import oils, fruits and wools.^[160] Elizabeth gave the matter to Sir Christopher Hatton for arbitration, but by 1593 all Oxford had received were recriminations from his sovereign and asked Burghley to plead his case. Elizabeth flatly refused to hear Hatton's report, or any more on the matter.

On 7 July 1594 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley concerning abuses in his office of Lord Great Chamberlain which had prejudiced both himself and the Queen.^[161]

On 25 September 1594, King Henri IV of France wrote to Oxford, thanking him for 'the good offices you have performed on my behalf in [the Queen's] presence'.^[162]

About this time Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford his Primaleon; The First Book. The dedication is lost; however in the dedication of the second edition in 1619 to Oxford's heir, Munday recalls that 'these three several parts of Primaleon of Greece were the tribute of my duty and service' to 'that most noble Earl, your father'.^[163]

In late 1594 negotiations for a marriage between Oxford's daughter, Elizabeth, and the Earl of Southampton came to an end. In a letter endorsed 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, the Jesuit Henry Garnett wrote that 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'.^[164]

On 26 January 1595 Oxford's daughter Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby.^[165] A few months later, on 24 April, Oxford wrote to his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Cecil, stating that he had 'dealt with the Earl of Derby about my daughter's allowance' and that Derby had promised to assure his new bride £1000 a year, but was now about to leave for Lancashire without having made any financial provision for her.^[166]

From March to August 1595 Oxford actively pursued a suit, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall.^[167] On 20 March 1595 he wrote to Lord Burghley, summing up past years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation:

[I] heartily desire your lordship to have a feeling of mine infortunate estate, which although it be far unfit to endure delays, yet have consumed four or five years in a flattering hope of idle words. But now, having received this comfortable message of furtherance & favour from your Lordship, although her Majesty be forgetful of herself, yet by such a good mean I do not doubt if you list but that I may receive some fruit of all my travail. This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.^[168]

Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into early 1596 and renewed it again in 1599,but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.^[169]

On 20 October 1595 Oxford wrote to Sir Robert Cecil mentioning friction between himself and the Earl of Essex, partly over the Forest of Essex:

[Lord Burghley] wisheth me to make means to the Earl of Essex that he would forbear to deal for it [i.e. the Forest of Essex], a thing I cannot do in honour sith I have already received divers injuries and wrongs from him which bar me of all such base courses.^[170]

The next day Oxford wrote again to his brother-in-law on the subject of his claim to the Forest, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Unlike Lord Burghley, however, Sir Robert Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests.^[171]

On 28 March Oxford advised Michael Hicks that he was unable to go to court because he had not yet fully recovered from an illness. On 4 June he wrote to Lord Burghley that 'I have been this day let blood'^[116] and on 7 August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he gone for his health:

I most heartily thank your Lordship for your desire to know of my health, which is not so good yet as I wish it. I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.^[172]

On 9 November Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'.^[173] Whether the rumour of Oxford's death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown.

On 11 January 1597 Oxford wrote to Sir Robert Cecil concerning a petition to the Privy Council by Thomas Gurlyn against Oxford's wife, Elizabeth. The background to Gurlyn's petition is obscure, but appears to relate to events which transpired shortly after Oxford's arrival in the Low Countries on 27 August 1585. Gurlyn's claim was dismissed at trial.^[174]

In 1597 Oxford's servant, Henry Lok, published his Ecclesiastes containing a sonnet to Oxford.^[63] On 2 September 1597 the executors of Sir Rowland Hayward^[who?] were authorized to sell King's Place in Hackney to Oxford's wife, Elizabeth, and three of her kinsmen.^[175]

On 8 September Oxford again spoke of ill health, writing to Lord Burghley that 'I am sorry that I have not an able body which might have served to attend her Majesty in the place where she is, being especially there, whither without any other occasion than to see your Lordship I would always willingly go'.^[176] On 14 December 1597 Oxford attended his last Parliament, perhaps another indication of failing health.^[176]

Oxford's father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan.^[177] Any hope Oxford might have had of assuming parental care of his daughters was dashed by Sir Robert Cecil, who wrote to Michael Hicks that 'whether he that never gave them groat, hath a second wife and another child be a fit guardian, consider you'.^[178]

In his Palladis Tamia, published in 1598, Francis Meres referred to Oxford as one of "the best for Comedy amongst vs".^[136]

On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by Judith Ruswell, widow of William Ruswell,^[who?] for an alleged debt of £500 for services rendered by Ruswell as a tailor 18 or 20 years earlier. Oxford defended the suit, alleging that not only had he paid Ruswell, but that Ruswell had subsequently absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to Oxford worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.^[179]

Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15-year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris.^[180]

In 1599 John Farmer dedicated a second book to Oxford, The First Set of English Madrigals, alluding in the dedication to Oxford's own proficiency as a musician ('without flattery be it spoken, those that know your Lordship know this, that using this science as a recreation, your Lordship have overgone most of them that make it a profession'.^[181] In the same year, George Baker dedicated a second book to Oxford, his Practice of the New and Old Physic, a translation of a work by Conrad Gesner, stating that he had published it under Oxford's 'honourable protection . . . because your wit, learning and authority hath great force and strength in repressing the curious crakes of the envious'.^[163]

Two entries in the Stationers' Register attest to the continued existence of Oxford's Men in the early 1600s. The Weakest Goeth to the Wall was registered on 23 October 1600 as having been "sundry times played by the right honourable the Earl of Oxenford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, his servants", while The True History of George Scanderbeg was registered on 3 July 1601 "as it was lately played by the right honourable the Earl of Oxenford his servants".^[182]

In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him:

Although my bad success in former suits to her Majesty have given me cause to bury my hopes in the deep abyss and bottom of despair rather than now to attempt, after so many trials made in vain & so many opportunities escaped, the effects of fair words or fruits of golden promises, yet for that I cannot believe but that there hath been always a true correspondency of word and intention in her Majesty, I do conjecture that with a little help that which of itself hath brought forth so fair blossoms will also yield fruit. Wherefore having moved her Majesty lately about the office of the Isle....^[183]

On 2 February 1601 Oxford again wrote to Cecil for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales.^[184] As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful. About this time he was also listed on the Pipe Rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.^[185]

After the abortive Essex rebellion on 8 February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the treason trials of Essex and Southampton.^[186] After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on 18 March 1601, Oxford became involved in a complicated suit concerning the Queen's right to lands which had escheated to the Crown at Danvers' attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers' kinsmen.^[187] On 7 August Lord Buckhurst and Sir John Fortescue wrote to the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, that "my Lord of Oxford doth desire that he may have a copy of the case as you have collected it out of the evidences showed before us to the intent he may consider thereof with his learned counsel for the benefit of her Majesty, as he affirmeth, the which we think fit he have".^[188]

While pursuing the Danvers suit, Oxford continued to suffer from ill health. On 7 October he wrote to Cecil saying that 'if my health had been to my mind, I would have been before this at the court'. On 22 November he wrote again, saying that "In that I have not sent an answer to your last letter as you might expect, I shall desire you to hold me for excused sith ever sithence the receipt thereof by reason of my sickness I have not been able to write", and asking that Cecil "bear with the weakness of my lame hand".^[189]

On 4 December Oxford wrote again to Cecil, expressing shock that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit, had now withdrawn his support.^[190]

As with his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford's suits to the Queen ended in disappointment. On 22 March 1602 he wrote to Cecil: "It is now a year sithence by your only means her Majesty granted her interest in Danvers' escheat. I had only then her word from your mouth. I find by this waste of time that lands will not be carried without deeds."^[190] Oxford's only successful suit to the Queen during these years involved his playing company. On 31 March 1602 the Privy Council sent a letter to the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Garrard:

We received your letter signifying some amendment of the abuses or disorders by the immoderate exercise of stage plays in and about the city by means of our late order renewed for the restraint of them, and withal showing a special inconvenience yet remaining by reason that the servants of our very good Lord the Earl of Oxford, and of me, the Earl of Worcester, being joined by agreement together in one company, to whom, upon notice of her Majesty's pleasure at the suit of the Earl of Oxford, toleration hath been thought meet to be granted, notwithstanding the restraint of our said former orders, do not tie themselves to one certain place and house, but do change their place at their own disposition, which is as disorderly and offensive as the former offence of many houses, and as the other companies that are allowed, namely of me, the Lord Admiral, and the Lord Chamberlain, be appointed their certain houses, and one and no more to each company, so we do straitly require that this third company be likewise appointed to one place. And because we are informed the house called the Boar's Head is the place they have especially used and do best like of, we do pray and require you that that said house, namely the Boar's Head, may be assigned unto them, and that they be very straitly charged to use and exercise their plays in no other but that house, as they will look to have that toleration continued and avoid farther displeasure.^[191][192]

