ord Ferdinando Stanley was the fifth earl of Derby, a leading
claimant to the throne. Considered a man who had everything, he was
also the patron of the company of players which was fortunate
enough to include William Shakespeare. At the time, Shakespeare was
an up-and-coming junior member who had just begun to write plays
for them--plays which were already the talk of London.Lord Stanley
was incalculably rich, having married one of the wealthiest
heiresses in England. His home in Lancashire was called the
"Northern Court" because of its grandness, surpassing any in
England but (perhaps) the Queen's own. Then one day, April Fool's
Day, 1594, he was reportedly approached by a witch (one of the
famous legion of "Lancashire witches") and they engaged in brief
conversation while strolling outside his largest palace, Lathom
Hall. Four days later, he fell violently ill. For twelve days he
lingered, while four of the best doctors in the country, including
the famous Dr. John Case of Oxford, labored in vain to save him.Two
of his retainers wrote gruesomely detailed accounts of the progress
of his "diseases"--accounts that survive in manuscript today. When
he died, Dr. Case was heard to murmur (as reported by Sir George
Carey, the earl's brother-in-law): "Flat poisoning. And none other
but." For months after his passing and interment, no one could get
close enough to the family crypt to pay his or her respects because
of an overwhelming stench that continued to emanate from his
body.Who killed him and why? Historians started debating that
question almost as soon as he died, and outraged gossip was to be
heard everywhere in England. This book studies the death of Lord
Derby within the immediate contexts of Elizabethan power politics,
succession mania, passionate religious controversy, the records of
prominent families in the North, and the cult of personality just
then beginning to become a major factor in the nation's social
history. The book's scope also includes subcultural contexts such
as Elizabethan poetry (Lord Derby was a pastoral love poet, some of
whose work survives), witchcraft, medicine, spy networks, and both
approved and disapproved methods of political assassination (with
poison being the most frowned upon because of its disreputable
"Italianate" connotations).This book is the first to survey and
analyze the nearly 420-year-old documentary record relating to the
death of Lord Derby, including all relevant original manuscripts,
some of which have remained unprinted until now. This is the first
study to piece together all these fragmentary, disparate scraps of
information to form a coherent narrative--a story not just of the
assassination of one of the most prominent persons of the
fascinating "Age of Elizabeth" but also of European power politics
as a whole during the last decade of the sixteenth century. It is
also the first to offer a solution to the "murder mystery" that is
based on original documents (most of them being heated
back-and-forth letters written on the spot to and from the
principals, both immediately before and immediately after the
assassination).This book will be of interest to all readers
interested in Elizabethan history, literature, and politics,
perhaps especially those who are interested in the dazzling major
players of the age: Elizabeth, Essex, Lord Burghley, his son and
successor Sir Robert Cecil, and the Stanleys of Lancashire--the
latter so prominent in the early history plays of the young
Shakespeare, who spun those plays in order to flatter his Stanley
patrons.
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