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Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (12 April 1550 – 24 June 1604), was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.

Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child.

A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.

He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress, Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honour, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour was also incarcerated and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually (£274,359 in 2024 ) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere, Viscount Bulbeck (later 18th Earl of Oxford). Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.

Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.

Family and childhood
Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559.

Before his father's death, Edward de Vere was styled "Viscount Bulbeck", or "Bolebec", and was raised in the English reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor.

His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of 2024).

Wardship
While living at the Cecil House, Oxford's daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford's intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events.

In 1563, Oxford's older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries.

Some time before October 1563, Oxford's mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford's father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford's stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570.

In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law.

On 23 July 1567, while practising fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford's servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a stillborn child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self-defence.

Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring.

In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court.

Coming of age
On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled.

Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one-third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.

By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier at which, although he did not win, he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between the Protestant Queen Elizabeth and the Catholic Prince François de France, duc d'Anjou, the youngest brother of King Henry III of France of the House of Valois-Angoulême. The marriage had been proposed in 1572 as part of the negotiations between England and France to break the power of Spain. In November 1579 the husband of Oxford's first cousin Anne Vere, John Stubbs, and William Page had their right hand publicly cut off for the pamphlet critical of the Queen's proposed marriage to Prince François and therefore judged seditious.

Oxford's published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court.

Marriage
In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried.

In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford's, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter's dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford's livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace.

Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece.

In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain.

The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000.

In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour.

Foreign travel
In January 1575 Elizabeth issued a licence to Oxford to travel, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, he entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, to prevent his estates passing by default to his sister Mary in the event of his dying abroad without heirs, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship.

Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that his new wife, Anne, was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way, his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September.

Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "...for my lekinge of Italy, my lord I am glad I haue sene it, and I care not euer to see it any more vnles it be to serue my prince or contrie."

In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds.

On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him.

On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years.

In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year.

Quarrels, plots and scandals
Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.

In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment.

In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".

In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February.

Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.

Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time.

Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".

The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did."

Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in the winter of 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave."

Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell nor Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.

On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth."

During the early 1580s, it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.

On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July.

While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".

Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.

At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.

Meanwhile, the street brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".

On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.

After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.

Theatrical enterprises
The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to playwriting until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602.

Royal annuity
On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music.

Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments.

In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety.

In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry was ultimately awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death.

Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably, she was between one and three years of age.

In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592.

In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him.

In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship.

In the spring of 1591, the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants for his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes.

In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music.

Remarriage and later life
On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31.

On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, Viscount Bulbeck, who was his heir.

Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley; it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime.

Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing.

His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them.

Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery.

From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to operate the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly.

In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit.

In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health.

On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown.

In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy.

After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford's suits to the Queen ended in disappointment.

Last years
In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession.

Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000.

Long weakened by poor health, Oxford passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfil his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time.

The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of Oxford's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford's first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey: "He was a man in minde and body absolutely accomplished with honourable endowments. He died at his house at Hackney in the moneth of June A$o$ 1604 and lieth buryed at Westminster." The same manuscript further suggests that Oxford enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, Oxford's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England.

Literary reputation
Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th-century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain.

Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first by social rank of 17 playwrights listed who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman.

Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse".

Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences".

Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship

The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare. It was introduced by J. Thomas Looney, an English schoolmaster, in a book published in 1920. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s. The Oxfordian theory was the central theme of the 2011 drama film Anonymous.

title: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford


text:
Talk:E

Most Common letter
where is the proof that E is the most commonly used letter in the English language? 88.106.53.89 17:35, 19 June 2007 (UTC) erm how many letter es did you use in you sentence? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.64.147 (talk) 16:58, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Semitic, language or adjective
Is "Semitic" a language, or an adjective to describe people? I thought the language was "Hebrew". -- Bignose

Semitic is a language family, including Hebrew but also Arabic and several other languages, of particular note here being Phoenician, which is what the first alphabet was developed for.

Epislon, doesn't display
The characters given for Epsilon don't display on my browser, but that's perhaps not surprising as I don't have a Greek font installed. However, surely six characters aren't required to display one Epsilon? -- Bignose

 * You don't need to have a Greek font, these Greek letters are in the standard html set. If you don't see this : Εψιλον, does this : Εψιλον display correctly ? And the symbol for Epsilon is Ε or ε (upper/lower case), but the six characters are the Greek name of Epsilon, just like "Epsilon"... SeeSchloss 09:22, 5 Aug 2003 (UTC)

E-programming language
I've deleted the E programming language. Never heard of it, if it is worth an article then it could be added again. -- Egil 08:55 Mar 14, 2003 (UTC)

 * http://www.erights.org/ < home of the E programming language. Well I don't think it is widely known and it is certainly not worth adding it again. SeeSchloss 09:22, 5 Aug 2003 (UTC)

e-less book
I've heard there was an e-less book made. Should this be mentioned, if it can be verified?

