It seems that much more was found beneath the attic boards than
usual. Fragments of medieval and Tudor texts had been carried up into the attic
by rats to use as nesting material. Fragments of high quality textiles might
have been within reach of the rodents because the women of the house used the
attic space for needlework and sewing. Centuries later, ping-pong balls settled
there. That fascinating list became a popular news story.
Edmund Bedingfeld received a royal patent from King Edward
IV, in 1482, giving him permission to build Oxburgh. It was the family seat of the main line of the
Bedingfeld family continuously from then until 1950 when it was put up for
auction by the then Sir Edmund Bedingfeld. Upon discovering that the hall was
to be demolished, Lady Bedingfeld purchased it back and donated it to the
National Trust.
The Bedingfeld patriarchs flourished, generally speaking, in
spite of the refusal of any of them to convert from Catholicism, and the resulting
ruinous fines and penalties that their dedication cost them. Before the attic
discovery, Oxburgh was already well
known for the hole built into its eastern tower in which priests were hidden during
Protestant monarchies beginning with King Edward’s reign.[2]
In a turret projecting from the east tower is a small closet
in the solid wall, measuring 6 feet long by 5, and 7 feet high, entered by a
trap door concealed in the pavement. It may well have been used as a priest's
hiding hole " in the penal times following the Reformation, but it
evidently existed before that time, and is probably coeval with the house
itself.[3]
A considerable number of videos and web pages have been
dedicated to the priest hole now for years.
Regardless, one son in the direct line, Thomas, almost
certainly born and raised at Oxburgh, became a gentleman pensioner to the
Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. This despite the fact that his grandfather had
been the Queen’s jailor at The Tower and Woodstock for a considerable period of
time during the reign of Mary I. Furthermore, Thomas was taken on by her mighty
Protestant First Secretary, Sir William Cecil, as a tutor for his young ward,
Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.
This Thomas Bedingfeld (there were numerous) would publish a
translation of Hieronymus Cardanus’ De Consolatione in 1573 at the request
of Edward de Vere who contributed a highly complementary prose introduction and
poem. The translation was entitled Cardanus Comforte and would advertise
that it was “published by commaundement of the right honourable the Earle of
Oxenford”. Shakespeare’s character Hamlet is widely understood to have borrowed
a good deal of his philosophy from the book, for which reason it is referred to
as “Hamlet’s book”. Macbeth’s “walking shadow” speech also seems clearly to
have been inspired by a passage from Cardanus.
Thomas’s Protestant faith must have been trusted notwithstanding
his family’s deep dedication to the Catholic faith. Shortly after the publication of Cardanus,
Oxford tired of waiting for permission from the Queen to travel and defied her
order to remain in England, escaping to Flanders. Thomas was sent to bring him
back. Catholic areas of Flanders were hot spots of recusants in exile against
the Queen’s government. It seems unlikely he would have been chosen if his religious
loyalties were at all in doubt. He return with his charge.
The 16th Earl of Oxford had vaguely submitted to
each change in the official religion that accompanied each successive Monarch of
England during his life but made the politic choice of staying on his country
estates rather than attend at the Royal Court any more than was absolutely
required. Each Monarch seemed to believe that he did not sincerely embrace their
religion. Edward de Vere himself was closely watched by English agents to
determine if he made any contact with the the exile community. He did not but
was forced to confess some years later that he attended mass in England a few
times “out of curiosity”.
There are no indications that Thomas Bedingfeld ever lived
in Oxburgh as an adult. No mention is made of fragments of his translations
among the rats’ nests. Having converted, it is not clear that he or his books would
have been welcome. Nor is there any indication that he maintained ties with
Edward de Vere.
Some traditional scholars suggest that Shakespeare received further inspiration from subsequent translations by Bedingfeld. His translation of Claudio Corte’s Art of Riding (1584) is offered up as a source for the horsemanship knowledge in Venus and Adonis (1593). There is, however, no demonstrable influence. Bedingfeld’s translation of Machiavelli’s History of Florence (1595) is also offered up as the source of Shakespeare’s clear knowledge of the Italian’s work. Again, no particular detail of the translation marks it out as his source.
[1] "Heir today, and heir tomorrow too!" Great British Life https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/people/heir-today-and-heir-tomorrow-too-6954508. ‘In 1950 another Sir Edmund Bedingfeld was very nearly the last of the family at Oxburgh. He auctioned off the hall, its contents and land, and it was bought by a property developer who planned to demolish the ancient house. It was then that Sybil, Lady Bedingfeld, came to the rescue, selling possessions and persuading relatives to do the same, to raise enough money to buy back the house. She was Sir Henry’s grandmother and he says: “She bought it in an act of complete faith, on a wing and a prayer if you like, and then a friend told her about a certain organisation called the National Trust which she hadn’t heard about.”’
[2] It
could possibly have been used for the purpose during the reign of Henry VIII.
[3] Bedingfeld,
Katherine. The Bedingfelds of Oxburgh (1912). 8.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Gutenberg, proto-Hack Writers and Shakespeare. May 26, 2020. “A less well known effect of the Reformation was that many young Catholic men who had taken religious orders in order to receive an education began to lead lives at large from monastic discipline. Like Erasmus and Rabelais they took up the pen.”
- Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not. No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
- The Medieval Chimney: Not What You Might Think. May 19, 2019. “The famous Royal antiquary, John Leland, source of a great deal of detailed information about the towns and countryside of England during the reign of Henry VIII, stood awestruck before a full-length vertical chimney as if he were standing before the Hagia Sophia.”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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