De Vere/Shakespeare

Scholars have debated who wrote the plays, sonnets and longer poems published under the name Shakespeare. The conventional understanding is that a gentleman from Stratford with the first name William and a last name similar to Shakespeare wrote these works. For a variety of reasons, this understanding makes little sense. The most likely author of the works is Edward De Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford. The evidence is in the close relationship between the life of Edward de Vere, and the content of the plays, sonnets and longer poems. This site assumes that Edward de Vere wrote the works, and in defense of this conclusion, will include the following products:

• Who was Edward de Vere? To get a fuller understanding of his life, see Chronology of the Life of Edward De Vere.
• What do the works of William Shakespeare tell us about the author of these works? To what extent is the information about the author of these works reflected in the life of Edward de Vere? If one starts from the premise that Edward de Vere wrote the works of William Shakespeare, what additional information do we gather about Edward de Vere, and what additional information do we gather about the works themselves? These questions are addressed in the following sections:
  • Edward De Vere and the Plays of Shakespeare.
  • Edward De Vere and the Sonnets of Shakespeare.
  • Edward De Vere and the Long Poems of Shakespeare.
• The case for Edward de Vere as the author of the works of Shakespeare requires that two issues be addressed:
  • If Edward de Vere was the author of the works of William Shakespeare, how did history get it wrong? This question is addressed in The Historical Error.
  • To determine whether Edward de Vere or the Stratfordian wrote the works of William Shakespeare, it is essential to compare both cases according to all the relevant issues. This is done in De Vere versus the Stratfordian.

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