Last years

In the early morning of 24 March 1603 Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor.^[193] A few days before the Queen's death Oxford entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for his erratic and violent behaviour, at his house at Hackney, and after dinner:

discourse[d] with him of the impossibility of the Queen's life, and that the nobility, being peers of the realm, were bound to take care for the common good of the state in the cause of succession, in the which himself, meaning the Earl of Lincoln, ought to have more regard than others because he had a nephew of the blood royal, naming my Lord Hastings, whom he persuaded the Earl of Lincoln to send for, and that there should be means used to convey him over into France where he should find friends that would make him a party, of the which there was a precedent in former times.^[194]

Lincoln relayed his conversation with Oxford to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who later defended his refusal to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James' accession:

At the first apprehension of my Lord of Lincoln's discovery I was much moved and troubled, but when he had made me understand what great person it was whom he meant, I knew him to be so weak in body, in friends, in ability and all other means to raise any combustion in the state as I never feared anything to proceed from so feeble a foundation.^[195]

In light of his discussion with Oxford, Lincoln was astonished to find Oxford's name among the signatories to the proclamation of James of Scotland as King immediately after the Queen's death.^[196] Elsewhere he expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his fears for the future.^[197] Oxford fears were ill-founded, however. In letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to be restored to the keepership of Waltham Forest and the house and park of Havering, and on 18 July 1603 the new King granted his suit.^[198] On 25 July Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation.^[199] On 2 August King James confirmed Oxford's annuity of £1000.^[200]

On 18 June 1604 Oxford granted the custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law, Lord Norris, and his cousin, Sir Francis Vere.^[201] Six days later Oxford died on 24 June 1604 of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, without leaving a will,^[202] and was buried on 6 July in the parish church of St. Augustine.^[203] In her will, his widow, Elizabeth, requested that she too be buried 'in the church of Hackney . . . as near unto the body of my late dear and noble Lord and husband as may be; only I will that there be in the said church erected for us a tomb fitting our degree'.^[204] Although the Countess's will and parish registers confirm Oxford's burial at Hackney, his cousin Percival Golding later stated that his body lies at Westminster.^[205]

Heirs and inheritance

By his first marriage to Anne Cecil Oxford had a son and a 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. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.

By his mistress Anne Vavasour Oxford had an illegitimate son, Sir Edward Vere.^[206]

By his second wife, Elizabeth Trentham, Oxford had his only surviving legitimate son and heir, Henry de Vere, later 18th Earl of Oxford.

As noted earlier, 12 years before his death Oxford had sold his interest in Castle Hedingham to Lord Burghley in trust for his three daughters by his first marriage. After the death of Oxford's widow, Elizabeth, their son, Henry, inherited the remainder of Oxford's estate. Two inquisitions post mortem were taken after Oxford's death, the first in 1604 for his property in Essex, the second in 1608 for his Great Garden property in London.^[207] Magdalene College brought suit against Oxford’s heir for the Great Garden property, and legal proceedings continued for decades.^[208] The value of the property to both Magdalene College and Oxford's heir is indicated by a 1615 case in Chancery stating that in 1575:^[209]

[T]he Queen at the suit of the said College licensed them to alien . . . .The same was accordingly performed by a conveyance to her Majesty, and from her Majesty to Spinola, and the rectory from Spinola to the College, after which Spinola and the Earl of Oxford, his assignee and his under-tenants have built upon the garden 130 houses, and therein bestowed £10,000, which assignee and his under-tenants have bonds and security given for the enjoyment thereof to the sum of £20,000.

Reputation

Eight poems by Oxford were published in The Paradise of Dainty Devises (1576)

Oxford was, in the words of Gordon Braden, 'famously improvident with his fortune and erratic in his behaviour.'^[210]

A stream of dedications attests to Oxford's intellectual reputation and his lifelong patronage of writers, musicians and actors. Stephen May terms Oxford 'a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments', whose biography exhibits a 'lifelong devotion to learning'.^[211] Of the 33 works dedicated to him, 40 percent (13) were original or translated works of literature, which May says suggest he was more sought out for patronage by literary writers—as opposed to religious or scientific writers—than other patrons of similar means.^[212]

Oxford also had a high reputation as a poet amongst his contemporaries, and his verses were published in several poetry miscellanies. Of his 16 canonical poems, his modern editor Steven May says that they are the 'output of a competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse.'^[213]

Contemporary critics such as Webbe and Puttenham praised his poetic ability, and the latter quoted his verses:^[214]

(Untitled)

When wert thou borne desire?
In pompe and pryme of May,
By whom sweete boy wert thou begot?
By good conceit men say,
Tell me who was thy nurse?
Fresh youth in sugred ioy.
What was thy meate and dayly foode?
Sad sighes with great annoy.
What hadst thou then to drinke?
Vnfayned louers teares.
What cradle wert thou rocked in?

