title: Père David's deer

text: Historically, the main predators of the Père David's deer are believed to have been tigers and leopards. Although they no longer encounter these predators while living in captivity, while experimenting with exposures to images and stimuli relating to these big cats, the deer seemed to instinctively react with a cautious predator-prey response typical of wild deer.


title: Père David's deer

text: In Neolithic times, the "milu"'s range extended across much of China Proper. Archaeologists have found "milu" antlers at settlements from the Liao River in the north to Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province and across the Yellow and Yangtze River Basins in Shaanxi and Hunan Province. According to official data, the total population of the species has exceeded 8,000 in China. "Milu" is also under first-class state protection in China. In 1985, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) was established to help receive 22 Père David's deer from the Marquess of Tavistock of Woburn Abbey, England as a gift to return to their ancestral soil.


title: Père David's deer

text: In the late 19th century, the world's only herd belonged to Tongzhi, the Emperor of China. The herd was maintained in the Nanyuan Royal Hunting Garden in Nan Haizi, near Peking. In 1895, one of the walls of the hunting garden was destroyed by a heavy flood of the Yongding River, and most of the deer escaped and some of them were killed and eaten by starving peasants. Fewer than thirty Père David's Deer remained in the garden. Then in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, the garden was occupied by troops from the German Empire and all the remaining deer were shot and eaten by the soldiers, leaving the Père David's deer extirpated in its native China. A few of the deer had been legally obtained by the French and British Missions in Beijing and transported to various European zoos for exhibition and breeding. After the extirpation of the Chinese population in 1900, the English nobleman Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, was instrumental in saving the species. He acquired the few remaining deer from European zoos and formed a breeding herd in the deer park at his home at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Threatened again by both World Wars, the species survived largely due to the efforts of Bedford and his son Hastings, later 12th Duke of Bedford. The current world population, now found in zoos around the world, stems from the Woburn Abbey herd. Only three founders (1 male, two females) from the Berlin Zoo contributed to the current population of more than 5,000.


title: Père David's deer

text: Reintroduction of Père David's deer to China began in 1985, with a herd of 20 deer (5 males and 15 females). This was followed in 1987 by a second herd, consisting of 18 deer (all females). Both herds had been drawn from the Woburn Abbey herd and were donated by Robin Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (d. 2003) (the future 14th Duke of Bedford), the 11th duke's great-grandson. In 2005 the Beijing authorities erected a statue of the 14th duke at Nan Haizi to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Milu reintroduction. The transportation was sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. The relic site of the Nanyuan (or Nan Haizi) Royal Hunting Garden in the southern suburbs of Beijing was chosen as the site of re-introduction, creating the Beijing Milu Park. The population in China expanded to around 2,000 in 2005.


title: Père David's deer

text: A second re-introduction into China was conducted in 1986 where 36 Père David's deer were chosen from five UK zoological gardens with the bulk of the deer coming from Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire. These deer were introduced into Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve, near the Yellow Sea coast in eastern China. In 2006 the population at this Nature Reserve had reached around 950 with an average annual population increase of 17%.


title: Père David's deer

text: Of 1993, 30 deer taken from the herd at Beijing Milu Park were released into the Tian'ezhou Milu National Nature Reserve (a.k.a. Shishou Milu National Nature Reserve) in , Shishou. These were followed by another 34 deer taken from Beijing Park and released into the Tian'ezhou Reserve. In a 1998 flood, a number of deer escaped from the reserve and have since been living and multiplying in the wild. As of 2015, the number of deer living in the wild is 700. The average annual population growth rate for Père David's deer in Tianezhou Nature Reserve was 22.2%.


title: Père David's deer

text: In 2002, 30 deer taken from the herd at Beijing Milu Park and 20 from Dafeng Nature Reserve were released into the Yuanyang Yellow River Nature Reserve.


title: Père David's deer

text: When the species was assessed for the IUCN Red List (1996), it was classified as "critically endangered" in the wild, under criterion "D": "[wild] population estimated to number less than 50 mature individuals". In October 2008, they were officially listed as extinct in the wild. Upon the status being updated in March 2016, it was clarified on this species' IUCN Red List page that it would remain listed as "Extinct in the Wild" until the reintroduced population proved long-term viability. Today, there are 53 herds of Père David's deer in China. Nine of the herds consist of 25 or under deer, and the remaining herds have under 10 deer. Due to the small population size a lack of genetic diversity is expected, but in spite of the small population size, the animals do not appear to suffer genetic problems from the genetic bottleneck. The captive population in China has increased in recent years, and the possibility remains that free-ranging populations can be reintroduced in the near future.


title: Père David's deer

text: When reintroduced into their habitat, the species could face many problems due to years in captivity. Relaxed selection and reproduction with no environmental pressure may have taken place for Père David's deer, due to captive breeding, which can result in the loss of adaptive anti-predator behavior. It is possible that when fully released in the environment from captivity, after generations of offspring, the species could be unable to retain parasite-defense behaviors like grooming. If the population is reintroduced into the environment with no protection against tick infestation, then they can face major problems if not adapted to that environment. Père David's deer may also become confused by other predators such as tigers, since they are no longer adapted to them. A study was done on members of the species in captivity using the sounds of tigers roaring and dogs barking, and the deer did not respond to the barking of the dogs, but hearing the tiger roar caused the deer to spend more time being cautious after hearing the sound, thus showing that the deer still retained ancestral memories of their previous predator, the tiger.


