This is my own interpretation of the life and times of Anne Hathaway based on what little we know about her. My version is somewhat sensational, please excuse me for this.
Anne (alias Agnes) Hathaway was born in 1556 to parents Richard and Joan and was certainly raised with her brothers and sisters at Hewlands Farm Shottery. Her Father was a Farmer and he was to remarry when Joan Hathaway died.
We can assume that Anne Hathaway received home schooling at best or no schooling at all at worst and lived most of her life until marriage in the hamlet of Hamlet, one mile away from Stratford in the forest of Arden. She certainly was a regular visitor to Stratford and her family was well acquainted with the Shakespeares of Henley Street. Despite the age gap, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway knew each other.
Anne Hathaway was not a particularly attractive woman but marriage had eluded her upto 1581-82. Then her Father died Autumn 1981 and she received a conditional inheritance from his Will. She had to marry. Who would she marry?
It is my supposition that she was the 'secret lover' of John Shakespeare and became pregnant by him (not by William) although she certainly 'made out'with William during the hot summer of 1582. John Shakespeare was, in many ways, a man more mysterious than his own eldest Son and his personal failings would lead, as we know, to his downfall in Stratfordian society during the 1580s and 1590s.
The Debdales were another Shottery family known to both the Hathaways and the Shakespeares. Robert Debdale was their Son and at school had been a personal friend of William Shakespeare. Debdale had left for jesuit priesthood with tutor Simon Hunt in 1575. Unfortunately he fell into a trap on his re...
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...son, Francis Bacon, John Hemmings and Richard Burbage. It was Anne Hathaway who called for the meeting one year after Williams death, hosted by Francis Bacon at Gorlambury Manor near St Albans.
Anne Hathaway was escorted to the meeting by her son in law Dr John Hall. Her only request was that there was a complete publication of all her husbands works before she died. Ironically, this was the First Folio which was published in August 1623 and she died herself one month later, to be buried alongside her husband William in the Chancel of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.
Anne Hathaway was very much a woman in the background who helped secure her husbands name into immortality. She was not a woman motivated by money or material wealth and she endured a lot in her life. Those who looked after William in his lifetime ensured that Anne Hathaway was remembered also.
First, a little background on Queen Anne. Anne was born February 6, 1665 to the parents of James, Duke of York and Lady Anne Hyde. She was born in the St. James Palace of London. Anne's father later reigned as James II, but was later dethroned by Anne's sister and brother-in-law Mary and William. Both Mary and William ruled together until their deaths and because they were childless, Anne succeeded them to the throne.
The story of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, has been elusive to historians since her death in 1536 at the hands of her husband. This, in part, can be attributed to the destruction of almost everything she touched soon after her execution. On orders of the king, the castles that were once her home had all memory stripped of her. Portraits were destroyed, letters disappeared, their symbol of the H and A intertwined had the A ripped away. The remnants of her time on the throne are pieces of history that were overlooked in the workers haste to strip the castles in preparation for Jane Seymour to become queen. There are few hints left of what really happened during Anne’s life and how important she was during her reign which has created the widespread infatuation with Anne and who she really was. Why is Anne’s life of such interest to us then? The reasons are many and include the desire to know her role in the English reformation, being the first queen of England to ever be executed, and the impact it had on her daughter and the later Queen Elizabeth I.
She witnessed her first hardship when she had been only three years old. Her father, King Henry VIII, had ongoing suspicions about her mother’s strange behaviors, for he had suspected his second wife, Anne, to be performing the dishonorable act of adultery with more than five men of the palace’s chambers, one of the suspects being her own brother, stirring out a crime of incest and linking it to Anne. He then ordered the execution of Anne on the false charges of adultery which then stripped Princess Elizabeth of her title and left her going by Lady Elizabeth instead. Since Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate, many believed that she would never obtain the title queen. Fortunately for her, fate had it differently planned it out, and she grew to be the famous Virgin Queen of England.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564, and was one of eight children. William's father was a glove-maker, who also held a number of public offices, ranging from Borough Ale-Taster to alderman to bailiff, the highest public office in Stratford ("Shakespeare's Family", par. 1). His mother was born Mary Arden, who was the daughter of a well-to-do landowner of a lesser aristocratic family ("Shakespeare's Family", par. 3). Interestingly, the family gave its name to the nearby Forest of Arden, which turns up in As You Like It ("Shakespeare's Family", par. 3).
William’s father, John Shakespeare married Mary Arden in the year 1557. “John and Mary Shakespeare’s first two children, Joan and Margaret, died as babies. Such early death was not unusual because there was no protection against childhood illnesses . It is remarkable that their next child, William, survived” (Greenhill and Wignall 5). It is estimated that William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. William was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford-upon-Avon is a famous tourist attraction today. Hundreds of thousands of people visit Stratford every year to view William’s birthplace, death place, and grave. “William was born when the plague was raging in Stratford. That year nearly fifteen percent of the town’s population died of the killer disease” (Greenhill and Wignall 5). When William was about six he was sent to the King’s New School. The King’s New School was a grammar school. “The school day in the 1500s was long and hard” (Greenhill and Wignall 5). School began as early as six in the morning and ended at five in the afternoon. There were eight hours of teaching in a day and the school day began and ended with prayers. “Schoolwork at the g...
