Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Procedures
- Introduction
- Part I Roots 1548–1562
- Part II Youth 1562–1571
- Part III Emancipation 1571–1574
- 15 Majority and Marriage
- 16 Country Muses
- 17 Country Matters
- 18 Murder
- 19 Mayhem
- 20 Wanderlust
- 21 Desperadoes
- 22 Flight
- Part IV Exploration 1574–1576
- Part V Alienation 1576–1579
- Part VI Intrigue 1579–1580
- Part VII Sedition 1580–1581
- Part VIII Release 1581–1585
- Part IX Reiteration 1586–1591
- Part X Renewal 1592–1595
- Part XI Re-engagement 1595–1599
- Part XII Decline 1600–1604
- Part XIII Aftermath 1604–1613
- Notes
- Appendix: Oxford's Letters and Libel Documents
- Bibliography
- Index
- Liverpool English texts and Studies
17 - Country Matters
from Part III - Emancipation 1571–1574
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Procedures
- Introduction
- Part I Roots 1548–1562
- Part II Youth 1562–1571
- Part III Emancipation 1571–1574
- 15 Majority and Marriage
- 16 Country Muses
- 17 Country Matters
- 18 Murder
- 19 Mayhem
- 20 Wanderlust
- 21 Desperadoes
- 22 Flight
- Part IV Exploration 1574–1576
- Part V Alienation 1576–1579
- Part VI Intrigue 1579–1580
- Part VII Sedition 1580–1581
- Part VIII Release 1581–1585
- Part IX Reiteration 1586–1591
- Part X Renewal 1592–1595
- Part XI Re-engagement 1595–1599
- Part XII Decline 1600–1604
- Part XIII Aftermath 1604–1613
- Notes
- Appendix: Oxford's Letters and Libel Documents
- Bibliography
- Index
- Liverpool English texts and Studies
Summary
On 14 January 1572 George Golding ‘of London, gentleman’ was appointed auditor for Oxford's estates, replacing Thomas Wyseman, Esq., of Shipley, Sussex, who had inherited from his father John the post granted ‘by John, Earl of Oxford, for two lives, 10th Dec. 1540’. George was Arthur Golding's next younger brother.
Camden attributed to this same month a plot ‘to kill certain of the Privy Council and to free the Duke of Norfolk’, implicating William Herle, among others. When Herle embarked at Gravesend on 19 March, his ship nearly foundering off the coast of Holland, his shipmates included the soldier-poet George Gascoigne, the desperado Rowland York, and Edward (Ned) Denny. Both York and Denny were – or shortly became – Oxford's men. ‘Gascoigne's Voyage into Hollande, Anno 1572. Written to the Right Honourable the Lorde Grey of Wilton’, tells us perhaps more than we want to know about the group's adventures in the Netherlands:
As for the yong Nunnes, they be bright as glasse,
And chaste forsooth, met v: and anders niet. [‘with you and nobody else’]
What sayde I? what? that is a misterie,
I may no verse of such a theame endite[.]
Yong Rowlande Yorke may tell it bet than I, [bet=better]
Yet to my Lorde this little will I write,
That though I haue my selfe no skill at all
To take the countnance of a Colonel,
Had I a good Lieutenant general,
As good Iohn Zuche whereuer that he dwel,
Or else Ned Dennye (faire mought him befal),
I coulde haue brought a noble regiment
Of smugskinnde Nunnes into my countrey soyle.
The ‘yong Nunnes’ were prostitutes. Gascoigne's open use of names is breathtaking.
Back in England, Norfolk took steps on 28 January to settle his affairs:
Although my hap hath been such that my kin have had cause to be ashamed of me, their kinsman; yet I hope when I am gone nature will so work in them that they will be in good will to you, as heretofore they have been to me. Amongst whom I will begin as high as I unworthy dare presume, with my cousin Oxford.
As Norfolk approved Oxford's marriage to Anne Cecil, he now referred his son and heir Philip Howard to Oxford for comfort and protection.
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- Information
- Monstrous AdversaryThe Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, pp. 79 - 88Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2003