The seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604
The seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604, from contemporary documents by B.M. Ward 1928
Page 90: "In May we hear of three of Lord Oxford's men holding up two of their former associates on Gad's Hill, near Rochester. The latter submitted a complaint, which is sufficiently curious to warrant inclusion "to the Right Honourable the Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England" and endorsed "Fawnt and Wotton, May 1573 from Gravesend
page 116-117 "Lord Henry Howard was the second son of the poet earl of Surrey, and therefore Oxford's first cousin...Howard and Lumley...shared...the disctinction of being the most learned nobleman of his day...His relations with Lord Oxford are less easy to define> Their mutual love of literature and learning generally would cause them to gravitate together. Its seems probable that prior to 1576 they had been fairly close friends. But any sympathy Oxford may have had for Lord Harry in the past was turned to hatred and disgust when he heard of the latter's vile lies and insinuations about the Countess. His opinion of him after this particularly foul behavior is terse and to the point. We are told he was wont to "affirm to divers that the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard the worst villain in this earth". There is little doubt that in Lord Henry Howard we have found the Iago of the piece. But Burghley at the time evidently believed Lord Henry, for he continued to puzzle it all out.
page 216
May 9th 1583, the burial of the Earl of Oxenford's first son, six years of separation between the Earl and Anne Cecil were over, 2 years out of favor also.
by December Charles Arundel, and Charles Paget and Lord Paget were out of England. In June 1584 the ambassador in Paris "made a formal demand in the name of Queen Elizabeth for the surrender of Lord Paget, Charles Arundel, Thomas Throckmorton, and Thomas Morgan, on the ground that they had conspired against the life of the English queen."
page 234
July 14th 1583 Lord Willoughby sailed from Hull, landed at Elsinore on the 22nd, the Kind of Denmark beging given the garter to attempt to smooth over matters with the Muscovy company in regards to paying tolls to Denmark.
page 248
In 1586 Lord Oxford receive a large annuity from the queen ...
Lord Oxford at this time was a lessee of th Blackfriars Theatre, where his private secretary and actor manager . John Lyly was producing his court comedies. In the winter these comedies were presented before the queen by the Earl's company of boy actors.
page 261
He did not hold, openly at least, any official appointment; He was not a privy concillor; and after 1585 he never left England on any foreign diplomatic mission. Moreovrer, if the 1000 pounds a year was for some secret service in connexion with Home affairs we should expect to find him constantly at court, having audience with the queen or her confidential advisors. But in point of fact, absolutely the reverse is true. From 1586 until his death in 1604 ... his absence from the court is most remarkable. He only attended the House of Lords on 14 occasions, mostly at the opening and proroguing of Parliament. There is no record of his ever having an official audience with the queen, nor is there the slightest indication that he corresponded or conferred with her ministers, in spite of the fact that most of the time he was living at Stoke Newington and Hackney, a stone's throw from Westminster.
page 269
Blackfriars... Lord Oxford, who in turn passed it on to his secretary and actor manager John Lyly ... Lyly subsequently sold the lease to Signor Roco Boneti, the fashionable fencing master. It was here that the latter established his famous shcool ... students of Shakespeare will remember that the Italian's fanatic fencing terms are ridiculed in Romeo and Juliet.
page 272-3
Lyly ... is spoken of as "servant to the Right Honoourable the Earl of Oxford" in a legal document dated may 10, 1587 and in 1589 Gabriel Harvey calls him "the minion secretary"... Not one of Lyly's bigraphers has hitherto succeeded in explaining how he could have been Her Majesty's servant and Lord Oxford's private secretary at one and the same time.
page 275-6
knowledge of Sicily in a Lyly play written, acted and printed while Lyly was Oxford's private secretary ... collaboration of some kind between the two men ... lyrics which are to be found in Lyly's plays ... were not published until ... 1632
page 279
Gabriel Harvey ... reference to Lyly: "Never troubled with any substance of wit, or circumstance of honesty, sometime the fiddlestick of Oxford, now the very babble of London."
page 281-2
Letter from Oxford to Robert Cecil
"But if her majesty, in regard of my youth, time and fortune spent in her court, and her favours and promises which drew me on without any mistrust the more to presume in mine own expenses ..."
his foreign tour had cost him about 5000 pounds, and he must have lost neqrly as much in the Frobisher speculations.
