September, 1564
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1564
Arthur Golding dedicated his translation of Justin's Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius to his nephew de Vere
1564
1567
The translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses by de Vere's uncle, Arthur Golding, was published. The translation was completed in 1563, around the time when Golding probably tutored de Vere. Many scholar's agree that Golding's translation of Ovid was a major influence on Shakespeare.
1567
Where he had studied law.
July 23, 1567
(probably accidentally) While practicing his fencing. He was acquitted on the argument that he acted in self-defence, and went unpunished.
1567
With the tacit approval of the Privy Council, de Vere sent his retainer, the poet and soldier-of-fortune Thomas Churchyard, on a mission to the Netherlands.
December 2, 1568
De Vere's relationship with his mother was probably not close.
1569
1569
De Vere was ill for months, carrying over to the first quarter of 1570. During 1570, de Vere convalesced in Windsor, which was the setting for The Merry Wives of Windsor.
March 30, 1570
Queen Elizabeth sent de Vere to work under Earl of Sussex in the Northern campaign to stamp out Catholic unrest. There was a movement to have Mary Queen of Scots marry the Duke of Norfolk, de Vere's cousin. In traveling north, de Vere would have passed Kimbolton Castle (the scene for part of Henry the Eighth and the city of York and the forest of Galtres (settings for both King Henry the Fourth, Part 1, and King Henry the Sixth, Part 3. King Henry the Sixth, Part 3 depicts the northern rebellion accurately, as if written by a first hand observer, which de Vere was.
1570
April 2, 1571
This was de Vere's first attendance. As Lord Great Chamberlain, he had a ceremonial role.
May 7 & 8, 1571
De Vere was victorious in a royal tournament at Whitehall and was widely seen as one of the up-and-coming stars of Queen Elizabeth's court.
December 16, 1571
De Vere married Anne Cecil, daughter of William Cecil, the Queen's chief minister. De Vere had grown up with Anne in the Cecil household, since William Cecil raised noblemen whose fathers had died. At sixteen, she was five years younger than de Vere. Shortly before the marriage, William Cecil became the nobleman Lord Burghley and took up the position of Lord Treasurer. Among other things, this may have occurred to address de Vere's concern that Anne Cecil was beneath him in status.
1571
With A preface written by de Vere.
1571
Golding, a staunch Puritan, appeared concerned about the moral directions that de Vere was taking.
January 5, 1572
This made the document accessible to the urbane leadership in Europe, since Latin was a common language. The Courtier outlined proper etiquette and expressed the view that courtiers have a key role in the proper functioning of the state. Among other things, The Courtier urged self-respecting courtiers to hide their poetry and prose from the public.
May, 1572
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June 2, 1572
De Vere had tried to save his cousin, but was unsuccessful. Norfolk left three sons. As You Like It mirrors the Norfolk situation. It deals with a deceased and deified father, and the troubles of his sons as they deal with inheritance, marriage and court.
1572
The theatrics were overdone. An incendiary missile overshot its mark, hitting a nearby house and setting it and neighboring houses on fire, and perhaps killing two people.
September, 1572
October 1572
De Vere and his wife Anne Cecil were at de Vere's Essex estate of Wivenhoe. One of de Vere's servants, Rowland Yorke, had reportedly barred Anne from her husband's chambers. De Vere was spending a lot of money. His servants were behaving riotously. Anne was apparently forced to put up with this bad behaviour.
1573
The letter noted de Vere's interest in books on geography, histories and other learning.
1573
De Vere had commissioned the work, probably around the time of the trial of the Duke of Norfolk, in an attempt to influence the outcome through philosophy.
1573
Which today, his crime might be considered a crime of passion
May 1, 1573
The Spanish agent Antonio de Gueras wrote to a Spanish governor about an arrangement in which £15,000 would have been paid to William Cecil in as a bribe for a more open and friendly trade policy. Cecil did not want to be directly associated with the bribe. Cecil owed de Vere £15,000 in dowry for marrying his daughter. It is likely that Cecil asked his son-in-law de Vere to pick up the money on the continent.
May 1573
In a letter to Cecil, three of de Vere's servants were accused of robbing two of Cecil's servants on the Gravesend-Rochester road. It is an event remarkable similar to Act II, Scene 2 in King Henry the Fourth Part 1 in which FALSTAFF and three of PRINCE HAL's companions rob travelers, carrying the King's taxes, on the same road.