 * I believe the book you are referring to is Gadsby written by Ernest Vincent Wright. As to whether it should be included, well... that was the reason I looked up e in the first place. ;) ~ Bob 07:05, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

 * I, however, believe the book you are referring to is A Void, which was written in French by Georges Perec and translated into English by Gilbert Adair. Neither version contains the letter 'e'. --Zarel 03:04, August 17, 2005 (UTC)

Vitamin E
Should we add a "See also: Vitamin E" to the "In nutrition, E is a vitamin."? --Zarel 03:04, August 17, 2005 (UTC)

--2601:D:9A80:310:106E:7D40:FA29:D843 (talk) 15:08, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Ecstacy
Ecstacy, is often called an "E". Sure it might not be "common" enough to add here, but it is WAY more common than "In structural engineering, E stands for the modulus of elasticity".

Big e on food cans
Should the big e used in conjunction with food cans to denote net weight be mentioned? Ex. e 200 g to denote (net) weight of 200 gram (0.2 kilogram) of content in the package excluding all package material. – nsaa @ 2006-05-24 13:16Z
 * This is not a "big" e, but the character of the letter e is my favorite and it's also part of the vowels which is important in English U+212E (℮) Estimated sign. Nsaa 20:50, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

e in bed, history
I think some focus on the /e/ in "bed" should be described in the history part. As far as I know this sound is older than writing. Probably a phonetic symbol for the /e/ in "bed" may be in the Akkadian cuneiform, or Sumerian proto-cuneiform which is the oldest phonetic language known. TedHuntington 23:48, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Uses other than as a letter are moved to the E (disambiguation) page
To keep this article consistent with that of other letters, and to meet the WP style, most of the meanings of this symbol, other than as a letter of the alphabet, have been moved to the disambiguation page. - Dmeranda (talk) 17:25, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Plural
The article says that the plural form is 'ees' but then has a footnote that basically contradicts this. Some kind of clarification seems to be required here. JulesH (talk) 10:17, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

The Happy man?
Anyone else find something about the E being evolved from a pictographic representation of a man with an erection? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.255.118.242 (talk) 16:56, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Egyptian E
That hieroglyph is not an E. It's an idiogram with no phonetic value used in words having to do with rejoicing. Egyptian has no "E," nor any other vowels. Now, I don't know if that symbol may or may not be thought by scholars to be the artistic basis for the modern E, but it's incorrect to say that's actually an Egyptian E. 97.127.34.184 (talk) 21:00, 15 July 2009 (UTC) ya —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.53.182.88 (talk) 20:23, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

What…?
What is going on with this page? What is with the abundant use of ‹ and ›, which are not even English punctuation marks, and what does "Its name in English is pronounced ‹e›; or, rarely, ‹ee›," even mean? — the Man in Question (in question)  09:44, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

 * Angle bracket notation is standard in phonology to indicate spelling, as opposed to pronunciation (which is usually instead indicated between / / or [ ] with IPA symbols inside). It makes it clear we're referring to the letters as spelled out in the given language's own orthography, and that we're quoting writing system symbols per se. LjL (talk) 12:17, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

Used in schools as a grading system as "Excellent".
Is this even worth mentioning? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.99.81.66 (talk) 14:42, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

As far as i know, the University of arizona uses it in their grading system. (I already mentioned that) but i cannot find any other school that uses it. Wikidoorman (talk) 01:02, 15 March 2021 (UTC)User:Wikidoorman

External links modified
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External links modified
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Related characters
Should the character ⵟ from the Tifinagh script be included as a related character? Mateussf (talk) 14:19, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

ees
Can somebody please elaborate the orthographic differences posited in

"E" a letter Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (1993). Ees is the plural of the name of the letter; the plural of the letter itself is rendered E's, Es, e's, or es --Backinstadiums (talk) 16:01, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

You forgot to mention that E is an internet meme
Just a suggestion.

I know Wikipedia is formal, but I think that E has really made a wide impact on internet memes.