title: Père David's deer

text: Though New Zealand lacked its own terrestrial mammals, European settlers had introduced numerous species of deer into the land for the use of farming and hunting. Some of these deer species had crossbred in the wild, creating hybrids, which in turn were then utilized in deer farms based on their apparent genetic improvements. Alongside this discovery, deer farms began the practice of inciting hybridization in order to encourage genetic advancement. This includes a hybrid between Père David's deer and Red deer. These F1 hybrids are unique for several reasons. To begin with, both male and female offspring of this hybrid remain fertile, a rare prospect especially for species that have such a genetic distance. Both species differ in seasonal behaviors, gestation length, behavioral traits, morphology, maturity size, and disease resistance. Père David's deer is also unique in that its antlers are unlike any other deer in the world. However, due to having different seasonal behavior each species would enter their mating season at different intervals, thus preventing natural mating from occurring. In response, artificial insemination was employed on Red deer hinds with the semen from Père David's deer. These F1 hybrids did not share similar mating seasons with Père David's deer and as such were able to successfully mate with other red deer naturally. Three F1 hybrid stags successfully mated naturally in a period from 1989 to 1991 with 144 hinds and semen had been used to artificially inseminate 114 other Red deer hinds producing over 300 backcross hybrids.


title: Père David's deer

text: According to Chinese legend, when the tyrant King Zhou of Shang ruled the land more than 3,000 years ago, a horse, a donkey, an ox and a deer went into a cave in the forest to meditate and on the day the King executed his minister Bigan, the animals awoke from their meditation and turned into humans. They entered society, learned of the King's heinous acts and wanted to take recourse against the King, who was powerful. So they transformed themselves into one creature that combined the speed of the horse, the strength of the ox, the donkey's keen sense of direction and the nimble agility of the deer. This new animal then galloped to the Kunlun Mountains to seek the advice of the Primeval Lord of Heaven. The Lord was astonished at the sight of a creature that had antlers of a deer, hooves of an ox, face of a horse and tail of a donkey. "It's unlike any of four creatures!" he exclaimed. Upon learning of the animal's quest, Lord gave his blessing and dispatched the creature to his disciple the sage Jiang Ziya, who was battling the King. Jiang Ziya rode the creature to victory over the King and helped found the Zhou Dynasty. After fulfilling its vow, the "milu" settled in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The animal became a symbol of good fortune and was sought by later emperors who believed eating the meat of the "milu" would lead to everlasting life.


title: Verna Bloom

text: On Broadway, Bloom portrayed Charlotte Corday in "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade" (1967) and Blanche Morton in "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1983). She made her film debut in "Medium Cool", and then co-starred in Clint Eastwood's 1973 film, "High Plains Drifter" and in the 1974 made-for-TV movie "Where Have All The People Gone?" with Peter Graves and Kathleen Quinlan. Bloom also had roles in more than 30 films and television episodes beginning the 1960s, including playing Mary, mother of Jesus, in "The Last Temptation of Christ" in 1988 and Marion Wormer in "Animal House" in 1978.


title: Verna Bloom

text: Bloom was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and attended the School of Fine Arts at Boston University, graduating with a BFA in 1959. She also studied at the HB Studio in New York City.


title: Verna Bloom

text: Bloom married Richard Collier, but they separated by 1969. They began the Trident Theater in Denver Colorado, which operated from 1963 to 1965. In 1972 she married film critic Jay Cocks. They had a son, Sam, born in 1981. The couple remained married until her death.


title: Jes Macallan

text: Jes Macallan is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Josslyn Carver in ABC drama series "Mistresses" and Ava Sharpe in The CW superhero comedy-drama "Legends of Tomorrow".


title: Jes Macallan

text: Jes Macallan is an actor and director. Before her series regular role in the Arrowverse dramedy superhero show, Legends of Tomorrow (Netflix), which ran for seven seasons, Macallan starred in ABC's hit drama series, "Mistresses" (Hulu), with Alyssa Milano, which ran for four seasons. A few of her numerous other credits, she also starred in the pilot "Crash and Burn", executive produced by Tony Hawk, as well as the digital film series, "Relationship Status", executive produced by Milo Ventimiglia and StyleHaul, which was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival with critical accolades.


title: Jes Macallan

text: As an episodic director, she went on to direct two highly ambitious, VFX/SPFX heavy episodes of Legends of Tomorrow. Following a recent series wrap on Legends of Tomorrow, Macallan went on to direct episodes of "All Rise" for OWN/Warner Bros Television, and "All American" for The CW/Warner Bros Television


title: Jes Macallan

text: In retrospect, early on in her acting career, she was inclined to pursue her ever-present passion for directing and she began shadowing veteran directors she admired. In 2016, with a non-existent budget, she wrote, produced, and directed her short film "Self, E" as a directorial sample piece. Upon submission to a few select festivals, the film was accepted and well received. The Dances with Films Festival held a screening of the short at the famous TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The film, as well a cohesive application, secured Macallan's admittance to the highly competitive Warner Bros. Television Directors Workshop. She is a proud graduate of the class of 2019.