page 287
The countess of Oxford did not long survive the birth of her youngest daughter, for on June 5th 1588 she died of a fever in the Royal Palace at Greenwich ... The chief mourner was the Countess of Lincoln, supported by the Lords Windsor and Darcy, and her train born by the lady Stafford ... among other mourners ... the ladies Russel, Elizabeth Vere, Willoughby sister to the Earl of Oxford, Cobham, Lumley, Hunsdon, Cecil, wife to Sir Thomas Cecil. Six bannerets were borne by Michael Stanhope, Edward Wotton, Anthony Cooke, William Cecil, John Vere and Richard Cecil ...absence of any mention of her husband's name.
page 292ff
at the time of the Armada he was made governor of Harwich. One Sunday Nov.24th, the Queen, accompanied byu the Earl of Oxford and the rest of the nobility went in a procession to St. Paul's, to give thanks for the great victory ... Oxford and Shrewsbury carried the Golden Canopy ...
page 307
1591 Oxford marries Elizabeth Trentham, a maid of honor, evidently sanctioned by the queen.
page 312
"I found sundry abuses, whereby her Majesty and myself were, in my office greatly hindered"
page 313ff
birth of Henry, later the 18th earl, on Feb 24, ? 1593 ?, christened March 31, the name Henry coming either from the earl of Southampton or Norhtumberland. Southampton refused to marry Lady Elizabeth Vere and had to pay 5000 pounds, she wouldn't marry Northumberland, and in 1594 she married William Stanley, a second son who succeeded to his brother's title as 6th earl of Derby. Ferdinando held the title only seven months, when he died at the age of 34, most likely of poison, as he was descended through the Clifford's from Mary sister of Henry 8th. In 1593 a jesuit plot had been disclosed which had its object the dethroning of Elizabeth and placing Ferdinando on the throne. Their engagement was announced three weeks later. ... confused with a renegade (catholic) adventurer Sir William Stanley. who, when governor of Deventer in 1587, betrayed it to the spaniards. The marriage was delayed since the widowed countess of Derby was pregnant, but the child was a girl, so they married on Jan 26, ? 1595 ? in the presence of the Queen and the court ... Midsummer Night's Dream was probably written for this wedding ... 5th earl of Derby had been the commpany's patron until his death.
p 327f
Friendly relations between Oxford and his son in law Derby:
In 1595, 1596, and 1599 we find them visiting each other ... established by documentary evidence
In 1598 Oxford is described as "the best for comedy", in 1599 Lord Derby "is busied only in penning comedies for the common players" and described by Lady Derby as "taking delight in the players"
Not a single play has come down to us which can definitely be ascribed to them ...
They probably worked either anonymously or pseudonymously becuase of the total absence of any play bearing their names, and because Lord Oxford almost certainly worked in this way in the 80s when he was collaborating with John Lyly in the eight court comedies.
For two main reasons I have refrained from comment on what the conservative element asmong literary critics is wont to stigmatise as a "fantastic theory". In the first place, adequate space could not be afforded to the subject without devoting many chapters to its consideration, and in the second place, the treatment of controversial matters that cannot be definitely settled by contemporary documents and evidence is outside the scope of this biography.
p 340ff
Friendly relations with the Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil discussed, renewal of the grant of 1000 a year by King James, Oxford died at Hackney on June 24th, 1604 ... 18th earl died of a fever in 1625 at the early age of 34. He had no children, the earldom passed to his cousin Robert. the title of Lord Great Chamberlain descended to Robert Bertie ... who was created earl of Lindsey in 1626.
p 348
anonymous epitaph
"Edward de Vere, only son of John, born the 12th day of April 1550, Earl of Oxenford, High Chamberlain, Lord Bolbec, Sandford, and Badlesmere, Steward of the Forest in Essex, and of the Privy Council to the King's Majesty that now is. Of whom I will only speak what all men's voices confirm: he was a man in mind and body absolutely accomplished with hounourable endowments"
Appendix p 351f
House of Lords, in 1582 his name was omitted from the list of commisioners for the dissolution of Parliament. This was the only occasion that it was ommitted, and is perhaps attributable to his having fallen under the Queen's disfavor at this period.
In 1601, Lord Oxford's health having begun to decline about this time, he was unable to attend the House. He therefore appointed his friend, Lord Admiral Howard (Earl of Nottingham), to act as his "proxy" during the Session.
p356
The annuity grnated to Oxford is larger than any granted to anyone in the last years of Elizabeth's reign, except for those granted to King James, and to Sir John Stanhope, Master of the posts, granted 1200 pounds a year "for ordinary charges"
p360f
"Willy" is a frequent pastoral name for a shepherd, and was applied promiscuously to many poets at this time. Discussion of poets of the time, in relation to Spencer's use of the term "Willy".