That is worthy enough for documentation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by "I hope no one looks at my plans while I happen to be asleep" Verbose Dr. T (talk • contribs) 17:46, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

 * Well, there are no reliable source about that, I guess. Probably worth a sentence or at most two, I mean, to be fair, we do have humor at forbidden places lol CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 12:07, 6 December 2021 (UTC)
 * But not without a citation and in any case would not be in this article (which is about the letterform). If you mean ecstasy (drug) (MDMA), it is already listed at E (disambiguation). --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 12:29, 6 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Oh, come on, a KYM page should have been enough. 2A00:1370:81A2:E0D:E556:47E0:537:7A0C (talk) 06:12, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 December 2021
198.72.29.149 (talk) 16:30, 14 December 2021 (UTC) #E
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 16:35, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 February 2022
A link needs updating. Please change this

to this:

185.111.131.198 (talk) 14:51, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
 * in E and Allied military phonetic spelling alphabets. Thank you for reporting this error.  Certes (talk) 16:09, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

Euler's number
e is used as a symbol for euler's number. I know there is another page, but shouldn't there also be a note that e is used as the symbol under other uses? Bynee25 (talk) 23:59, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

 * There's a hatnote: For the mathematical constant, see e (mathematical constant). It's also listed in E (disambiguation). Certes (talk) 00:04, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Israel Flag Displayed in mobile version
Hi! I just wanted to know, Why is the Israel flag displaying in mobile form instead of the page? 2601:83:4280:A9E0:CCB0:5A05:B5D5:41DC (talk) 00:26, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

 * This is the result of vandalism, which has been reverted. I've purged the cache so it should be fixed now. Nardog (talk) 04:04, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Ampersand
Why is the ampersand in the list of descendants of the letter "e"? The ampersand (&) comes from the Latin word "et," meaning "and." Can someone fix it? Thank you! JordiLopezboy (talk) 12:12, 12 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you for asking this in your own words, which are far better, far clearer and far more succinct than the ChatGPT waffle.
 * Ampersand was originally a ligature of et (I have added an image to explain). It has become a unique symbol in its own right, indeed for a while it was taught in schools as a 27th letter of the English alphabet. So, within the terms of the infobox, it is indeed a descendant symbol of $⟨e⟩$ – and of course it also a descendant of $⟨t⟩$. To be fair, it is an edge case and I can see that a convincing argument could be made that it should not be included, because its function is quite different for a simple $⟨e⟩$. The normal way we resolve this would be to demand a wp:reliable source that says so. Perhaps another editor can identify such? If not, I certainly wouldn't oppose it being deleted from the list.--𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 14:38, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:E


text:
Erinyes

The Erinyes (sing. Erinys ; Ἐρινύες, pl. of Ἐρινύς), also known as the Eumenides (commonly known in English as the Furies), are chthonic goddesses of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "the Erinyes, that under earth take vengeance on men, whosoever hath sworn a false oath". Walter Burkert suggests that they are "an embodiment of the act of self-cursing contained in the oath". They correspond to the Dirae in Roman mythology. The Roman writer Maurus Servius Honoratus wrote (ca. AD 400) that they are called "Eumenides" in hell, "Furiae" on Earth, and "Dirae" in heaven. Erinyes are akin to some other Greek deities, called Poenai.

According to Hesiod's Theogony, when the Titan Cronus castrated his father, Uranus, and threw his genitalia into the sea, the Erinyes (along with the Giants and the Meliae) emerged from the drops of blood which fell on the Earth (Gaia), while Aphrodite was born from the crests of sea foam. Pseudo-Apollodorus also reports this lineage. According to variant accounts they are the daughters of Nyx ("Night"), while in Virgil's Aeneid, they are daughters of Pluto (Hades) and Nox (Nyx). In some accounts, they were the daughters of Euronymè (a name for Earth) and Cronus, or of Earth and Phorcys (i.e. the sea). In Orphic literature, they are the daughters of Hades and Persephone.

Their number is usually left indeterminate. Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recognized three: Alecto or Alekto ("endless anger"), Megaera ("jealous rage"), and Tisiphone or Tilphousia ("vengeful destruction"), all of whom appear in the Aeneid. Dante Alighieri followed Virgil in depicting the same three-character triptych of Erinyes; in Canto IX of the Inferno they confront the poets at the gates of the city of Dis. Whilst the Erinyes were usually described as three maiden goddesses, the Erinys Telphousia was usually a byname for the wrathful goddess Demeter, who was worshipped under the title of Erinys in the Arkadian town of Thelpousa.