title: Jes Macallan

text: Macallan's artistic journey in the performing arts started early as she began dancing at the age of three. She studied classically into her twenties, with a rigorous syllabus including modern, jazz, ballet, pointe, tap, and musical theater, with a well rounded focus on all forms of dance and expression. Throughout her decades of classical training, she participated in master classes with legends such as Luigi, Mia Michaels, and Eddy Toussaint. She studied endless variations of dance techniques, including those of Fosse, Graham, Ailey, Tharpe, Cunningham, and Balanchine to name a few.


title: Jes Macallan

text: She earned a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with a focus on International Marketing from the University of Florida. During her studies she traveled to Europe often, immersing herself in her passions for European culture and language, especially Italian. Her degree includes a study abroad term at the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. While on her academic path she also took the opportunity she was offered to model in Miami, New York, and Milan. She later studied acting in Los Angeles and moved to New York City to attend the highly regarded, Meisner intensive acting program at the conservatory-based Maggie Flanigan Studio.


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: Roger Clinton Jr. (born July 25, 1956) is an American actor and musician. He is primarily known for being the younger half-brother of former United States President Bill Clinton.


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: Roger Clinton Jr. is the only child of car salesman Roger Clinton Sr. and nurse Virginia Dell Cassidy. As a child, Bill Clinton (then Bill Blythe) often had to protect young Roger from his father, an abusive alcoholic. He became a musician and formed a rock band named "Dealer's Choice."


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: Clinton has had minor roles in several films, including "Bio-Dome" and "Fred Claus," and guest-starred on a number of television shows, including "The Nanny" as himself (neighbor), "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch", and "Cybill". He also provided the voice of his half-brother, President Bill Clinton, in the pilot episode of "The Blues Brothers: The Animated Series".


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: Clinton developed his singing career under the direction of Arkansas music impresario and manager Butch Stone. He gained professional experience by singing warm-ups for the studio audiences at tapings of the sitcom "Designing Women", as well as by working as a lounge singer. As a result of a deal struck by Stone and music-industry attorney Stann Findelle, Clinton was initially contracted to Atlantic Records in 1992. His first album, "Nothing Good Comes Easy", was released in September 1993 on the Pyramid/Atlantic/Rhino label. In December 1999, Clinton and his band paid a visit to Pyongyang, performing alongside North and South Korean musical acts. He has played Farm Aid, and sang "Feelin' Alright" in Cleveland during "The Cleveland Funeral", a program produced as a part of "The Howard Stern Show".


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: From a brief relationship with Martha Spivey, he has a daughter named Macy (b. 1992). Clinton married Molly D'Ann Martin on March 26, 1994. Their son, Tyler Cassidy Clinton, was born on May 12, 1994.


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: During his brother's presidential campaign and subsequent administration, Clinton was given the codename "Headache" by the Secret Service due to his controversial behavior. Clinton attracted negative media attention in 2001 when it was revealed that he had accepted $50,000 and a Rolex watch in 1999 from the children of Sicilian mobster Rosario Gambino, a convicted narcotics trafficker and Gambino crime family member serving a 49-year sentence, in exchange for lobbying his brother to pardon Gambino. Clinton repeatedly visited the federal parole commission headquarters to advocate for Gambino. In 1999, Gambino was included in a list of potential pardons, but he was ultimately not granted one. In January 2001, before his brother left office, Clinton was granted a controversial presidential pardon for a 1985 cocaine possession and drug-trafficking conviction. Roger Clinton Jr. had served time in federal prison after being convicted following a sting operation of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: Roger Clinton pleaded guilty in August 2001 to a misdemeanor count of reckless driving after Hermosa Beach, California, city prosecutors agreed to drop two driving-under-the-influence (DUI) charges and one count of disturbing the peace against him. He was sentenced then to two years' probation, ordered not to drive with any alcohol or drugs in his system and to pay about $1,350 in fines and costs.


title: Roger Clinton Jr.

text: On June 5, 2016, Roger Clinton was arrested for DUI in the seaside city of Redondo Beach, about south of downtown Los Angeles, California. Since it had been more than ten years since his first DUI, according to California state law, this arrest was also treated as a first-time DUI. Clinton pleaded no contest to the charge of driving while impaired. The charge of driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or higher was dismissed. As part of his plea agreement, he was sentenced to three years' probation for the DUI, and two days in jail for refusing a chemical test. He was ordered to pay a $390 fine (which increased to nearly $2,000 when penalty assessments, court fees, and other fines were added) and was also ordered to attend a nine-month alcohol program—the most a first-time offender can get—because his blood alcohol content measured 0.230% and 0.237% in a preliminary alcohol screening. In addition, because his arrest occurred in Los Angeles County, under the terms of Assembly Bill 91, the California Department of Motor Vehicles also required that he install an ignition interlock device in all vehicles he owned for a minimum of 5 months.