Page 90: "In May we hear of three of Lord Oxford's men holding up two of their former associates on Gad's Hill, near Rochester. The latter submitted a complaint, which is sufficiently curious to warrant inclusion "to the Right Honourable the Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England" and endorsed "Fawnt and Wotton, May 1573 from Gravesend
page 116-117 "Lord Henry Howard was the second son of the poet earl of Surrey, and therefore Oxford's first cousin...Howard and Lumley...shared...the disctinction of being the most learned nobleman of his day...His relations with Lord Oxford are less easy to define> Their mutual love of literature and learning generally would cause them to gravitate together. Its seems probable that prior to 1576 they had been fairly close friends. But any sympathy Oxford may have had for Lord Harry in the past was turned to hatred and disgust when he heard of the latter's vile lies and insinuations about the Countess. His opinion of him after this particularly foul behavior is terse and to the point. We are told he was wont to "affirm to divers that the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard the worst villain in this earth". There is little doubt that in Lord Henry Howard we have found the Iago of the piece. But Burghley at the time evidently believed Lord Henry, for he continued to puzzle it all out.
page 216
May 9th 1583, the burial of the Earl of Oxenford's first son, six years of separation between the Earl and Anne Cecil were over, 2 years out of favor also.
by December Charles Arundel, and Charles Paget and Lord Paget were out of England. In June 1584 the ambassador in Paris "made a formal demand in the name of Queen Elizabeth for the surrender of Lord Paget, Charles Arundel, Thomas Throckmorton, and Thomas Morgan, on the ground that they had conspired against the life of the English queen."
page 234
July 14th 1583 Lord Willoughby sailed from Hull, landed at Elsinore on the 22nd, the Kind of Denmark beging given the garter to attempt to smooth over matters with the Muscovy company in regards to paying tolls to Denmark.
page 248
In 1586 Lord Oxford receive a large annuity from the queen ...
Lord Oxford at this time was a lessee of th Blackfriars Theatre, where his private secretary and actor manager . John Lyly was producing his court comedies. In the winter these comedies were presented before the queen by the Earl's company of boy actors.
page 261
He did not hold, openly at least, any official appointment; He was not a privy concillor; and after 1585 he never left England on any foreign diplomatic mission. Moreovrer, if the 1000 pounds a year was for some secret service in connexion with Home affairs we should expect to find him constantly at court, having audience with the queen or her confidential advisors. But in point of fact, absolutely the reverse is true. From 1586 until his death in 1604 ... his absence from the court is most remarkable. He only attended the House of Lords on 14 occasions, mostly at the opening and proroguing of Parliament. There is no record of his ever having an official audience with the queen, nor is there the slightest indication that he corresponded or conferred with her ministers, in spite of the fact that most of the time he was living at Stoke Newington and Hackney, a stone's throw from Westminster.
page 269
Blackfriars... Lord Oxford, who in turn passed it on to his secretary and actor manager John Lyly ... Lyly subsequently sold the lease to Signor Roco Boneti, the fashionable fencing master. It was here that the latter established his famous shcool ... students of Shakespeare will remember that the Italian's fanatic fencing terms are ridiculed in Romeo and Juliet.
page 272-3
Lyly ... is spoken of as "servant to the Right Honoourable the Earl of Oxford" in a legal document dated may 10, 1587 and in 1589 Gabriel Harvey calls him "the minion secretary"... Not one of Lyly's bigraphers has hitherto succeeded in explaining how he could have been Her Majesty's servant and Lord Oxford's private secretary at one and the same time.
page 275-6
knowledge of Sicily in a Lyly play written, acted and printed while Lyly was Oxford's private secretary ... collaboration of some kind between the two men ... lyrics which are to be found in Lyly's plays ... were not published until ... 1632
page 279
Gabriel Harvey ... reference to Lyly: "Never troubled with any substance of wit, or circumstance of honesty, sometime the fiddlestick of Oxford, now the very babble of London."
page 281-2
Letter from Oxford to Robert Cecil
"But if her majesty, in regard of my youth, time and fortune spent in her court, and her favours and promises which drew me on without any mistrust the more to presume in mine own expenses ..."
his foreign tour had cost him about 5000 pounds, and he must have lost neqrly as much in the Frobisher speculations.