Etymology
The word Erinyes is of uncertain etymology; connections with the verb ὀρίνειν orinein, "to raise, stir, excite", and the noun ἔρις eris, "strife" have been suggested; Beekes, pp. 458–459, has proposed a Pre-Greek origin. The word Erinys in the singular and as a theonym is first attested in Mycenaean Greek, written in Linear B, in the following forms:, e-ri-nu, and , e-ri-nu-we. These words are found on the KN Fp 1, KN V 52, and KN Fh 390 tablets.

Description
The Erinyes live in Erebus and are more ancient than any of the Olympian deities. Their task is to hear complaints brought by mortals against the insolence of the young to the aged, of children to parents, of hosts to guests, and of householders or city councils to suppliants—and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly. The appearance of the Erinyes differs between sources, though they are frequently described as wearing black. Aesychlus' Eumenides the Priestess of Pythian Apollo compares their monstrosity to that of the gorgon and harpies, but adds that they are wingless, with hatred dripping from their eyes. Euripides, on the other hand, gives them wings, as does Virgil. They are often evisaged as having snakes in their hair.

The Erinyes are commonly associated with night and darkness. With varying accounts claiming that they are the daughters of Nyx, the goddess of night, they're also associated with darkness in the works of Aeschylus and Euripides in both their physical appearance and the time of day that they manifest.

Description of Tisiphone in Statius' Thebaid:

So prayed he, and the cruel goddess turned her grim visage to hearken. By chance she sat beside dismal Cocytus, and had loosed the snakes from her head and suffered them to lap the sulphurous waters. Straightway, faster than fire of Jove or falling stars she leapt up from the gloomy bank: the crowd of phantoms gives way before her, fearing to meet their queen; then, journeying through the shadows and the fields dark with trooping ghosts, she hastens to the gate of Taenarus, whose threshold none may cross and again return. Day felt her presence, Night interposed her pitchy cloud and startled his shining steeds; far off towering Atlas shuddered and shifted the weight of heaven upon his trembling shoulders. Forthwith rising aloft from Malea’s vale she hies her on the well-known way to Thebes: for on no errand is she swifter to go and to return, not kindred Tartarus itself pleases her so well. A hundred horned snakes erect shaded her face, the thronging terror of her awful head; deep within her sunken eyes there glows a light of iron hue, as when Atracian spells make travailing Phoebe redden through the clouds; suffused with venom, her skin distends and swells with corruption; a fiery vapour issues from her evil mouth, bringing upon mankind thirst unquenchable and sickness and famine and universal death. From her shoulders falls a stark and grisly robe, whose dark fastenings meet upon her breast: Atropos and Proserpine herself fashion her this garb anew. Then both her hands are shaken in wrath, the one gleaming with a funeral torch, the other lashing the air with a live water-snake.

Cult
Pausanias describes a sanctuary in Athens dedicated to the Erinyes under the name Semnai:"Hard by [the Areopagos the murder court of Athens] is a sanctuary of the goddesses which the Athenians call the August, but Hesiod in the Theogony calls them Erinyes (Furies). It was Aeschylus who first represented them with snakes in their hair. But on the images neither of these nor of any of the under-world deities is there anything terrible. There are images of Pluto, Hermes, and Earth, by which sacrifice those who have received an acquittal on the Hill of Ares; sacrifices are also offered on other occasions by both citizens and aliens." The Orphic Hymns, a collection of 87 religious poems as translated by Thomas Taylor, contains two stanzas regarding the Erinyes. Hymn 68 refers to them as the Erinyes, while hymn 69 refers to them as the Eumenides.

Hymn 69, to the Erinyes: "Vociferous Bacchanalian Furies [Erinyes], hear! Ye, I invoke, dread pow'rs, whom all revere; Nightly, profound, in secret who retire, Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megara dire: Deep in a cavern merg'd, involv'd in night, near where Styx flows impervious to the sight; Ever attendant on mysterious rites, furious and fierce, whom Fate's dread law delights; Revenge and sorrows dire to you belong, hid in a savage veil, severe and strong, Terrific virgins, who forever dwell endu'd with various forms, in deepest hell; Aerial, and unseen by human kind, and swiftly coursing, rapid as the mind. In vain the Sun with wing'd refulgence bright, in vain the Moon, far darting milder light, Wisdom and Virtue may attempt in vain; and pleasing, Art, our transport to obtain Unless with these you readily conspire, and far avert your all-destructive ire. The boundless tribes of mortals you descry, and justly rule with Right's [Dike's] impartial eye. Come, snaky-hair'd, Fates [Moirai] many-form'd, divine, suppress your rage, and to our rites incline."Hymn 70, to the Eumenides:"Hear me, illustrious Furies [Eumenides], mighty nam'd, terrific pow'rs, for prudent counsel fam'd; Holy and pure, from Jove terrestrial [Zeus Khthonios](Hades) born and Proserpine [Phersephone], whom lovely locks adorn: Whose piercing sight, with vision unconfin'd, surveys the deeds of all the impious kind: On Fate attendant, punishing the race (with wrath severe) of deeds unjust and base. Dark-colour'd queens, whose glittering eyes, are bright with dreadful, radiant, life-destroying, light: Eternal rulers, terrible and strong, to whom revenge, and tortures dire belong; Fatal and horrid to the human sight, with snaky tresses wand'ring in the night; Either approach, and in these rites rejoice, for ye, I call, with holy, suppliant voice."