May 11, 1573
A young courtier Gilbert Talbot wrote to his father that Queen Elizabeth was delighted by de Vere's personage, dancing and valour; that Anne had indicated some jealousy at the relationship of his husband with the Queen and that the Queen was originally offended but the two had reconciled; and that Anne's father William Cecil did not meddle in the issue.
1573 or 1574
De Vere signed over a family estate called Battails Hall in Essex to William Byrd, a musician and organist at the Chapel Royal, once the elderly occupants passed away. Byrd is now considered one of the finest musicians of the Elizabethan period. One of de Vere's retainers later defrauded Byrd of Battails Hall. Byrd wrote The Earl of Oxford's March.
January 1574
Reports to William Cecil indicated that de Vere was making himself familiar with Antonio de Gueras, presumably in relation to de Vere's collection of £15,000.
March 1974
De Vere made a proposal to Queen Elizabeth that was refused. She criticized him for his lack of thrift, and was offended by his reaction.
July 1574
De Vere hired a ship and went to the low countries. The Elizabethan court was troubled by what appeared to them a defection to the Catholic side. Queen Elizabeth dispatched Thomas Bedingfield to bring de Vere back. De Vere returned by July 27, 1574. If the purpose of the trip was to secure the £15,000, there was no evidence that he did so. It was generally concluded that his trip was not suspicious in any way, and reflected his obvious desire for foreign adventure, which was noted with approval.
August 1574
September, 1574
Anne de Vere asked the Earl of Sussex to arrange lodging for her husband at Hampton Court, in the hope that she could persuade her husband to resume sleeping with her.
1574
George Baker, the doctor for de Vere and his wife, dedicated a book to de Vere. Baker practiced Paracelsian medicine, a new, empirical approach to healing using chemical distillations and essences that was a forerunner to modern pharmacy.
January 30, 1575
De Vere made out an indenture dealing with his estate should something happen to him, prior to leaving for his Grand Tour of the Continent. The indenture included a Schedule of Debts, that indicated he and his father had accumulated debts of £9,096.
February 7, 1775
De Vere left England on the start of his tour.
March 17, 1575
In a letter to William Cecil from Paris, de Vere thanked Cecil for informing him of his wife's pregnancy. He also indicated that now that he had an heir, he would continue his travels.
April, 1575
De Vere left Paris for Strasbourg, to visit the humanist scholar Johan Sturmius. Afterward, he traveled through the Alps, probably bypassed Milan, visited Verona and finally arrived in Venice in mid-May. The annual theatrical season in Venice lasted from mid-May to mid-July. Venetian theater was a mixture of high and low theater, proletarian and refined, tragic and comic. The Merchant of Venice probably provides some clues to de Vere's lodgings and dealings in Venice. In 1575, tension between Jews and other Venetians was at its highest. This tension was also incorporated into The Merchant of Venice.
Summer. 1575
De Vere probably visited Ragusa (now known as Dubrovnik), about 48 hours sailing time from Venice. Ragusa was probably the unnamed Illyrian city that provided the setting for Twelfth Night. The Winter's Tale has several scenes on the seacoast of Bohemia. Between 1575 and 1609, the king of Bohemia held a 35 mile stretch of coastline between Venice and Ragusa. Shakespeare's critics have suggested that he was ignorant of European geography, but in fact, de Vere had a better understanding than the critics, because he had probably been there. While de Vere may have wanted to visit Greece, there is little evidence that he got there. His plays based in Greek settings do not contain the same vivid references to Greece as his Italian plays to Italy.
July 2, 1775
Anne (Cecil) de Vere gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. The date noted by William Cecil was January 3, 1575.
Late Summer, 1775
De Vere was reported to be in Palermo, Sicily, where he challenged all persons for all manners of weapons in defense of Queen Elizabeth.
1775
De Vere was in Genoa, according to Italian bankers handling de Vere's money. He was there at a time of civil strife.
September, 1775
De Vere was in Venice, where he learned that his letters had not made it through the Alps because of plague. He also received two letters from William Cecil, one of which reported that Anne had delivered a daughter Elizabeth.
September 24, 1575
A letter from de Vere to William Cecil from Venice, reported that de Vere had been sick, liked Italy, was planning to return to England soon, and gave thanks about the news of the delivery of his child. Cecil noted the date of de Vere's letter in notes he wrote while preoccupied with proving the legitimacy of his daughter Anne's child.
