Hedingham Castle, built in 1140 by the first earl of Oxford Aubrey de Vere, has dipped a tentative toe in the slough of controversy that is the Shakespeare authorship question with a post yesterday on the Hedingham Castle blog titled, "Anonymous . . . that is the question?" The post begins:
With the release of the film “Anonymous” examining the theory that someone else could have written the Shakespeare plays, should in fact tourists be travelling to Hedingham Castle rather than Stratford –upon- Avon each year?That is a very good question -- a question that up until now has gone unasked by The Hedingham Partnership, a corporation that administers the historic site. The history of Hedingham on the castle's website demurely says only this about the "courtier poet", the seventeenth earl of Oxford Edward de Vere:
In 1561 Queen Elizabeth I aged twenty-eight stayed at Hedinham from August 14 -19th, and Edward, 17th Earl, became one of her favourites and was acclaimed to be the best of the courtier poets.While the Roland Emmerich film has given Hedingham administrators the courage to mention the ESS word, they are making no controversial claims; the blog entry concludes:
Shakespeare's work has shaped our language, education and society for the past 400 years and will continue to do so, but will we eber uncover the truth. A trip out to Hedingham Castle may well wet (sic) your taste buds for further insight into the conspiracy theory behind the works of Shakespeare.Well, it's a beginning.
See also:"Ambient offers wider view to Shakespeare tourists"
Resource:
http://www.hedinghamcastle.co.uk/blog/index.php/2011/10/anonymous-that-is-the-question/