title: Ringo Starr discography

text: English musician Ringo Starr has released twenty studio albums and forty-six singles. Starr achieved international fame as a member of British rock band the Beatles. When the band broke up in 1970, Starr embarked on a solo career. Along with the other Beatles, he spent the first half of the 1970s on Apple Records, the label created by the band for themselves. Starr moved to Atlantic Records after his contract with EMI expired and his career diminished in commercial impact, even though he continued to record and eventually tour with his All-Starr Band in 1989.


title: Concertina wire

text: Concertina wire or Dannert wire is a type of barbed wire or razor wire that is formed in large coils which can be expanded like a concertina. In conjunction with plain barbed wire (and/or razor wire/tape) and steel pickets, it is most often used to form military-style wire obstacles. It is also used in non-military settings, such as when used in prison barriers, detention camps, riot control, or at international borders.


title: Concertina wire

text: During World War I, soldiers manufactured concertina wire themselves, using ordinary barbed wire. Today, it is factory made.


title: Concertina wire

text: In World War I, barbed wire obstacles were made by stretching lengths of barbed wire between stakes of wood or iron. At its simplest, such a barrier would resemble a fence as might be used for agricultural purposes. The double apron fence comprised a line of pickets with wires running diagonally down to points on the ground either side of the fence. Horizontal wires were attached to these diagonals.


title: Concertina wire

text: More elaborate and formidable obstructions could be formed with multiple lines of stakes connected with wire running from side-to-side, back-to-front, and diagonally in many directions. Effective as these obstacles were, their construction took considerable time.


title: Concertina wire

text: Barbed wire obstacles were vulnerable to being pushed about by artillery shells; in World War I, this frequently resulted in a mass of randomly entangled wires that could be even more daunting than a carefully constructed obstacle. Learning this lesson, World War I soldiers would deploy barbed wire in so-called concertinas that were relatively loose. Barbed wire concertinas could be prepared in the trenches and then deployed in no-man's-land relatively quickly under cover of darkness.


title: Concertina wire

text: Concertina wire packs flat for ease of transport and can then be deployed as an obstacle much more quickly than ordinary barbed wire, since the flattened coil of wire can easily be stretched out, forming an instant obstacle that will at least slow enemy passage. Several such coils with a few stakes to secure them in place are just as effective as an ordinary barbed wire fence, which must be built by driving stakes and running multiple wires between them.


title: Concertina wire

text: A platoon of soldiers can deploy a single concertina fence at a rate of about a kilometer ( mile) per hour. Such an obstacle is not very effective by itself (although it will still hinder an enemy advance under the guns of the defenders), and concertinas are normally built up into more elaborate patterns as time permits.


title: Concertina wire

text: Today, concertina wire is factory made and is available in forms that can be deployed very rapidly from the back of a vehicle or trailer.


title: Concertina wire

text: Oil-tempered barbed wire was developed during World War I; it was much harder to cut than ordinary barbed wire. During the 1930s, German Horst Dannert developed concertina wire of this high-grade steel wire. The result was entirely self-supporting; it did not require any vertical posts. An individual Dannert wire concertina could be compressed into a compact coil that could be carried by one man and then stretched out along its axis to make a barrier long and each coil could be held in place with just three staples hammered into the ground.


title: Concertina wire

text: Dannert wire was imported into Britain from Germany before World War II. During the invasion crisis of 1940–1941, the demand for Dannert wire was so great that some was produced with low manganese steel wire which was easier to cut. This material was known as "Yellow Dannert" after the identifying yellow paint on the concertina handles. To compensate for the reduced effectiveness of Yellow Dannert, an extra supply of pickets were issued in lieu of screw pickets.


title: Concertina wire

text: A barrier known as a triple concertina wire fence consists of two parallel concertinas joined by twists of wire and topped by a third concertina similarly attached. The result is an extremely effective barrier with many of the desirable properties of a random entanglement. A triple concertina fence could be deployed very quickly: it is possible for a party of five men to deploy of triple concertina fence in just 15 minutes. Optionally, triple concertina fence could be strengthened with uprights, but this increases the construction time significantly.


title: Concertina wire

text: Concertina wire is sometimes mistakenly called "constantine" wire. "Constantine" probably came from a corruption/misunderstanding of "concertina" and led to confusion with the Roman Emperor Constantine. This, in turn, has led to some people trying to differentiate between concertina wire and "constantine" wire by assigning the term "constantine wire" to what is commonly known as razor wire. In contrast to the helical construction of concertina wire, razor wire, or less commonly, "constantine wire", consists of a single wire with teeth that project periodically along its length.


title: Coutts

text: Coutts & Co. is a London-headquartered private bank and wealth manager. Founded in 1692, it is the eighth oldest bank in the world. Today, Coutts forms part of NatWest Group's wealth management division. In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, Coutts Crown Dependencies operates as a trading name of The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited. In 2021, Coutts achieved B-Corp Status becoming only the 3rd UK bank to achieve the certification.