September 1775
Most cultured visitors to Venice visited with Titian. Titian painted four replicas of Venus and Adonis, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the paintings, VENUS clings to ADONIS, who appears bothered by these actions. In most classical interpretations of Ovid, the attraction between VENIS and ADONIS is mutual. In only one of the four Titian copies, the painting in Titian's studio, ADONIS wears a stylized man's hat known as a bonnet. In Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, VENUS is attracted to ADONIS, who is bothered by Venus's advances. ADONIS wears a bonnet that hides his angry brow. Undoubtedly, de Vere based his poem on the Titian painting that he had seen in 1575. Titian's friend, Pietro Aretino, provided situations, character studies, and ideas for a dozen Shakespeare plays.
November 17, 1575
A letter from de Vere to William Cecil from Padua told Cecil not to block of the sale of his lands because of de Vere's rising debts. Padua was a university town. Ottonelle Discalzio was a celebrated professor and jurists who made regular trips to Venice to adjudicate court cases. In The Merchant of Venice, the celebrated jurist from Padua University, Bellario, was consulted to settle the case of SHYLOCK versus ANTONIO. To get from Venice to Padua, de Vere probably traveled by ferry along the river Brenta, which connected Padua to the Venetian Lagoon. In The Merchant of Venice, PORTIA calls "the tranect, the common ferry". PORTIA lives on the Brenta in the Belmont estate 10 miles from Venice and 2 miles from a monastery. The Villa Foscari meets these criteria. NERISSA, PORTIA's assistant, mentions a recent visit to Belmont by the MARQUIS OF MONTFERRAT, one of the titles of Gonazaga. Gonazaga had visited the Villa Foscari in 1574.
November, 1775
A day's journey from Padua is Mantua, where de Vere's idol Baldassare Castiglione had lived and worked. Because of de Vere's interest in Castiglione, he most likely visited Mantua. A few miles from Mantua is the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie where Castiglione was buried. Atop the tomb of Castiglione and his wife is a sculpture by Giulio Romano to Castiglione's wife, who died nine years before him. Giulio Romano is mentioned in The Winter's Tale, where a painted statue of the wronged wife HERMIONE is compared to a statuary by "that rare Italian master Giulio Romano". He is also alluded to in Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. While de Vere saw Romano as a sculptor, he was more generally known as a painter. Critics of Shakespeare have occasionally suggested that Shakespeare was ignorant of Italian art. Visitors such as de Vere to Mantua would have stayed as guests to the local duke Guglielmo Gonzaga. One of the guest rooms in the duke's palace, Appartamento di Troia, contained frescoes of famous scenes from The Trojan War by Giulio Romano. Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece contained a 202 line description of these frescoes. The description has little connection to the theme of the poem, as if the poet introduced the description to demonstrate his knowledge of these frescoes.
December, 1775
De Vere headed for Florence, probably arriving around December 16. After Florence, de Vere headed toward Rome, where Catholic pilgrims had been summoned by the Pope to celebrate a Jubilee Year. Not coincidentally, HELENA in All's Well that Ends Well tracked down her wayward husband BERTAMm by disguising herself as a pilgrim on Jubilee. Because Rome had reached its capacity, many pilgrims went to overflow sites near Florence, one of which was the shrine of St. James the Great near the Tuscan towns of Pistoia and Prato. Helena in All's Well that Ends Well said her Italian destination was St. Jaques le Grand, in effect stating that she was going toward Florence to track down her husband.
January 3, 1576
A letter from de Vere to William Cecil from Siena, the southern Tuscan town, urged Cecil to sell some of his lands to appease his creditors. De Vere was intent on making the most of his travels and was prepared to sell land to do so. Cecil was undoubtedly concerned about the long-term income of de Vere, his daughter Anne and their daughter. Over the period from Christmas to January 5, Siena had celebrations, parties and plays. On the January 5 (the twelfth night), a Sienese tradition was the performance of the comedy The Deceived by the Piccolomini's Academy. Twelfth Night mirrors the plot of The Deceived.
January, 1576
William Cecil was increasingly worried that his son-in-law de Vere woud not accept paternity of his daughter Anne's child, so he drew up a memorandum identifying key dates in the De Vere's and Anne's chronology.
