More 16th Century Nonsense - Edwrard De Vere
I was poking around on Amazon last night, procrastinating, and I came across a mess of books concerning the theory that William Shakespeare was a pen name for Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. That's probably not news to anyone, there's all sorts of conspiracy theories that Shakespeare was actually someone else or a group of writers ad infinitum. The clincher is that some people (I dunno about calling them scholars) think that not only was Edward De Vere actually Shakespeare but that he was also the illegitimate child of Elizabeth I. As the story goes, she got pregnant at 13 by Lord High Admiral, Thomas Seymour (brother to Queen Jane Seymour, mother to King Edward VI) while he was married to the Dowager Queen Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII. History records that Elizabeth was sent away after the Queen found her and the Admiral in a deep embrace, but as the alternative story goes she was sent away because she was pregnant. Alison Weir does mention in her book that Elizabeth was sent away and that there is speculation that she may have been pregnant but there is no historical evidence to support this. Then there some other ridiculous stories about how Elizabeth I went on to get pregnant by Edward De Vere. I dunno, I love cover ups, but I don't know if I buy this stuff. It would have been a really huge secret to conceal with so many people having to be privy to it. I'm curious to read it though.
Here's the book.
Here's the book.