The Earls of Pembroke and Sussex,
and their acting companies...
their role in the Marlowe mystery
Two other acting companies
are of great interest in this story...
Pembroke's Men
of Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke
Sussex's Men
of the Radclyffes (Ratcliffes),
Earls of Sussex
Henry Herbert
has already appeared
in this story,
and
his brother
Sir Edward Herbert
of Powys (Powis) Castle
The Earl of Sussex too
has a close family link
to the other persons in the story...
for he is
(Henry Ratcliffe)
connected, by his marriage
to Elizabeth Howard,
the aunt of
the Lord High Admiral,
to the families of Howard (Lord Admiral)
de Vere/Oxford,
and Stanley/Strange/Derby.
It is known that they were connected
with the London
playhouses,
The Globe
and the Rose...
and that Kit Marlowe's play
Edward II
was acted by
Pembroke's Men
Thomas Radclyffe, Earl of Sussex
was married twice,
firstly to
Elizabeth
the daughter of
Thomas Wriothesley
Earl of Southampton
and secondly to
Frances Sidney
the
daughter of
Sir William Sidney.
This is a very interesting fact,
as it links Radclyffe/Sussex
straight in to the family of
Henry Wriothesley,
Earl of Southampton
who received the
dedication of
Shakespeare's
poem
Venus and Adonis
and who is often thought
to be
the Fair Young Man
in the
Sonnets.
In fact, Henry Wriothesley's aunt
is Radclyffe's wife.
Moreover,
it links to
the family of
Mary Sidney/Herbert
of Wilton House,
married to
Henry Herbert,
Earl of Pembroke.
And her brother
poet
Philip Sidney.
And this brings us
again to
Lord Pembroke,
Henry Herbert,
and Lord Pembroke's Men.
Can it all be by chance
that all these names
and families
are found
again and again?
As anyone who has
read the other pages
linking to this
will have noticed!
Interesting information...
1.
(quote)
The letter was published in a pamphlet called Greene's Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance.) As a number of leading Elizabethan literary figures expressed their admiration for his early plays. Though, after Green's death, his editor, Henry Chettle, publicly apologized to Shakespeare in the Preface to his Kind-Heart's Dream:
About three months since died M. Robert Greene, leaving many papers in sundry booksellers' hands, among other his Groatsworth of Wit,
(snip)
Records also tell us that several of Shakespeare's plays were popular by this time, including Henry VI, The Comedy of Errors, and Titus Andronicus. The company that staged most of the early productions of these plays was Pembroke's Men, sponsored by the Earl of Pembroke, Henry Herbert. The troupe was very popular and performed regularly at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Most critics conclude that Shakespeare spent time as both a writer and an actor for Pembroke's Men before 1592.
The turning point in Shakespeare's career came in 1593. The theatres had been closed from 1592 through 1594 due to an outbreak of the plague and, although it is possible that Shakespeare toured the outlying areas of London with acting companies like Pembroke's Men or Lord Strange's Men, it seems more likely that he left the theatre entirely during this time to compose long poems and at least some of his sonnets. Also during this tumulus time that, Shakespeare and his company made plans for the Globe Theatre in the Bankside district, which was across the river from London proper
http://www.the-quill.com/AboutShakespeare/Biography/InitialSuccess.htm
...............................................................................
2.
The Earl of Sussex's Men
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
Sussex, Thomas Radcliffe, 3d earl of
1526?�1583, English nobleman. Styled Viscount Fitzwalter after his father became (1542) the 2d earl of Sussex, he served in the army in France and on diplomatic missions abroad. In 1554 he was made Baron Fitzwalter, and in 1557 he succeeded his father as earl of Sussex. He served as lord deputy of Ireland under Mary I (1556�58) and again (1559�64) under Elizabeth I, who gave him the title of lord lieutenant. Sussex was a vigorous general, although he never succeeded in subduing Shane O�Neill, and during his administration English influence was forcefully extended outside the Pale.
Sussex�s desire for Elizabeth to marry outside England brought him into sharp conflict with the earl of Leicester. His attempts to negotiate a marriage between the queen and Archduke Charles of Austria, brother of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, collapsed in 1567. In 1568, Sussex became lord lieutenant of the north, and he aided in the suppression of the revolt (1569�70) of the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland. He became lord chamberlain in 1572.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/su/Sussex-T.html
...............................................................................
3.
The earl of Sussex was one of the great nobles of the Elizabethan period. Though his loyalty was questioned by his enemies, it was as unwavering as his patriotism. He shone as a courtier; he excelled in diplomacy; he was a man of cultivation and even of scholarship, a patron of literature and of the drama on the eve of its blossoming into the glory it became soon after his death.
He was twice married: first to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton; and secondly to Frances, daughter of Sir William Sidney.
His second wife was the foundress of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, which she endowed by her will, and whose name commemorates the father and the husband of the countess. The earl left no children, and at his death his titles passed to his brother Henry.
See PF Tytler, England under the Reigns of Edward VI and Mary (2 vols., London, 1839); Richard Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors (3 vols., London, 1885-1890); Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts; John Stow , Annales (London, 1631); Charles Henry Cooper , Athenae cantabrigienses, vol. i. (Cambridge, 1858), containing a biography of the earl of Sussex; John Strype , Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford, 1822); Sir Cuthbert Sharpe, Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569 (London, 1,840); John Nichols , Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (3 vols., London, 1823); Sir William Dugdale , The Baronage of England (London, 1675).
Reference
This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica .
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Thomas-Radclyffe,-3rd-Earl-of-Sussex
did Kit visit Powys Castle?
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for those
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(written originally by lyra, edited and rewritten)