"Anne Hutchinson: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article." AbsoluteAstronomy.com. Encycloedia. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .
“Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford – upon – Avon to his parents John and Mary Shakespeare. He was the third of seven children, in which three of them died. ” (Shakespeare’s Life) Shakespeare attended Stratford’s grammar school, and after he left married Anne Hathaway. During his marriage, “Shakespeare lived primarily in London (1592 to 1611) while his wife Anne Hathaway live in Stratford – upon – Avon, about 100 miles away.” (k12) Together they had three kids, Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. Only Susanna and Judith lived to older ages, while Hamnet his only son died at a young age. (Shakespeare’s Life)
Queen Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, had a pretty rough time. After “marrying” Queen Elizabeth’s father, Henry VII, she became the queen. Soon after she became pregnant, everyone was preparing for the little prince, Prince Edward, but whenever Anne Boleyn’s due date came she had a little girl, Princess Elizabeth. After many failed attempts at conceiving, the king became angry and started to think of a way to end their marriage. With the help of a few of Anne’s enemies at court, King Henry started an investigation. Anne was eventually arrested on the charges of adultery, incest, and plotting to murder the king. With limited evidence, she was found guilty and sentenced to death by beheading. On May 19th, Anne was privately executed.
William Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564. Ironically, it is on the same date, just 52 years later that he dies. William had 6 other siblings, of which he was the third oldest. Their names were Joan, Margaret, Gilbert, Joan, Anne, Richard, and Edmund. The first Joan, Margaret, and Anne all died when they were very young. The Shakespeares lived in Stratford, England for the first 20 years of his life, where his father was a key part in the community. William Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, was a member of the yeoman class. His mother Mary Arden was of the gentry, a higher social class. At this time it was normal for a woman to marry beneath her social ranking, and for a man to marry someone higher than him (Boyce, “Shakespeare…”).
Shakespeare was said to be born on April 23, 1564, to John Shakespeare, “a glove maker and a trader of farm produce who also worked on the city council”()and Mary Arden, “the daughter of a land owner from a neighboring village,”(). He was baptised in the Trinity Church of Stratford where he eventually was laid to rest. His lifespan was within the time of the Renaissance. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18 and had a daughter Susan and then two years later they had twins together. At 27 he decided to take a trip to London in hopes of discovering his dream as a theatrical playwright.
William Shakespeare is clouded with mystery. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England in 1564. "Although his exact birth date is not know, there is a record of his baptism on April 26, 1954" (Kay 13). "His date of birth would have fallen shortly before that day is traditionally considered to be April 23, 1954" (Campbell and Quinn 755). He was born to John Shakespeare and his wife, Mary Arden and was the oldest of three sons. He also had four sisters. "Little is known of Shakespeare's early life, although it is likely that he received an education at the good local grammar school" (Lawall 2110). Other than that, there really is not much known about Shakespeare's youth. The next concrete piece of evidence about Shakespeare's life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November 1582, when he was just eighteen years old. It was a marriage of inconvenience. Anne was eight years older than he was and pregnant at the time so they had no choice but to marry. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583 and twins Hamnet and Judith were born in 1585. Sha...
He went to a grammar school in his town. You would think that a man as talented and as majestic as William Shakespeare would have at least gone to university, however, Shakespeare instead of attending university, had to help his father in his work because of financial problems . In fact, William’s family were all uneducated.
So to conclude, we can safely agree with most academics that William Shakespeare did exist and that he did indeed write the 37 plays and 154 sonnets credited to him.
William Shakespeare, an English actor and play write, was born in Stratford upon Avon on April 23, 1564. When he was 18 he married Anne Hathaway, a Stratford woman, who was 26 years old. Shakespeare and Hathaway had three children. The first was Susanna and the twins were Hamnet and Judith. Another of Shakespeare's great works of art, Hamnet, was named after Hamnet. Juliet, in Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet, was named after Judith. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1601. There are many events that contributed to Romeo and Juliet's deaths. These events are either fate or coincidence.
"William Shakespeare [ at the age 18 ] married Anne Hathaway [ who was 26 ] on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province" (William Shakespeare Biography). Their first child was, a daughter who was named Susanna, born on May 26, 1583. They had twins, Hamnet and Judith, two years later on February 2, 1585. "After the birth of the twins, there are seven years of William Shakespeare's life where no record exist" (William Shakespeare Biography). A tragedy stuck this family when Hamnet died at the age of eleven due to an unknown cause. " In 1597 he was able to purchase a large house, New Place, in his native town" (Encyclopedia International).