title: Coutts

text: The bank which was to become Coutts & Co, was originally a goldsmith-banker's shop. It was formed in 1692 by a young Scots goldsmith-banker, John Campbell of Lundie, Scotland. He set up business in the Strand, London, under a sign of the Three Crowns, as was customary in the days before street numbers. Today, the Coutts logo still has the three crowns, and its headquarters is still on the Strand.


title: Coutts

text: Campbell died in 1712, leaving the business to members of his family. The dominant force was Campbell's son in law, George Middleton, who had become Campbell's partner in 1708. During Middleton's stewardship, the bank was buffeted by one crisis after another. The Jacobite rising of 1715 threatened the stability of the banking system; and John Law, the Comptroller of France's finances, owed a great deal of money to the bank when the Mississippi Company bubble burst in 1720 and the English stock market collapsed in the same year. Stability for the bank did not return until 1735. John's son, George Campbell was also a partner, and ultimately became the sole partner after the death of Middleton in 1747, after which the bank was renamed the "Bankers of 59 Strand".


title: Coutts

text: In 1755, John Campbell's granddaughter, Mary (known as "Polly"), married a merchant and banker, James Coutts. Polly was George Campbell's niece and George immediately made James a partner. The bank became known as Campbell & Coutts, with James running the business and becoming sole partner following Polly's and George's deaths in 1760. George bequeathed most of his fortune, and the bank, to James.


title: Coutts

text: In 1761 James took his brother Thomas Coutts into the business, which was now named James and Thomas Coutts.


title: Coutts

text: James and Thomas did not always get on and eventually James drifted into politics, leaving the running of the bank to Thomas. James retired from the bank in 1775 due to ill health. The bank in the Strand became known as Thomas Coutts & Co.


title: Coutts

text: The bank flourished under the lead of Thomas, who took in three partners: Sir Edmund Antrobus (1st Baronet), Edward Marjoribanks and Coutts Trotter. In the final decade of the 18th century, the premises at 59 Strand were significantly extended, and profits rose from £9,700 in 1775 to £72,000 in 1821. Edmund Antrobus, who started at Coutts as a lowly clerk, was taken into partnership in 1777. The bank on the Strand was substantially rebuilt between 1780 and 1790, employing the King's Master Mason, John Deval.


title: Coutts

text: By the time he died in 1826 he had been made a baronet, and he left a fortune estimated at £700,000 with newly-acquired estates at Amesbury (Wilts) and Rutherford (Roxburghshire).


title: Coutts

text: Thomas Coutts married twice. His first wife, a servant named Susannah Starkie, gave him three daughters nicknamed "The Three Graces" who eventually married leading figures in British society: the Earl of Guilford, the Marquess of Bute and Sir Francis Burdett. Thomas also had four sons who died in infancy. When Susannah died, he remarried just four days after the funeral. Thomas Coutts was 80 years old, and his new wife, Harriot Mellon, was 40 years younger and an actress, which stirred considerable comment. On Thomas' death in 1822 the bank was renamed "Coutts & Co."


title: Coutts

text: Thomas' widow, Harriot, inherited £900,000 from Thomas along with a 50% share in the bank. Although she did not get on with her stepdaughters, she wanted to keep the bank in the Coutts family. Harriot died in 1837. In her will, the Coutts fortune was passed on to Thomas' granddaughter, Angela Burdett, the daughter of Sophia Coutts and Sir Francis Burdett. The will contained three conditions: first, Angela's 50% share in the bank must be held in trust; second, the heir must take the name Coutts; and third, the heir must never marry a foreigner.


title: Coutts

text: Upon receipt of her inheritance, Angela Burdett-Coutts became the wealthiest woman in Britain. She devoted her life to philanthropy, giving away an estimated amount of between £3 million and £4 million. Her charity ranged widely: she supported the Church of England and its Anglican offshoots overseas, as well as the arts, but the main thrust of her charity was directed toward improving the lives of the poor. A sewing school in Spitalfields, cotton gins in what is now Nigeria, boats and nets for the Irish fishing industry, and ragged schools in the poorest sections of cities were but a few of her projects. Gladstone, the Prime Minister, and Queen Victoria resolved to acknowledge her philanthropic spirit formally.


title: Coutts

text: In 1871, she was granted a peerage in her own right as "Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield in the County of Middlesex." In 1880, it became known that the baroness wished to marry her young American secretary William Ashmead-Bartlett, who was her junior by thirty-seven years. The partners of the bank were aghast at the prospect of such a marriage, as were many dignitaries; they saw Bartlett as an adventurer, only interested in her money. Archibald Tait, the Archbishop of Canterbury, attempted to prevent the marriage, while Queen Victoria herself, with whom the Baroness had often dined, tried to prevent what she called the "mad marriage". The Queen wrote to Lord Harrowby saying that it would grieve her much "if Lady Burdett-Coutts were to sacrifice her high reputation and her happiness by such an unsuitable marriage". This letter was passed on to Lady Burdett-Coutts, who asked Lord Harrowby to reply that he had no knowledge of the subject alluded to—quite a snub to the Queen. One potential stumbling block to the marriage was her step-grandmother's (Harriot's) will which forbade marriage to an alien. As Bartlett was an American, the marriage would cause her to be disinherited. In that event, her younger sister Clara would inherit. Angela Burdett-Coutts managed to get Clara to waive her rights. Clara's son Francis (known as Frank) was not, however, so easily dissuaded, and consulted his lawyers, thinking to forestall the marriage by standing on their rights. Finally Bartlett himself, in the face of immense pressure from society, offered to release the baroness from his offer of marriage. She, however, remained determined, refusing to release Bartlett from his promise, in spite of various scandalous accusations being made against him involving another woman, and even his fathering of an illegitimate child.


