In Essex, Hedingham Castle possesses one of the finest Norman keeps in England, the seat of the great de Vere family, Earls of Oxford. In Tudor times, this castle was at the heart of the power of one of the oldest noble houses in the realm — and saw the birth of a poet whom some believe to be the true author of the works of Shakespeare.
The seat of the Earls of Oxford
The keep of Hedingham, raised around 1140, is a Romanesque masterpiece: over 21 metres high, walls 3 metres thick, a magnificent arch on the noble floor. It was the seat of the de Veres, Earls of Oxford, one of the oldest and most prestigious families of the English aristocracy. John de Vere, 13th Earl, played a decisive role at Bosworth (1485), where he commanded the vanguard of Henry Tudor's army; victorious, he fully recovered the castle after the fall of Richard III. Hedingham then received Henry VII (1498) and, it is said, Elizabeth I (1561): it was a place of power in the front rank of the Tudor period.
The poet Edward de Vere
In 1550, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was born at Hedingham — a brilliant courtier and recognised poet of Elizabeth's court. His name is today famous for another reason: he is the candidate most often advanced by the supporters of the anti-Stratfordian theories, who dispute that the man of Stratford wrote the works of Shakespeare and attribute them to Oxford. This thesis, very much a minority among historians, nonetheless makes Hedingham a place of the Shakespearean mystery. To see: the Norman keep (over 21 m, walls 3 m, one of the finest in England), the arch of the great floor, the Tudor/Georgian brick bridge and the park.
Did you know?
When Henry VII came to Hedingham in 1498, the 13th Earl of Oxford deployed to welcome him a crowd of servants in his livery. Now a royal law forbade precisely the keeping of such private retinues (the 'livery and maintenance'). The king, it is said, thanked his host with a line that has remained famous: 'Thank you for your good cheer, my lord, but I may not endure to have my laws broken before my eyes' — and fined him heavily. The earl's generosity cost him dear.
Notes
Hedingham Castle lies at Castle Hedingham, Essex; castle and park open to the public seasonally. Hours to check.
Quiz
- Which family was seated at Hedingham?
- The de Veres, Earls of Oxford
- The Howards
- The Boleyns
- Which Earl of Oxford commanded the vanguard at Bosworth?
- John de Vere, 13th Earl
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl
- Robert Devereux
- Why is Edward de Vere (born 1550) famous today?
- He is a candidate for the 'real Shakespeare'
- He discovered America
- He was pope