In ancient Greek literature

Myth fragments dealing with the Erinyes are found among the earliest extant records of ancient Greek culture. The Erinyes are featured prominently in the myth of Orestes, which recurs frequently throughout many works of ancient Greek literature.

Aeschylus
Featured in ancient Greek literature, from poems to plays, the Erinyes form the Chorus and play a major role in the conclusion of Aeschylus's dramatic trilogy the Oresteia. In the first play, Agamemnon, King Agamemnon returns home from the Trojan War, where he is slain by his wife, Clytemnestra, who wants vengeance for her daughter Iphigenia, whom Agamemnon had sacrificed to obtain favorable winds to sail to Troy. In the second play, The Libation Bearers, their son Orestes has reached manhood and has been commanded by Apollo's oracle to avenge his father's murder at his mother's hand. Returning home and revealing himself to his sister Electra, Orestes pretends to be a messenger bringing the news of his own death to Clytemnestra. He then slays his mother and her lover Aegisthus. Although Orestes' actions were what Apollo had commanded him to do, Orestes has still committed matricide, a grave sacrilege. Because of this, he is pursued and tormented by the terrible Erinyes, who demand yet further blood vengeance.

In The Eumenides, Orestes is told by Apollo at Delphi that he should go to Athens to seek the aid of the goddess Athena. In Athens, Athena arranges for Orestes to be tried by a jury of Athenian citizens, with her presiding. The Erinyes appear as Orestes' accusers, while Apollo speaks in his defense. The trial becomes a debate about the necessity of blood vengeance, the honor that is due to a mother compared to that due to a father, and the respect that must be paid to ancient deities such as the Erinyes compared to the newer generation of Apollo and Athena. The jury vote is evenly split. Athena participates in the vote and chooses for acquittal. Athena declares Orestes acquitted because of the rules she established for the trial. Despite the verdict, the Erinyes threaten to torment all inhabitants of Athens and to poison the surrounding countryside. Athena, however, offers the ancient goddesses a new role, as protectors of justice, rather than vengeance, and of the city. She persuades them to break the cycle of blood for blood (except in the case of war, which is fought for glory, not vengeance). While promising that the goddesses will receive due honor from the Athenians and Athena, she also reminds them that she possesses the key to the storehouse where Zeus keeps the thunderbolts that defeated the other older deities. This mixture of bribes and veiled threats satisfies the Erinyes, who are then led by Athena in a procession to their new abode. In the play, the "Furies" are thereafter addressed as "Semnai" (Venerable Ones), as they will now be honored by the citizens of Athens and ensure the city's prosperity.

Euripides
In Euripides' Orestes the Erinyes are for the first time "equated" with the Eumenides (Εὐμενίδες, pl. of Εὐμενίς; literally "the gracious ones", but also translated as "Kindly Ones"). This is because it was considered unwise to mention them by name (for fear of attracting their attention); the ironic name is similar to how Hades, god of the dead is styled Pluton, or Pluto, "the Rich One". Using euphemisms for the names of deities serves many religious purposes.

Sophocles
In Sophocles's play Oedipus at Colonus, it is significant that Oedipus comes to his final resting place in the grove dedicated to the Erinyes. It shows that he has paid his penance for his blood crime, as well as come to integrate the balancing powers to his early over-reliance upon Apollo, the god of the individual, the sun, and reason. He is asked to make an offering to the Erinyes and complies, having made his peace.

title: Erinyes


text:
Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair

Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, in the County of Aberdeen, in the County of Meath and in the County of Argyll, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 January 1916 for John Hamilton-Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen.

Baronetcy of Haddo
The Gordon family descends from John Gordon, who fought as a Royalist against the Covenanters in the Civil War. In 1642 he was created a baronet, of Haddo in the County of Aberdeen, in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia. In 1644 he was found guilty of treason and beheaded, with the baronetcy forfeited. The title was restored after the Restoration for his son John, the second Baronet.