title: Coutts

text: In February 1881, at the age of 67, Angela Burdett-Coutts broke the terms of the will by marrying Bartlett in Christ Church, Down Street, Piccadilly. The partners of the bank rushed to reassure the press that the heiress was neither a partner in the bank, nor could she touch the capital. An argument sprang up over the inheritance and, in particular, over whether Angela should give up the bank to her sister Clara. Angela fought back, claiming that Bartlett was only half American and therefore not technically an "alien". Clara then claimed the fortune, and the bitter dispute continued. In anticipation of victory, Clara and her son Frank took the name "Coutts", as required by the will. Finally, a compromise was struck, with the majority of the Coutts fortune set to pass to Clara and her heirs. Angela Burdett-Coutts, however, kept two-fifths of the income until her death in 1906.


title: Coutts

text: On changing her name, Clara Burdett, who had married James Money in 1850, became Clara Burdett Money-Coutts. Her son Francis' full name became Francis Burdett Thomas Nevill Money-Coutts. He was better known as Francis (or Frank) Coutts, a writer and poet. He became 5th Baron Latymer in 1913 and died in 1923.


title: Coutts

text: The Panic of 1890 forced the bank to change from a partnership to an unlimited liability company in 1892. At that time, limited liability was seen by depositors as risky. As a partnership, the Coutts family would have been personally liable to any depositor for their bank deposit in a crisis, but there was no crisis. Despite this, there was little change in the organisation; the working partners were divided between managing and junior managing partners.


title: Coutts

text: In 1904, the bank moved to its current premises at 440, The Strand. In 1914, Coutts took over the bank of Robarts, Lubbock & Co. in the city, obtaining a branch office and a clearing house seat in the process.


title: Coutts

text: In 1919, Coutts merged with the National Provincial & Union Bank of England but retaining the Coutts & Co. name and board of directors.


title: Coutts

text: Throughout the 20th century, Coutts opened more branches. The first West End branch outside 440 Strand was opened in 1921 in Park Lane. Further London branches were opened in the West End (1921), Cavendish Square (1927), Sloane Street (1929), Mayfair (1932), London Wall (1962), Brompton Road (1975), and Kensington (1978).


title: Coutts

text: In 1961 the Bank first moved outside the capital, opening a branch at Eton, followed by a branch in Bristol in 1976.


title: Coutts

text: In 1969, National Provincial Bank (and its District Bank subsidiary) merged with Westminster Bank to form National Westminster Bank.


title: Coutts

text: Coutts embraced modern technology, becoming one of the first banks to bring in machine-posted ledgers at the end of the 1920s. In 1963 it was the first British bank to have a fully computerised accounting system. In 1987, Coutts gained international representation by establishing operations in Geneva, Switzerland.


title: Coutts

text: Between 1974 and 1978, Coutts' Strand headquarters were redeveloped by Frederick Gibberd and Partners.


title: Coutts

text: Francis Burdett Coutts's great grandson, Sir David Burdett Money-Coutts, became chairman in 1976, retiring in 1993, leaving his cousin Crispin Money-Coutts (heir to the title of Baron Latymer) as the last remaining Coutts name until his resignation.


title: Coutts

text: In October 1990, Coutts and NatWest decided to strengthen their representation internationally, and the Coutts Group was created when subsidiaries already owned by Coutts and NatWest were merged.


title: Coutts

text: In 2000, NatWest was purchased by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) in one of the largest corporate transactions in the European banking sector. RBS Group became NatWest Group in 2020.


title: Coutts

text: In 2003, Coutts acquired Zürich-based Bank von Ernst & Cie and in 2008, Coutts Bank von Ernst and other Coutts International subsidiaries became RBS Coutts Bank. These traded as RBS Coutts International to align them with the parent Group until 2011, when RBS Coutts was renamed Coutts & Co. Limited. The international division was renamed Coutts International


title: Coutts

text: Coutts International was sold to Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) of Switzerland on 29 March 2015, for an undisclosed figure. This was part of the Group's strategy to reduce the number of countries it operated in, in favour of a greater focus on the United Kingdom. Coutts' business in Europe, the Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong was to be transferred to UBP, who were required to rebrand the business.


title: Coutts

text: The bank's chief executive is Peter Flavel, who has been in the role since 2016. The company's board is chaired by Lord Waldegrave. Coutts non-executive directors are Mark Lund, Sharmila Nebhrajani, Linda Urquhart and Matt Waymark.