January, 1576
After Siena, de Vere returned to Venice for its Carnival season. During this season, the upper and lower classes put on masks and performed masquerades and skits. In Shakespeare's plays such as Much Ado About Nothing, King Henry the Fifth, and Antony and Cleopatra, masks and disguises are common features.
March 5, 1576
De Vere left Venice and set off to return to England, via Milan. There are several references to Milan in Shakespeare's plays. In Much Ado About Nothing, MARGARET mentions a gown owned by the duchess of Milan. SILVIA in The Two Gentlemen of Verona speaks of FRIAR PATRICK's Cell, a real place where an Irish friar stopped in 1576. At the time, Milan was controlled by Spain. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the DUKE OF MILAN indicates his nationality by addressing his colleagues using the Spanish word "Don". By the end of March, de Vere was out of Italy.
April, 1576
De Vere probably visited Count Roussillion in or near Tournon-Sur-Rhône. Tournon represented only a small departure from his likely route. All's Well that Ends Well captures the life of the Roussillion, particularly the daughter Hélène de Tournon, the victim of a haughty lover and family politics.
March 21, 1576
De Vere arrived in Paris on the way home. He was advised by one of his men, Rowland Yorke, of all the latest court gossip, including news about his wife Anne and her child.
April 4, 1576
A letter from de Vere to William Cecil from Paris expressed his 'misliking' of the situation with Anne Cecil..
April 20, 1576
Crossing from France to England, de Vere's boat was attacked by Dutch pirates who looted most of his possessions. This outraged Queen Elizabeth, who sent a special envoy to the Prince of Orange to demand satisfaction at this "disgrace upon her realm". De Vere returned to England humiliated and probably without many of his possessions. William Cecil attempted to intercept de Vere immediately on his return, to address questions related to the paternity of Anne's child. Rather that accepting an invitation to stay at Cecil House, de Vere moved into the house of Edward Yorke, older brother of Rowland Yorke, de Vere's servant. Roland Yorke fought with the Catholic rebels in the Northern Uprising of 1569. While fighting for the English three years later in the Dutch wars of independence, he was infamous for his conduct with young nuns. In 1584, he tried to betray the position of English allies to Spain. He reportedly died through Spanish poison. In addition to these various misdeeds, he was presumed to have provided de Vere with information about Anne's child. Roland's brother Edward worked for the Duke of Leicester, a long-time adversary of both William Cecil and de Vere. Two of Shakespeare's plays deal with servants and associates (IAGO in Othello and IACHIMO in Cymbeline) who put their lords (OTHELLO and POSTHUMUS) into rage and jealousy against wrongly accused wives. In Much Ado About Nothing, a high ranking military commander (e.g. the Duke of Leicester) masterminds the jealousy subplot against a wrongly accused wife.
April 27, 1576
Now back in England, de Vere wrote again to William Cecil saying he had no intention of meeting his wife. This was the start of a five year separation from Anne.
July 13, 1576
A letter from de Vere to William Cecil from London noted that Queen Elizabeth and William Cecil both wanted de Vere to reconcile with Anne Cecil, but stated that de Vere was not interested in a reconciliation.
January 1, 1577
This likely became The Comedy of Errors.
October 28, 1577
De Vere attended the wedding of William Howard and Elizabeth Dacre. William Howard was the youngest son of the Duke of Norfolk, who had been beheaded for treason. It would take William Howard 23 years to sort out estate issues, particularly since his eldest brother had married into the Dacre family. The play As You Like It, which was probably finalized in 1600, was based on the story of the Howard family.
Christmas, 1577
Mary de Vere, de Vere's sister, married Peregrine Bertie. The Taming of the Shrew was based on their relationship. So was Twelfth Night.
January 15, 1578
Queen Elizabeth awarded Castle Rising to de Vere for his "true and faithful service done and given to us". Castle Rising had belonged to the beheaded Duke of Norfolk, and was worth about £250 per year. The relationship between Queen Elizabeth and de Vere was rocky at this time. Queen Elizabeth was unhappy about de Vere's treatment of his wife. De Vere was probably unhappy about the beheading of the Duke of Norfolk. De Vere had not exchanged New Year's gifts with Queen Elizabeth in several years.
1578
The Merchant of Venice reflects this experience, as the generous ANTONIO invests 3,000 ducats with thy financier SHYLOCK (based on Michael Lok). Frobisher's venture was a disaster.
