Shakespeare and the Countess
Subtitle: the battle that gave birth to the Globe
By: Chris Laoutaris
Edition: First Pegasus Books hardcover edition.
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 502
ISBN-13: 9781605987927
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Globe Theatre (London, England : 1599-1644); Friends and associates; Stage history; History
Description: "In November 1596, a woman signed a document that would nearly destroy the career of William Shakespeare. Who was this woman who played such an instrumental, yet little known, role in Shakespeare's life? Never far from controversy when she was alive--she sparked numerous riots and indulged in acts of breaking-and-entering, bribery, blackmail, kidnapping and armed combat--Lady Elizabeth Russell, the self-styled Dowager Countess of Bedford, has been edited out of public memory, yet the chain of events she set in motion would make Shakespeare the legendary figure we all know today. Lady Elizabeth Russell's extraordinary life made her one of the most formidable women of the Renaissance. The daughter of King Edward VI's tutor, she blazed a trail across Elizabethan England as an intellectual and radical Protestant. And, in November 1596, she became the leader of a movement aimed at destroying William Shakespeare's theatrical troupe--a plot that resulted in the closure of the Blackfriars Theatre but the construction, instead, of the Globe. Providing new pieces to this puzzle, Chris Laoutaris's rousing history reveals for the first time this startling battle against Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's Men."--Dust jacket.
Notes: Originally published: London : Fig Tree, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2014.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 467-482) and index.
Table of contents: title: A Blackfriars mystery; title: An education. A radical beginning ; The female university ; Monstrous regiments ; The ambassador's wife ; A widow's bed; title: Parliament woman. The War of Admonition ; Lady Russell ; Meet the neighbours ; The widow and the necromancer; title: Turf wars. The Arden Trail ; The Queen's soldier ; Closing ranks ; Sheriff and bailiff of the manor; title: The battle for Blackfriars. Building ambitions ; Shakespeare and Essex ; Detective Dowager ; 'my war between mine own flesh and blood' ; Shakespeare's Nemesis ; In the name of love; title: The birth of the Globe. Aftermath ; 'this distracted Globe' ; Wedding belles and rebels ; 'I'll be revenged ... ' ; 'from the stage to the State'; title: Shakespeare's Countess. The last stand for Donnington ; All's well that ends well; title: Afterlife of a murderess.