Earldom of Aberdeen
The second Baronet died without male issue and was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Baronet. He was a noted advocate and served as Lord President of the Court of Session and as Lord Chancellor of Scotland. On 30 November 1682 he was raised to the Peerage of Scotland as Lord Haddo, Methlick, Tarves and Kellie, Viscount of Formartine and Earl of Aberdeen. He was succeeded by his only surviving son, the second Earl. He sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish representative peer from 1721 to 1727. On his death the titles passed to his eldest son from his second marriage, the third Earl. He was a Scottish Representative Peer from 1747 to 1761 and from 1774 to 1790.

Lord Aberdeen, Prime Minister
The third earl was succeeded by his grandson, the fourth Earl, who was the eldest son of George Gordon, Lord Haddo. On 1 June 1814 he was created Viscount Gordon, of Aberdeen in the County of Aberdeen, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which entitled him to an automatic seat in the House of Lords. Lord Aberdeen was a distinguished diplomat and statesman and served as Foreign Secretary from 1828 to 1830 and from 1841 to 1846 and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 to 1855. Aberdeen married firstly Lady Catherine Elizabeth (1784–1812), daughter of John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn, and assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Hamilton in 1818.

When Lord Aberdeen died, the titles passed to his eldest son from his second marriage to Harriet Douglas, the fifth Earl. He sat as Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeenshire. His eldest son, the sixth Earl, was a sailor and adventurer. He was accidentally drowned off the coast of America in 1870, without marrying or having children.

Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair

The sixth earl of Aberdeen was succeeded by his younger brother, the seventh Earl. John Hamilton-Gordon, was a Liberal politician and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1886 and from 1905 to 1915 and as Governor General of Canada from 1893 to 1898. On 4 January 1916 he was created Earl of Haddo, in the County of Aberdeen, and Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, in the County of Aberdeen, in the County of Meath and in the County of Argyll. Both titles are in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

He was succeeded by his eldest son, the second Marquess, who was a member of the London County Council and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. He was childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Marquess. He was notably President of the Federation of British Industries. When he died the titles passed to his eldest son, the fourth Marquess. He was a member of the Aberdeenshire County Council and Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. He had four adopted children but no biological issue and was succeeded by his younger brother, the fifth Marquess. He was a broadcaster working for the BBC. He never married and on his death in 1984 the titles passed to his fourth and youngest brother, the sixth Marquess. He was Chairman of The Arts Club. the titles are held by his grandson, the eighth Marquess, who succeeded in that year.

Other family members
Numerous other members of the Gordon family have also gained distinction. The Hon. William Gordon (died 1816), eldest son from the third marriage of the second Earl, was a general in the Army. The Hon. Cosmo Gordon, second son from the third marriage of the second Earl, was a colonel in the Army. The Hon. Alexander Gordon (1739–1792), third son from the third marriage of the second Earl, was a Lord of Session from 1788 to 1792 under the judicial title of Lord Rockville. His son William Duff-Gordon was Member of Parliament for Worcester. In 1815 he succeeded his uncle as second Baron of Halkin according to a special remainder and assumed the additional surname of Duff (see Duff-Gordon baronets for further history of this branch of the family). The Hon. William Gordon, younger brother of the fourth Earl, was a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy and sat as Member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire. The Hon. Alexander Gordon (1786–1815), younger brother of the fourth Earl, was a soldier and was killed at the Battle of Waterloo.

The Hon. Sir Robert Gordon, younger brother of the fourth Earl, was a diplomat and served as British Ambassador to Austria. The Hon. John Gordon (1792–1869), younger brother of the fourth Earl, was an admiral in the Royal Navy. The Hon. Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon (1817–1890), eldest son of the second marriage of the fourth Earl, was a general in the Army and sat as Member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire East. His eldest son, Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon was also a general in the Army. Reverend the Hon. Douglas Hamilton-Gordon (1824–1901), third son of the second marriage of the fourth Earl, was Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria and Canon of Salisbury. The Hon. Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, fourth son of the second marriage of the fourth Earl, was a Liberal politician and was created Baron Stanmore in 1893 (see this title for more information on him and this branch of the family). Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, daughter of Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, and wife of the first Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, was an author, philanthropist and an advocate of woman's interests.