1578
Harvey's Latin eulogy was translated to include the phrase "thy will shakes speares". The eulogy noted that de Vere was excellent in letters and had written many English poems.
August 14, 1578
De Vere reportedly refused to obey a request from Queen Elizabeth to dance before ambassadors from the Duke of Alençon, presumably because he felt the request was demeaning.
December 28, 1578
A play titled An History of the Cruelties of a Stepmother. Ostensibly, the play was about a conniving stepmother. The courtly audience would have assumed that this stepmother was Catherine de Medici, mother of the Duke of Alençon. Queen Elizabeth was considering marriage to the Duke, and if the marriage took place, Catherine de Medici would become England's "stepmother". De Vere opposed the marriage. The play may have been a preliminary version of Cymbeline, which is also about a conniving stepmother. De Vere's mother in law disliked de Vere, and the feeling was mutual. De Vere and Queen Elizabeth exchanged New Year gifts, presumably reflecting an improving relationship.
January 6, 1579
About the rape of Helen in the Trojan War. Shakespeare later dealt with this issue in Troilus and Cressida.
March 3 , 1579
This was probably an early version of Othello, a story about a husband who conspires to kill his wife at the goading of a servant.
September, 1579
Sidney was considered a rising literary figure. Both were young, intelligent and well-educated. Sidney had criticized theatrical techniques which compressed time and space into a few hours on the stage, and shifted moods and setting without explanation to the audience. Shakespeare plays regularly did just that. Sidney and de Vere also differed on the Alençon marriage to Queen Elizabeth, with de Vere a supporter and Sidney an opponent. Sidney and de Vere wanted to resolve the dispute through a duel, but Queen Elizabeth ordered de Vere to not leave his quarters.
1579
A tall, dark-haired nineteen year old from a genteel family living in the north of England. She was known for her beauty, poetic prowess and wit. Her uncle Thomas Knyvet, a groom in the Queen Elizabeth's privy chamber, had introduced her to court, where she became a gentlewoman in the Queen's bedchamber. De Vere probably met Anne Vavasour through his cousin Charles Arundell.
1580
The Curtain and the Theater. At the time, Londoners were flocking to the theaters. A few Puritans and religious types objected, but Elizabeth supported the theaters. In early 1580, de Vere had also taken over the theater group the Earl of Warwick's men. Between 1580 and 1582, De Vere hired John Lyly and Anthony Munday as his private secretaries. He also provided support to Thomas Watson and Robert Greene..
February , 1580
Fearing Queen Elizabeth's anger, de Vere was contemplating leaving England. Anne miscarried.
1580
The work satirizes courtly manners using pompous and overblown language.
June, 1580
1580
1580
but also praised him as "peerless in England" as a "discourser for tongue".
December, 1580
Through a Jesuit priest who was later sneaked out of England through the French Ambassador.
January, 1581
His tournament speech is later published in Edmund Spenser's Axiochus.
March 23, 1581
De Vere, who was known to be the child's father, fled London, but was soon captured and sent to the Tower of London..
June 8, 1581
But he remained under house arrest in Greenwich for another month or more.
1581
The document is known as the Arundell-Howard libels. Henry Howard and Charles Arundell would later be implicated in another plot against Queen Elizabeth in 1583, and would write another set of libels to extricate themselves from trouble.
1582
Banishment from court is the theme of Titus Adronicus and Timon of Athens.
January 1582
December, 1582
All Anne's letter have been preserved in the Cecil archive. None of de Vere's replies were preserved.
1582
March, 1582
The fray began an interfamily feud (like the MONTAGUE-CAPULET feud in Romeo and Juliet). De Vere was injured, although he was able to ride on a tournament several years later. The injuries sustained may have contributed to his lameness, which he mentioned in Sonnets 37 and 89.
June, 1582
Just as there were three skirmishes between the MONTAGUES and CAPULETS in Romeo and Juliet.
1582
The book contains introductory comments that undoubtedly came from de Vere. The quality of the comments is considered Shakespearean in quality.
July, 1582
He revisited Elsinore in 1585, and spent five months in total there. Elsinore was the setting for Hamlet. While at Elsinore, Bertie met the Danes Rosenkrantz and Guldenstern. He also met the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who observed a supernova that was referenced by the guards in Hamlet. Hamlet also includes a small part for the English Ambassador (de Vere's brother in law), who announces that ROSENKRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN are dead.