title: Coutts

text: The bank's headquarters are at 440 Strand, London. It closed its Canary Wharf, St Mary Axe, Cadogan Place and Fleet Street London offices in 2013, and closed Premier Place in London in 2017. Its current UK offices are listed on its Web site; there were offices in 17 cities in 2022.There were international offices in Zurich, Berne, Geneva, Hong Kong, Montevideo, Singapore, Dubai, Jersey, Isle of Man, Miami, Monaco and Cayman Islands until the sale of Coutts International in 2015.


title: Coutts

text: Until the 20th century Coutts was a clearing bank to the nobility and landed gentry, but then became a wealth manager to a wider range of clients, including entrepreneurs, entertainers, sportsmen, professionals, executives, lottery winners, and football players. The British Royal Family are notable clients; the bank was sometimes referred to as "the Queen's bank". There are stringent requirements to being accepted as a client, not just based on financial assets. In 2001 prospective clients needed at least £500,000 in disposable funds; in 2022 potential clients are asked "Are you looking to borrow £1m+?", or to use the bank's investment advisory services for assets over £1m+.


title: Coutts

text: Coutts often collaborates with British fashion designers, including previous designs for its distinctive credit and debit cards. In 2004, British fashion designer and Savile Row tailor Ozwald Boateng designed the super-premium Coutts World Charge Card, and in 2006 Stella McCartney was commissioned to design the Coutts Visa debit card. The card included a translucent Coutts logo which could only be seen if held up to the light.


title: Coutts

text: In 2013 Coutts replaced its purple 'World' charge card, which had been designed by Boateng, with the new 'Silk' Charge card. The silk design was inspired by the traditional Chinese wallpaper brought back by Britain's first ambassador to China, Earl Macartney in 1794, and presented to Thomas Coutts, which lines the walls of the boardroom at the Strand headquarters.


title: Coutts

text: In the early nineteenth century, Thomas Coutts became a shareholder of what became the Royal Opera House, and Coutts remains a Principal Benefactor. Coutts has been the principal sponsor of the non-commercial Royal Court Theatre, and has supported the annual London Design Festival.


title: Coutts

text: In March 2012 Coutts was fined £8.75m for breaches of money laundering rules after "serious" and "systemic" problems in handling the affairs of "politically exposed persons", customers entrusted with a prominent public function, requiring money-laundering checks. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Coutts because of an "unacceptable risk" that the bank could have been handling the proceeds of crime for a three-year period up to November 2010 after failing to properly deal with "politically exposed" customers.


title: Coutts

text: Following an industry-wide review in 2010, the FSA found that Coutts was not conducting robust-enough checks on such high-risk customers and was not monitoring relationships with them properly. The FSA reviewed a sample of 103 high-risk customer files, and identified deficiencies in 73 of them. The FSA's acting director of enforcement and financial crime, Tracey McDermott, said that "Coutts's failings were significant, widespread and unacceptable. Its conduct fell well below the standards we expect and the size of the financial penalty demonstrates how seriously we view its failures".


title: Coutts

text: Coutts's bonus system rewarded bankers for opening accounts, providing an incentive to bring in new business without too much scrutiny, and the bank's anti-money laundering team, required to identify high-risk customers, failed to identify enough "politically exposed persons". In two cases reviewed by the FSA, bankers did not conduct appropriate checks on the customers, and failed to identify serious criminal allegations against them. There were five cases where sources had provided "adverse intelligence" such as allegations of criminal activity, but all the accounts had been approved by Coutts.


title: Coutts

text: A spokesperson for Coutts said that there was no evidence that money laundering took place as a result of its deficient controls, and said that "We recognise our systems weren't totally adequate in the past and we've taken steps to improve these". Coutts would have been fined £12.5m if it had not agreed to settle at an early stage in the investigation.


title: Coutts

text: In November 2011 the Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Coutts £6.3m for mis-selling the American International Group (AIG) Enhanced Variable Rate Fund, which invested a significant proportion of its assets in riskier asset-backed securities, between December 2003 and September 2008. The FSA required Coutts to compensate all customers who suffered a loss due to its failings in selling AIG Life Premier Bonds. A run started on the fund following the late-2000s financial crisis.


title: Coutts

text: Coutts customers had £748m invested in the fund when it was suspended in September 2008, but were only allowed to withdraw half of their investment. Many transferred the remaining 50% to a non-interest-bearing recovery fund until July 2012. The FSA said Coutts failed by giving advisers inadequate training around the risks of the product. Coutts recommended the fund to some customers even though it might have exposed them to more capital risk than they were willing to accept, and many customers were advised to invest too large a proportion of their overall assets in the fund.


title: Coutts

text: Coutts agreed to settle at an early stage in exchange for a 30% discount on its fine, which would otherwise have been £9m.


title: Coutts

text: Coutts is mentioned in the 1889 Gilbert and Sullivan Savoy opera "The Gondoliers" in the following lyrics:


title: Coutts

text: Robert Louis Stevenson mentions Coutts in his 1886 classic novella "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" as being the bank of choice for Dr Jekyll: "...and presently came back with the matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on Coutts's drawn payable to bearer..."


title: Coutts

text: In the first episode of Michael Palin's "", Palin visits the bank to inquire about the safeguarding and ease of replacing money while on his trip. His bank manager suggests a code-word, which will alert a less knowledgeable member of his staff that Palin is indeed who he says he is, the code-word in question being Jabberwocky.


title: Coutts

text: In chapter three of Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula", Jonathan Harker lists the recipients of several of Dracula's letters in his journal, including: "... the third was to Coutts & Co., London".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honour, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an "impubes", or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of 2022).


