Mainly about the relevance of his ancestry for his biography
I conclude that it explains
many of the mysteries and controversies of today.
For starters: (1) Was he a
Catholic? (2) Were the two independent traditions that he spent some of his
youth in Lancashire merely myths or based on the truth? (3) Who wrote his
works? (4) Why were there so few Stratford traditions about him and his family?
(5) How did he achieve what he did with his 'conventional' background?
My findings produced a
resounding YES to the first two questions as the only story that makes sense of
some of his 'lost years' and several
anomalies beyond those. The answer to the third is a little more complicated.
He certainly wrote his own works, but probably with more than a little help
from his friends, the most important early Earl friend from his teenage days
being William Stanley, later 6th Earl of Derby. The answer to the fourth was
clear: few of the Shakespeare family were in Stratford permanently during
William's formative and most successful years; John, Mary and William just went
back there in retirement or to die. The answer to the fifth lies partly in
Mary's kinsmen and noble family connections.
Very. She could claim an
ancestry in a female line from Charlemagne via the Dukes of Burgundy and her
family tree was riddled with knights and barons, with the odd Welsh Prince thrown in. Pedigree Charts and all the
documentation from the Cheshire end are in Ormerod
and Earwaker. Their problem was that
they both died before it became well known that Mary's coat of arms was that of
the Cheshire Arderne
family and not the Warwickshire Arden family. Rather amazingly, this was not
re-discovered until 1863 (Gough Nichols) and he
refused to believe it, followed by Sir Sidney Lee, who
wrote the monumental biography of Shakespeare that dominated all biographies in
the 20th century. A few small voices in the last half century have raised the
suggestion again, but none, it seems, before me, has actually read everything
written on the Cheshire Ardernes. The
answers were all there in Cheshire documents, although disguised by a few 19th
century muddles that needed sorting out via other documents, heraldic laws and
coats of arms. One of her cousins was Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1568-9 (French), the year when John Shakespeare was High
Bailiff of Stratford, a coincidence which may or may not be significant.
Another was steward to his (and Mary's) kinsman the 4th Earl of Derby on his
mission to France in early 1585 (Coward) and to
the Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth's favourite, on his mission to the Netherlands
later that year (Thoms).
Quite. With my findings about Mary's ancestry and cousins in high places, this makes nonsense of his poverty and need for a humble job at this time. Mary's connections would have provided him with access to the highest circles long before. We know he knew Henry Wriot