1583
The Queen's Men subsequently performed early versions of plays that would be later revised and published as Shakespeare's. Queen Elizabeth's spy master Francis Walsingham ran the troupe.
May 9, 1583
June 1, 1583
June, 10, 1583
The court saw a Latin play Dido, a university play that was never published or acted again. The Polish Prince and General Laski was in attendance. HAMLET asks actors to perform Aeneas's tale to Dido, the play that was acted at most once and which was caviar to the General (Laski). Also in attendance at court was the Italian Giordano Bruno, who taught at Wittenburg and who supported Copernicus's theory of the heavens. HAMLET also refers to these theories
1583
Appoints his secretary Lyly as manager.
April 6, 1584
November 17, 1584
Held to celebrate the anniversary of the coronation.
December, 1584
This was probably an early performance of Troilus and Cressida.
August, 1585
All's Well that Ends Well includes names of commanders in the lowland campaign.
October, 1585
His long-time enemy Leicester was placed in charge. On his return home, a ship containing de Vere's provisions (venison, wine, letter of appointment) was captured by Spaniards. In Hamlet, there is an encounter with pirates and a plot twist involving stolen letters at sea.
1586
June 25, 1586
" tyll her Magestie performethe her promes.".
June 26, 1586
There is no documentary indication about the purpose of the payments, which continued until de Vere's death. It is believed that the purpose of the payments was to produce propaganda plays which supported the Tudors and encouraged English nationalism at a time when the country was facing an invasion by Spain. Shortly after this time, the Spanish Ambassador to England complained to King Philip of Spain about the treatment of the King in English plays.
1586
October, 1586
His future father in law, Thomas Trentham, had been appointed, as one of the "principal gentlemen in Staffordshire", to accompany the Scottish Queen from her Staffordshire exile to Fotheringay.
May 26, 1587
September, 1587
June 5, 1588
According to letters by Thomas Cecil and others, William Cecil was so incapacitated by grief over the death of "my ladie of Oxenford" that he was incapable of conducting Privy Council business. There is no record that de Vere was attended the funeral on June 26.
May 30, 1588
Indirect evidence suggests that de Vere was involved in the campaign. The fleet encountered bad weather (perhaps the inspiration for the opening scene in The Tempest). By June 6, the fleet had returned to Plymouth, where de Vere probably learned about the death of his wife. Drake would make subsequent attempts to set sail. De Vere may have been part of these attempts.
July 27, 1588
By August 1, de Vere had abandoned his position, and returned to London.
November 24, 1588
December 1588
1589
It notes: "And in Her Majesty's time that now is are sprung up another crew of courtly makers, noble men and gentlemen of her Majesty's own servants, who have written commendably well as it would appeare if their doings could be found out and made public with the rest, of which number is first that noble gentleman Edward, earl of Oxford. ... The earl of Oxford and Master (Richard) Edwards of Her Majesty's Chapel (are the best) for comedy and interlude."
1590
De Vere was unable to meet the first payment due on March 25, so Churchyard took refuge in a church. Churchyard's apartment was near the Church of St. Benet's of Paul's Wharf. In Twelfth Night, FESTE begs for cash and includes a reference to St. Benet
1590
The sonnet talks about writing of the glory of de Vere's ancestors "under a shady veil". This is presumably a reference to the fact that de Vere had been writing plays glorifying the Tudor regime and its supporters (including de Vere's ancestors) under a pseudonym.
September 1590
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam erat libero, bibendum in libero tempor, luctus volutpat ligula. Integer fringilla porttitor pretium. Nam erat felis, iaculis id justo ut, ullamcorper feugiat elit. Proin vel lectus auctor, porttitor ligula vitae, convallis leo. In eget massa elit.
November 1591
Elizabeth Trentham was in her thirties, had been one of the Queen's maids of honour for ten years, and was an independent woman with a good understanding of legal and business matters. PORTIA, in The Merchant of Venice, was probably based on Elizabeth. BASSIANO married PORTIA in part to address financial concerns. Elizabeth's brother Francis Trentham took over the management of de Vere's near bankrupt estate and gradually returned it to profitability.
December 1591
By this time, de Vere had lost all the lands he inherited from his father or acquired from the Queen Elizabeth, and was now a landless lord. Three years later, de Vere's story would be retold by the Queen's Men through a play called the True Chronicle History of King Lier. This is a story of a foolish man who wasted his inheritance and independence.
1592