In hope deuoyde of feares.

Shakespeare authorship question

In Shakespeare Identified, published in 1920, J. Thomas Looney, an English schoolteacher, proposed Oxford as a candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare's works. His theory was based on perceived analogies between Oxford's life and poetic techniques in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. It supplanted an earlier popular theory involving Francis Bacon. Academic consensus rejects alternative candidates for authorship, including Oxford.^[215]

Footnotes

References

• Akrigg, G.P.V. (1968), Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton, Harvard University Press 
• Beebee, Thomas O. (1999), Epistolary fiction in Europe, 1500–1850, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-62275-2, http://books.google.com/books?id=rFRWopIBqGwC 
• Bell, Sandra; Loughlin, Marie; Brace, Patricia (2011), "Anne Cecil de Vere, Countess of Oxford (156-1588)", The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose, Broadview Press, pp. 605–607 
• Bennell, John (2004), "Hester, John (d. 1592),", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 
• Bergeron, David M. (2007), "Stocker, Thomas (fl. 1563–1593)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 
• Bergeron, David M. (2007), "Munday, Anthony (bap. 1560, d. 1633)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 
• Bossy, John (1959), "English Catholics and the French Marriage, 1577–1581", Recusant History 5: pp. 2–16 
• Braden, Gordon (2005), Sixteenth-century poetry: an annotated anthology, Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-1-4051-0116-5, http://books.google.com/books?id=VVrKcj1Ki2QC&pg=PA138 
• Chambers, E. K. (2009) [1923], The Elizabethan Stage, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-956749-2, http://books.google.com/books?id=6GfiLPVfrjEC 
• Chambers, E. K. (1936), Sir Henry Lee; An Elizabethan Portrait, Clarendon Press 
• Cokayne, George Edward (G.E.C.) (1945), The Complete Peerage, X, St Catherine Press, pp. 247–254 
• Croft, Pauline (2004), "Howard, Henry, Earl of Northampton(1540–1614)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 
• Greaves, Richard L. (2007), "Munday, Anthony (bap. 1560, d. 1633)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 
• Green, Nina (2002), Leicester's Commonwealth, 1585 Additions, pp. 1–10, http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/leicester.html 
• Green, Nina (2009), "The Fall of the House of Oxford", Brief Chronicles 1: pp. 49–122, http://www.briefchronicles.com 
• Green, Nina (2010), Oxford's Biography, pp. 1–44, http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ 
• Gurr, Andrew (1996), The Shakespearian Playing Companies, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-812977-7 
• Hurstfield, Joel (1958), The Queen's Wards, Longmans, Green, pp. 249–256 
• Jones, N.G. (2008), "Kelke, Roger (1523/4–1576)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 
• Kennedy, Kathleen E. (2008), "Brooke, John (d.1582)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 
• Larkin, James F. and Paul L. Hughes (1973), Stuart Royal Proclamations Volume I, Clarendon Press 
• Loades, David (1989), Mary Tudor: A Life, Basil Blackwell, pp. 181–184 
• MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1984), The Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield of Brantham, Royal Historical Society 
• May, Steven W. (Winter 1980), "The Poems of Edward DeVere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford and of Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex", Studies in Philology (University of North Carolina Press) 77 (5) 
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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 Birthplace - Castle Hedingham

Political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Oxford	Lord Great Chamberlain 1562–1604	Succeeded by The Earl of Oxford
Peerage of England
Preceded by John de Vere	Earl of Oxford 1562–1604	Succeeded by Henry de Vere

v t e Shakespeare authorship question (History) A series on alternative authorship theories for the works of William Shakespeare Theories Declaration of Reasonable Doubt Baconian theory Derbyite theory Oxfordian theory Prince Tudor theory Marlovian theory Candidates List of Shakespeare authorship candidates Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Sir Edward Dyer Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland Christopher Marlowe Sir Henry Neville William Nugent Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby Emilia Lanier Anne Whateley Supporters Joseph C. Hart Delia Bacon Orville Ward Owen James Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance George Greenwood Mark Twain Abel Lefranc J. Thomas Looney B. M. Ward Alden Brooks Charlton Greenwood Ogburn Calvin Hoffman Charlton Ogburn Roger Stritmatter Mark Anderson Charles Beauclerk Roland Emmerich John Orloff Bertram Fields Henry Albert Seymour

Persondata
Name	Oxford, Edward De Vere, 17th Earl Of
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	12 April 1550
Place of birth	Castle Hedingham in Essex
Date of death	24 June 1604
Place of death	Brooke House in Hackney