Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby

Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby

Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (* 1559 ; † April 16, 1594 ), was an English nobleman with close ties to the theater of the English Renaissance.

Life

Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby was one of the four sons of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, (1531–1593) and Lady Margaret Clifford (1540–1596), who lived in the period from 1578 until their death in 1596 alleged heir to the throne ( heir presumptive ) of Queen Elisabeth . At the time of his death (see below) his brother William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (1561–1642) was traveling in Europe for a long time, first in France at the court of Navarre in 1578, then in Spain, Italy, Egypt and Palestine , Turkey and Russia. 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 (England) and Elizabeth of York .

Lord Strange

He graduated from high school around 1572 at the age of 13 before starting his studies at Oxford University . One year later he was appointed to the court by Queen Elisabeth (“to be shaped in good manners”). On January 28, 1588 he was appointed by Writ of Acceleration as Lord Strange in the House of Lords , whereby he prematurely inherited the subordinate title of his father as 13th Baron Strange (of Knockin) . In 1579 he married Alice Spencer, the youngest daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorp and Catherine Kytson.

He was - like his brother William - an important patron of the arts, he loved music, dance and poetry and especially the theater. He was the mentor and patron of many poets and writers such as Robert Greene , Christopher Marlowe , Edmund Spenser and possibly William Shakespeare . Based on the available sources, he must have known Christopher Marlowe well. As part of an allegation in Flushing , Marlowe explicitly referred to his acquaintance with the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Strange. (“ The scholer [Marlowe] sais himself to be very well known both to the Earle of Northumberland and my lord Strang ”). Some suggest that Shakespeare may have been employed by Lord Strange in his early years as part of Lord Strange's Men , when Ferdinando switched his troupe from acrobats and jugglers to an all-acting troupe in 1592. By 1590 his troupe was allied with that of the Admiral's Men , with performances at The Theater, owned by James Burbage , father of Richard Burbage .

Earl of Derby

When his father died on September 25, 1593, Ferdinando inherited his remaining nobility title as Earl of Derby . The "Lord Strange's Men" were renamed accordingly in "Derby's Men". Some scholars suggest that Shakespeare was associated with the Strange's Men as both an actor and a poet. The theater group produced u. a. Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and the trilogy of Henry VI., Parts 1, 2 and 3 . Schrickx is of the opinion that with Ferdinand, the King of Navarre, in Shakespeare's “ Lost Labor Effort ”, only Ferdinando Stanley could be meant due to various arguments. Naturally, this can never be proven with certainty.

Ferdinando is regarded as a sublime genius who, when his father was absent from business, was entrusted with his duties early on and served as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire . He was both a poet and an author who valued the environment of outstanding Elizabethan writers. The poet Edmund Spenser personified him as "Amyntas", and his wife as "Amaryllis". In 1610 a compilation of English poems was published under the title Belvedere, or, the Garden of the Muses ; which included Stanley's work, albeit without his attribution, so his identity has largely remained a guess.

death

According to Henry VIII's will , Ferdinando was second in the line of succession from Queen Elisabeth, behind his mother. But he died two years earlier than his mother and nine years earlier than Elisabeth.

Rumors grew early around his sudden, unexpected death in the later years of Queen Elizabeth's reign on April 16, 1594 (the event was of considerable political significance). in particular he was poisoned (lead, arsenic? mushrooms?). the poison had been administered to him by his groom. Contemporary historian John Stow has detailed his eleven days of agonizing death.

A number of rebels who had fled abroad had sent a "Richard Hesketh" to him, urging him to assert his claim to the English throne according to his descent from Mary Tudor, the second surviving daughter of Henry VII , and younger sister represented by Henry VIII. "Richard Hesketh of Aughton" was chosen by the old friends of the family, the Catholics "Heskeths", to tackle Ferdinando in what later became known as the "Hesketh Affair" ("The Hesketh Affair"). He was threatened at the same time that if he did not embrace this project and pass the message on, he would soon die in a pathetic way, but if he consented he would receive powerful support. Ferdinando vehemently refused this offer. Ferdinando died 5 months after Hesketh's ordeal and execution after an excruciating eleven days of agony. William Stanley was assumed to be behind Hesketh, as suggested by state papers and letters to Sir Ralph Sadler. Hesketh conveyed his knowledge on the gallows. Ferdinando's rejection of Hesketh's requests, which he communicated to Queen Elizabeth, and Hesketh's execution were also a rejection of William Stanley. Ultimately, a rivalry for Elizabeth's succession to the throne is suspected behind this death.

Succession

His eldest daughter, Anne Stanley, grew out of his marriage to Alice Spencer in 1580 . According to the legacy of Henry VIII, she should have become queen in 1603. Elizabeth was however of James VI. of Scotland , the descendant of an older branch of Henry VII .

literature

• B. Coward: The Stanleys: Lord Stanley and Earls of Derby, 1385-1672 . Manchester University Press, 1983.
• JJ Bagley: The Earls of Derby 1485–1985 . Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1985.
• Andrew Gurr: Three Reluctant Patrons and Early Shakespeare . In: Shakespeare Quarterly . 1993

Web links

• Stanley, Ferdinando (1559–1594) Family Tree (English)
• Ferdinando STANLEY (5th E. Derby) (English)
• Was the Sixth Earl of Derby Really Shakespeare? (English)

References and comments

1. ↑ Alice Spencer (c. 1560-1637) - Basic dates and details about Countess Alice . ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. A Duxbury Family website  
2. ↑ The Flushing Letter - (PRO SP 84/44/60 - Discovered and transcribed by RB Wernham, and first published in English Historical Review (1976) Vol. 91 pp. 344-5) ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2012 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Peter Farey's Marlowe Page  
3. ^ W. Schrickx: Shakespeare's early Contemporaries; The Background of the Harvey-Nash Polemic and "Love's Labor Lost" . De Nederlandsche Boekhandel, Antwerp 1956
4. ↑ Steven May: Spenser's “Amyntas”: Three Poems by Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, Fifth Earl of Derby . In: Modern Philology . 1972
5. ↑ Kathrine Koller: Identifications in Colin Clout's, Come Home Againe . In: Modern Language Notes . 1935
6. ↑ Camden's History of Elizabeth . Fisher, London 1630, Book 4, p. 65
7. ^ Correspondence, G. Ihler, R. Houppermans, JM Davies, DC Davies: Why did the 5th Earl of Derby die? . In: The Lancet . Volume 358, 2001, p. 2988
8. ^ William Jeffcoate: Why did the 5th Earl of Derby die? . In: The Lancet . Volume 357, 2001, p. 1876
9. ↑ expired in the flowre of his youth, not without suspension of poyson, being tormented with cruell paynes by frequent vomitings of a darke color like rusty yron. There was found in his chamber an Image of waxe, the belly pierced thorow with haires of the same color that his were, put there, (as the wiser sort have judged, to remove the suspension of poyson). The matter vomited up stayned the silver basons in such sort, that by no art they could possibly be brought againe to their former brightnesse. [Arsenic was suggested as a poison here] No small suspicion lighted upon the gentleman of his horse, who; as soone as the Earle tooke his bed, tooke his best horse, and fled ”.
10. ^ J. Stow: Annales or a general chronicle of England . Richard Meighen, London 1631

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry Stanley	Baron Strange (by writ of acceleration) 1588–1594	Title abeyant
Henry Stanley	Earl of Derby 1593–1594	William Stanley
Henry Stanley	Lord of Mann 1593–1594	Henry Howard