The family seat is Haddo House, Aberdeenshire. The title Earl of Haddo is the courtesy title for the Marquess's eldest son and heir, the eldest son of whom uses the courtesy title Viscount of Formartine. The Marquesses of Aberdeen and Temair are related to the Marquesses of Huntly. Sir John Gordon (died c. 1395) of Strathbogie, ancestor of Sir John Gordon, 1st Baronet, was the brother of Elizabeth Gordon. She married Sir Alexander Seton (died 1438) and was the mother of Alexander Gordon, 1st Earl of Huntly (ancestor of the Marquesses of Huntly).

Gordon baronets, of Haddo (1642)

 * Sir John Gordon, 1st Baronet (1610–1644)
 * Sir John Gordon, 2nd Baronet (c. 1632–1665)
 * Sir George Gordon, 3rd Baronet (1637–1720) (created Earl of Aberdeen in 1682)

Earls of Aberdeen (1682)

 * Other titles (1st Earl onwards): Viscount of Formartine (Sc 1682), Lord Haddo, Methlick, Tarves and Kellie (Sc 1682)
 * Other titles (4th Earl onwards): Viscount Gordon (UK 1814)

 * George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen (1637–1720)
 * George Gordon, Lord Haddo (1674-d. between 1694–1708)
 * William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen (1679–1745)
 * George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen, (1722–1801)
 * George Gordon, Lord Haddo (1764–1791)
 * George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (1784–1860) (created Viscount Gordon in 1814)
 * George John James Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen (1816–1864)
 * George Hamilton-Gordon, 6th Earl of Aberdeen (1841–1870)
 * John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen (1847–1934) (created Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair in 1916)

Marquesses of Aberdeen and Temair (1916)

 * Other titles (1st Marquess onwards): Earl of Haddo (UK 1916), Viscount Gordon (UK 1814), Viscount of Formartine (Sc 1682), Lord Haddo, Methlick, Tarves and Kellie (Sc 1682)

 * John Campbell Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, (1847–1934)
 * George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1879–1965)
 * Dudley Gladstone Gordon, 3rd Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1883–1972)
 * David George Ian Alexander Gordon, 4th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1908–1974)
 * Archibald Victor Dudley Gordon, 5th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1913–1984)
 * Alastair Ninian John Gordon, 6th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1920–2002)
 * Alexander George Gordon, 7th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1955–2020)
 * George Ian Alastair Gordon, 8th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (b. 1983)

Present peer
George Ian Alastair Gordon, 8th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (born 4 May 1983) is the son of the 7th Marquess and his wife Joanna Clodagh Houldsworth. Styled formally as Viscount Formartine from 1984, he was educated at Harrow School.

He was styled as Earl of Haddo between 2002 and 12 March 2020, when he succeeded his father as Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, Earl of Haddo, Earl of Aberdeen, Viscount of Formartine, Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen, Lord Haddo, Methlick, Tarves and Kellie, and also as a baronet (Gordon, of Haddo, Aberdeenshire, 1642).

As Lord Haddo he married Isabelle Coaten, daughter of David Coaten, and they have four children
 * Ivo Alexander Ninian Gordon, Earl of Haddo (born 2012), heir apparent
 * Lord Johnny David Nehemiah Gordon (born 2014)
 * Lady Christabel Alexandra Lully Gordon (born 2016)
 * Lord Louis George Solomon Gordon (born 2018)

Succession and family tree
There are further heirs to the subsidiary Earldom of Aberdeen, including the Duff-Gordon baronets, who are descended from Lord Rockville, a younger son of the second earl.
 * [[Image:Coronet of a British Marquess.svg|25px]] Alexander George Gordon, 7th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1955–2020)
 * [[Image:Coronet of a British Marquess.svg|25px]] George Ian Alastair Gordon, 8th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (born 1983)
 * (1) Ivo Alexander Ninian Gordon, Earl of Haddo (born 2012)
 * (2) Lord Johnny David Nehemiah Gordon (born 2014)
 * (3) Lord Louis George Solomon Gordon (born 2018)
 * (4) Lord Sam Dudley Gordon (born 1985)
 * (5) Bertie Raiph Dudley Gordon (born 2016)
 * (6) Lord Charles David Gordon (born 1990)

title: Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair


text:
Talk:Extinction event

approximately symbol breaks column header sorts
In the "Extinctions by severity" section the table contains the use of '~' for some values. This means the numbers aren't properly sorted. Some columns all the data has the approximate symbol. Other columns like the year have only a few uses of the symbol and its negative impact can be seen.

