2020/08/06 by Glyn Parry, Cathryn Enis · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Irish and British Studies #Literature: history, themes, analysis
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198862918.001.0001
openalex publication_date 2020/08/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract This book puts William Shakespeare’s Stratford upbringing into significant historical context for the first time and provides new ways of thinking about Warwickshire and Elizabethan England. It uses new archival discoveries about three families: the Shakespeares, the brothers Ambrose and Robert Dudley, earls of Warwick and Leicester, and the Arden family headed by Edward Arden. It shows that as he grew up William Shakespeare was exposed to the Dudleys’ political, legal, historical, and genealogical claims for their authority in Warwickshire and Stratford, an assault on the county’s collective memory resisted by the Ardens and other gentry. As her proxies, the Dudleys established Elizabeth I’s Protestant regime in the west Midlands, culminating in Edward Arden’s destruction on false treason charges in 1583. By then the Shakespeares also had direct experience of the London government’s power in the localities. From 1569 Exchequer informers, backed by influential politicians at Court, accused William’s father John of illegal wool-dealing and usury. Contrary to previous claims that he had escaped these charges by 1572, new sources show how the Exchequer’s continuing demands undermined John’s credit rating by 1577, forcing his withdrawal from Stratford politics, and curtailing his business career in the early 1580s. In the fallout from Arden’s destruction the Elizabethan regime also punished the Shakespeares’ friends and neighbours, the Quineys for their alleged financial links to the traitorous Ardens, despite local knowledge to the contrary, confirming Shakespeare’s sceptical understanding of the realities of power that we find in his later plays.