page 287
The countess of Oxford did not long survive the birth of her youngest daughter, for on June 5th 1588 she died of a fever in the Royal Palace at Greenwich ... The chief mourner was the Countess of Lincoln, supported by the Lords Windsor and Darcy, and her train born by the lady Stafford ... among other mourners ... the ladies Russel, Elizabeth Vere, Willoughby sister to the Earl of Oxford, Cobham, Lumley, Hunsdon, Cecil, wife to Sir Thomas Cecil. Six bannerets were borne by Michael Stanhope, Edward Wotton, Anthony Cooke, William Cecil, John Vere and Richard Cecil ...absence of any mention of her husband's name.
page 292ff
at the time of the Armada he was made governor of Harwich. One Sunday Nov.24th, the Queen, accompanied byu the Earl of Oxford and the rest of the nobility went in a procession to St. Paul's, to give thanks for the great victory ... Oxford and Shrewsbury carried the Golden Canopy ...
page 307
1591 Oxford marries Elizabeth Trentham, a maid of honor, evidently sanctioned by the queen.
page 312
"I found sundry abuses, whereby her Majesty and myself were, in my office greatly hindered"
page 313ff
birth of Henry, later the 18th earl, on Feb 24, ? 1593 ?, christened March 31, the name Henry coming either from the earl of Southampton or Norhtumberland. Southampton refused to marry Lady Elizabeth Vere and had to pay 5000 pounds, she wouldn't marry Northumberland, and in 1594 she married William Stanley, a second son who succeeded to his brother's title as 6th earl of Derby. Ferdinando held the title only seven months, when he died at the age of 34, most likely of poison, as he was descended through the Clifford's from Mary sister of Henry 8th. In 1593 a jesuit plot had been disclosed which had its object the dethroning of Elizabeth and placing Ferdinando on the throne. Their engagement was announced three weeks later. ... confused with a renegade (catholic) adventurer Sir William Stanley. who, when governor of Deventer in 1587, betrayed it to the spaniards. The marriage was delayed since the widowed countess of Derby was pregnant, but the child was a girl, so they married on Jan 26, ? 1595 ? in the presence of the Queen and the court ... Midsummer Night's Dream was probably written for this wedding ... 5th earl of Derby had been the commpany's patron until his death.
p 327f
Friendly relations between Oxford and his son in law Derby:
In 1595, 1596, and 1599 we find them visiting each other ... established by documentary evidence
In 1598 Oxford is described as "the best for comedy", in 1599 Lord Derby "is busied only in penning comedies for the common players" and described by Lady Derby as "taking delight in the players"
Not a single play has come down to us which can definitely be ascribed to them ...
They probably worked either anonymously or pseudonymously becuase of the total absence of any play bearing their names, and because Lord Oxford almost certainly worked in this way in the 80s when he was collaborating with John Lyly in the eight court comedies.
For two main reasons I have refrained from comment on what the conservative element asmong literary critics is wont to stigmatise as a "fantastic theory". In the first place, adequate space could not be afforded to the subject without devoting many chapters to its consideration, and in the second place, the treatment of controversial matters that cannot be definitely settled by contemporary documents and evidence is outside the scope of this biography.
p 340ff
Friendly relations with the Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil discussed, renewal of the grant of 1000 a year by King James, Oxford died at Hackney on June 24th, 1604 ... 18th earl died of a fever in 1625 at the early age of 34. He had no children, the earldom passed to his cousin Robert. the title of Lord Great Chamberlain descended to Robert Bertie ... who was created earl of Lindsey in 1626.
p 348
anonymous epitaph
"Edward de Vere, only son of John, born the 12th day of April 1550, Earl of Oxenford, High Chamberlain, Lord Bolbec, Sandford, and Badlesmere, Steward of the Forest in Essex, and of the Privy Council to the King's Majesty that now is. Of whom I will only speak what all men's voices confirm: he was a man in mind and body absolutely accomplished with hounourable endowments"
Appendix p 351f
House of Lords, in 1582 his name was omitted from the list of commisioners for the dissolution of Parliament. This was the only occasion that it was ommitted, and is perhaps attributable to his having fallen under the Queen's disfavor at this period.
In 1601, Lord Oxford's health having begun to decline about this time, he was unable to attend the House. He therefore appointed his friend, Lord Admiral Howard (Earl of Nottingham), to act as his "proxy" during the Session.
p356
The annuity grnated to Oxford is larger than any granted to anyone in the last years of Elizabeth's reign, except for those granted to King James, and to Sir John Stanhope, Master of the posts, granted 1200 pounds a year "for ordinary charges"
p360f
"Willy" is a frequent pastoral name for a shepherd, and was applied promiscuously to many poets at this time. Discussion of poets of the time, in relation to Spencer's use of the term "Willy".
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