Oxford and the Armada

Oxford and the Armada: The REAL Story

UNDER DEVELOPMENT

The Question

The Spring 1996 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter includes a quotation (p. 3) from the British actor Michael York pondering Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech: "'Afterall (sic),' he added, 'it's the most famous speech in western literature. But what does it mean?'"

York said that, as an Oxfordian, such questions take on a whole new meaning for him. Having a real author in mind, with "real life" events to illuminate the text, meant that he could think of Hamlet/Oxford as a man who did literally "take arms against a sea of troubles" when he took to sea against the Armada in 1588. Actors always appreciate such insights, and he, as an actor, appreciated the extra meaning that such a line now yielded.

The idea that Oxford saw action against the Armada may be traced to such biographers as Ward, who takes a contemporary ballad at face value (p. 291, note 1):

The graphic description of the Earl "standing on the hatches" with the Boar on his helmet "foaming for inward ire" conveys the impression that the ballad was written by someone who actually saw Oxford standing in full armour on the deck of his ship.

Is it, however, a fact that Oxford "did literally" take to sea against the Armada in 1588?

The Answer

It is literally a fact that Oxford did not take to sea (or to land) against the Armada. Instead, he behaved with such pique that for the next sixteen years he did not receive a single new vote from any fellow nobleman for the Order of the Garter.

The facts, as opposed to Oxfordian fictions, are these:

So far as we know, Oxford never owned the ship called the Edward Bonaventure. Martin Frobisher reported in 1581 that Oxford was interested in buying this ship; the asking price was L1,800; Oxford's offer of L1,500 was apparently rejected. The ownership of the Edward Bonaventure is important because many Oxfordians claim that this very ship was owned, outfitted, and commanded by Oxford at the time of the Armada.
In any case, the Edward Bonaventure was owned by a syndicate in 1588, and not by Oxford.
John Knox Laughton, the great nineteenth-century authority on the Armada who assembled more documentary evidence on the subject than anyone before or since, considered the list of noble warriors which occurs in the literary-historical tradition: he concluded that it was unlikely that those not mentioned in known historical documents did in fact serve.
Oxford's name and image do not appear in the famous "Pine Tapestries."
Oxford's name does, to be sure, appear in a long line of historical accounts. These accounts, however, all go back to a blatant instance of political disinformation perpetrated by Lord Burghley, a deliberate and calculated distortion of the historical truth.
Two letters by Robert Dudley earl of Leicester reveal that Oxford actually refused a direct request to serve as governor of Harwich at the time the Armada was passing up the English Channel, still dangerously close to English soil. Oxford's refusal provoked Leicester's thorough disgust.
From 1571 until 1588 Oxford received votes from his fellow noblemen in varying numbers for the Order of the Garter. Beginning with the first post-Armada election, however, support for Oxford collapsed utterly: he received not a single vote between 1588 and 1604.

For questions concerning these pages please contact Alan H. Nelson at ahnelson@socrates.berkeley.edu