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his "Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius", attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 23 July 1567, while practising fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a stillborn child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self-defence.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the "Æthiopian History" of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one-third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier at which, although he did not win, he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In January 1575 Elizabeth issued a licence to Oxford to travel, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, he entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In the second, to prevent his estates passing by default to his sister Mary in the event of his dying abroad without heirs, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that his new wife, Anne, was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way, his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "."


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled "Speculum Tuscanismi" and in "Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in the winter of 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell nor Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled "Plato, Axiochus".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: During the early 1580s, it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his "Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin", stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Meanwhile, the street brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to playwriting until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's "Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy", and John Southern's "Pandora". Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry was ultimately awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably, she was between one and three years of age.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion "Fisher's Folly" to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In the spring of 1591, the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants for his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In 1586 Angel Day dedicated "The English Secretary", the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his "Discourse of English Poetry". In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his "Palmerin d'Oliva". The following year "The Arte of English Poesie", attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface "The Faerie Queene", celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated "The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One" to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley; it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfil his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey:


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, , , and , are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th-century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's "Comforte" (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany "The Paradise of Dainty Devises". According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's was published in "The Phoenix Nest" (1593) and republished in "England's Helicon" (1600). appeared in "The Teares of Fancie" (1593). "Brittons Bowre of Delight" (1597) published under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's "The Arte of English Poesie" (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' "Palladis Tamia" (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 "The Compleat Gentleman".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s.


title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

text: The Oxfordian theory was the central theme of the 2011 film "Anonymous", directed by Roland Emerich and starring Rhys Ifans and Jamie Campbell Bower as Edward de Vere, and Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson as Queen Elizabeth I. The film has received some criticism for not being historically accurate in its entirety, with some aspects of the plot relating to dates of real events and their location, characters' relationships to one another and deaths being dramatized or displayed out of chronological order.


title: 6174 (number)

text: 6174 is known as Kaprekar's constant after the Indian mathematician D. R. Kaprekar. This number is renowned for the following rule:


title: 6174 (number)

text: The above process, known as Kaprekar's routine, will always reach its fixed point, 6174, in at most 7 iterations. Once 6174 is reached, the process will continue yielding 7641 – 1467 = 6174. For example, choose 1495:


title: 6174 (number)

text: The only four-digit numbers for which Kaprekar's routine does not reach 6174 are repdigits such as 1111, which give the result 0000 after a single iteration. All other four-digit numbers eventually reach 6174 if leading zeros are used to keep the number of digits at 4. For numbers with three identical numbers and a fourth number that is one number higher or lower (such as 2111), it is essential to treat 3-digit numbers with a leading zero; for example: 2111 – 1112 = 0999; 9990 – 999 = 8991; 9981 – 1899 = 8082; 8820 – 288 = 8532; 8532 – 2358 = 6174.


title: 6174 (number)

text: There can be analogous fixed points for digit lengths other than four; for instance, if we use 3-digit numbers, then most sequences (i.e., other than repdigits such as 111) will terminate in the value 495 in at most 6 iterations. Sometimes these numbers (495, 6174, and their counterparts in other digit lengths or in bases other than 10) are called "Kaprekar constants".


title: Term of office

text: A term of office, electoral term, or parliamentary term is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a defined limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject to re-election. Some jurisdictions exercise term limits, setting a maximum number of terms an individual may hold in a particular office.


title: Term of office

text: Being the origin of the Westminster system, aspects of the United Kingdom's system of government are replicated in many other countries.


title: Term of office

text: In the United Kingdom Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons are elected for the duration of the parliament. Following dissolution of the Parliament, a general election is held which consists of simultaneous elections for all seats. For most MPs this means that their terms of office are identical to the duration of the Parliament. An individual's term may be cut short by death or resignation. An MP elected in a by-election mid-way through a Parliament, regardless of how long they have occupied the seat, is not exempt from facing re-election at the next general election.


title: Term of office

text: The Septennial Act 1715 provided that a Parliament expired seven years after it had been summoned; this maximum period was reduced to five years by the Parliament Act 1911. Prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 parliaments had no minimum duration. Parliaments could be dissolved early by the monarch at the prime minister's request. Early dissolutions occurred when the make-up of Parliament made forming government impossible (as occurred in 1974), or, more commonly, when the incumbent government reasoned an early general election would improve their re-election chances (e.g. 2001). The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 mandated that Parliaments should last their full five years; early dissolution remained possible but under much more limited circumstances. However, the act was repealed in 2022 and replaced with the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, which restored the pre-2011 constitutional situation.