William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby
Biography
He was the second of four sons of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby ( 1531-1593 ), and Lady Margaret Clifford ( 1540-1596 ), who from 1578 until her death in 1592 officially succession claims in the wake of Elizabeth I. had. His maternal grandparents were Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland and Lady Eleanor Brandon. Eleanor was the third child of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor. Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York.
He followed in the title of his brother Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby ( 1559-1594 ), and was located at the time of his death on longer trips in Europe, first in France at the court of Navarre, in 1578, then in Spain, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and Russia. When he returned, the three daughters of his brother had divided the property among themselves, after a lengthy legal dispute began, in which the possession of the island was made Man of the house Stanley in question. According to a court of arbitration by Queen Elizabeth William Stanley was awarded a large part of the heritage.
He married in June 1594 in Greenwich Elizabeth de Vere ( 1575-1626 ), the eldest daughter of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Anne Cecil, daughter of Lord Treasurer William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and his wife Mildred Cooke, the eldest daughter of Anthony Cooke and Anne Fitzwilliam. The marriage produced five children, James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby went ( from 1607 to 1651, Lord Strange ), Robert Stanley (died 1633), Anne Stanley, Countess of Ancram ( 1599-165 ), married to Sir Henry Portman of Orchard, then with the Scot Robert Carr, Earl of Ancram, and two daughters who died young (both named Elizabeth ) out.
Under Queen Elizabeth, he became a Knight of the Garter, and under her successor James I. Lord Chamberlain of Chester. 1628/9, he transferred to his son James in the title and possession (up to 1000 pounds annuity ). He was buried in the family grave of Stanley in Ormskirk in Lancashire.
Shakespeare authorship debate
One of the leading French literary scholar Abel Lefranc (1863-1952) published after a long research in 1918 in his book " Sous Le Masque de William Shakespeare" the theory that behind the name Shakespeare William Stanley hide (so-called " Derby " theory ). William Stanley was a steady patron of theater companies in London ( Earl of Derby 's player ), as well as his older brother Ferdinando, who also cartridged various theater groups ( Up to 1593 after his title of Lord Strange 's Men, later called " The Kings Men" ).
As important arguments for the Derby theory were, inter alia, a letter from the Jesuit spy George Fenner listed in 1599, after Stanley wrote pieces for the theater ( "busy penning plays for common players" ), and on the other his experiences abroad on extended trips. His impressions in 1578 at the court of Navarre would have been reflected by Lefranc in Shakespeare's play " Love's Labour's Lost ." Against the theory is, among other things, that Derby has remained literary silence in the last thirty years of his life, and even the Shakespearean sonnets have no references to his biographical data.
Stanley also had relationships with two brothers, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke ( 1580-1630 ) and Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, 1st Earl of Montgomery ( 1584-1649 ), which in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, the folio edition of the works of Shakespeare were appropriated. Both were 1628/29, the trustees of the ownership transfer of William Stanley to his son James.
Swell
- Abel Lefranc, Sous Le Masque de " William Shakespeare" William Stanley VI Compte de Derby, two volumes, Paris 1919
- A.W.Titherley, Shakespeare Identity. William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, Winchester, Warren and Sons Ltd.. 1952