William Guthrie of Brechin, the eighteenth century Scottish historian, wrote:
The King [James VI of Scotland], to prove how thoroughly he was now emancipated from the tutelage of his clergy, desired [Queen] Elizabeth to send him this year [1599] a company of English comedians. She complied, and James gave them a licence to act in his capital, and in his court. I have great reason to think that the immortal Shakespeare was of the number….
The Shakespeare Code concurs….
It believes that William Shakespeare was in Edinburgh in the autumn and winter of 1599…
THE GANG OF FOUR (plus Shakespeare)
As Brothers and Sisters of the Code well know, Shakespeare was deeply involved in the affairs of his patron and lover, Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton…
….who in turn was deeply involved in the affairs of his best friend, Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex….
…..whose sister, the lovely Penelope Rich….
…..was deeply involved in the affairs of her lover Charles Blount, the eighth Lord Mountjoy…
….who, as a former lover of Queen Elizabeth, was deeply involved in the affairs of all the others….
Apart from friendship, another emotion bound the Gang of Four together…
FEAR!
Queen Elizabeth refused to name her successor, and the Gang worried that when she died either…
- Civil War would break out again or, worse…
- A Foreigner would lay claim to the throne.
Either way, the Gang of Four would be politically vulnerable, so they wanted King James VI of Scotland (not too Foreign) to become King of England as well….
As the son of the Roman Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, James was ‘Catholic-friendly’. This suited Southampton (who was a recusant) and the rest of the Gang (who wanted religious tolerance).
In 1598, Essex and his sister Penelope started to write secretly, in code, to King James.
Queen Elizabeth became ‘Venus’ and Essex ‘the Weary Knight’ – weary of trying to satisfy the massive sexual desires of the aging queen….
To complicate matters, Essex’s arch-enemies, Sir Walter Raleigh, ‘The Fox’….
…and the round-backed Sir Robert Cecil, ‘The Ape’…
…were trying to destroy Essex’s influence over the Queen.
They encouraged Elizabeth, against her instincts, to appoint Essex as Lord Deputy of Ireland.
She wanted to keep her current lover, Essex, at Court and send her old toy-boy, Mountjoy, across the Irish Sea instead.
‘The Fox’ and ‘The Ape’ hoped that…
- Essex would fail, as everyone else had done, to crush the ‘rebels’ in Ireland, and..
- While he was away they could bad-mouth him at the English Court.
Essex in Ireland didn’t do himself any favours….
He appointed Southampton as his General of Horse – against Elizabeth’s express wishes – and held treasonous meetings with his Irish enemy, the charismatically devious Hugh O’Neil, the second (or some say third) Earl of Tyrone…
To crown it all, Essex abandoned his post in Ireland and rushed, unannounced and covered in mud, into the Queen’s morning bedchamber….
Essex was put under house arrest in September 1599 and the Queen appointed Lord Mountjoy as the new Lord Deputy of Ireland.
It looked as though ‘The Fox’ and ‘The Ape’ had triumphed.
The Gang of Four conceived a daring plan…
King James would march, at the head of an army, to the Borders of Scotland…
There he would publish an open letter to the English government of his right to the Succession…
If his demand was refused, he would invade….
Mountjoy would bring over from Ireland one half of the Queen’s army to support James’s troops…
To persuade James to take part in this audacious scheme, the Gang of Four sent William Shakespeare and Thomas Nashe to Edinburgh in October 1599 – along with the troupe of actors that James had so conveniently requested…
The two men wrote a Court entertainment for the Scottish king….
It was called The Tragedy of Macbeth….
Now read: ‘Macbeth’ Decoded. Part Two. The Background to ‘Macbeth’.
TRIXIE THE CAT SAYS….
If you liked this post, then why not read Shakespeare in Titchfield, or Shakespeare in Italy, or even Shakespeare, The Movie I.
But don’t forget to read Your Cat’s review of Eddie Linden, (F. S. C.‘s) fantastic new collection of verse ‘A Thorn in the Flesh’ and order it (a snip at £7.50) from its delightful publishers, Emily and Susan Johns, at Hearing Eye – books@hearingeye.org
Don’t forget to say that Trixie sent you!
Bye, now…
The Shakespeare Code 
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