The easiest way to fix the sort would be to remove the ~. It could be argued that every value is approximate and that the symbol only increases confusion in implying that some years are exact. Quelrod (talk) 16:03, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

 * This entire chart is useless to the average reader, as it is. Unless someone has a background in this stuff and knows how it's discussed, they're not going to even know what the columns mean. There should either be additional explanation (optimal approach) or it should be removed entirely to reduce confusion. 2603:9001:6C01:CC08:EAB4:7C50:8619:37B7 (talk) 15:15, 30 April 2024 (UTC)
 * The tilde doesn't seem to impact sorting for me. If it does, Template:Sort can fix it. –CWenger ( ^ •  @ ) 16:16, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

“Marine” versus “aquatic”
The text reads, “Non-dinosaurian archosaurs continued to dominate aquatic environments, while non-archosaurian diapsids continued to dominate marine environments.” The difference between a “marine” environment and an “aquatic” environment is not likely to be clear to most readers; it certainly isn’t clear to me. I hope a qualified editor can address this.

Poihths (talk) 17:46, 4 January 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Extinction event


text:
East Coast Swing

East Coast Swing (ECS) is a form of social partner dance. It belongs to the group of swing dances. It is danced under fast swing music, including: big band, rock and roll, rockabilly, and boogie-woogie.

Yerrington and Outland equated East Coast Swing to the New Yorker in 1961. Originally known as "Eastern Swing" by Arthur Murray Studios, the name East Coast Swing became more common between 1975 and 1980.

History
The dance was created by dance studios including the Arthur Murray dance studios in the 1940s, based on the Lindy Hop. Lindy Hop was felt by dance studios to be both too difficult and too unstructured to teach to beginning dancers, but there was market demand for training in swing dance. The dance studios had initially dismissed Lindy Hop in particular as a fad. East Coast Swing can be referred to by many different names in different regions of the United States and the World. It has alternatively been called Eastern Swing, Jitterbug, American Swing, East Coast Lindy, Lindy (not to be confused with Lindy Hop), and Triple Swing (or Triple-step swing). Other variants of East Coast Swing that use altered footwork forms are known as Single Swing or "Single-step Swing" (where the triple step is replaced by a single step forming a slow, slow, quick, quick rhythm common to Foxtrot), and Double Swing (using a tap-step footwork pattern).

East Coast Swing is a rhythm dance that has both 6 and 8 beat patterns. The name East Coast Swing was coined initially to distinguish the dance from the street form and the new variant used in the competitive ballroom arena (as well as separating the dance from West Coast Swing, which was developed in California). While based on Lindy Hop, it does have clear distinctions. East Coast Swing is a standardized form of dance developed first for instructional purposes in the Arthur Murray studios, and then later codified to allow for a medium of comparison for competitive ballroom dancers. It can be said that there is no right or wrong way to dance it; however, certain styles of the dance are considered correct "form" within the technical elements documented and governed by the National Dance Council of America. The N.D.C.A. oversees all the standards of American Style Ballroom and Latin dances. Lindy Hop was never standardized and later became the inspiration for several other dance forms such as: (European) Boogie Woogie, Jive, West Coast Swing and Rock and Roll.

In practice on the social dance floor, the six count steps of the East Coast Swing are sometimes mixed with the eight count steps of Lindy Hop, Charleston, and less frequently, Balboa.

Basic Positions/Moves
The 5 basic positions/moves are:

 * 1) Semi-closed Position (normal starter position)
 * 2) Open Position (most common position used between moves)
 * 3) Crossovers (most common move)
 * 4) Wraps (waist wraps or neck wraps)
 * 5) Hammerlocks

Basic technique
Single-step Swing

East Coast Swing has a 6 count basic step. This is in contrast to the meter of most swing music, which has a 4 count basic rhythm. In practice, however, the 6-count moves of the east coast swing are sometimes combined with 8-count moves from the Lindy hop, Charleston, and Balboa.

Depending on the region and instructor, the basic step of single-step East Coast Swing is either "rock step, step, step" or "step, step, rock step". In both cases, the rock step always starts on the downbeat.

For "rock step, step, step" the beats, or counts, are the following:

Steps for the "lead" (traditionally, the man's part) Steps for the "follow" (traditionally, the woman's part which mirrors the lead's part) For "step, step, rock step," the rock step occurs on beats 5 and 6, but the overall progression remains the same.

The normal steps can be substituted with a triple step or double step "step-tap" or "kick-step" instead of a single step. This is commonly used during songs when a slower tempo makes the single step difficult (an example progression would be "rock step, triple step, triple step").

Timing
Because East Coast uses a six step pattern with music employing 4 beats per measure, three measures of music are required to complete two sets of steps, as shown in the following table.

The rock step starts on 1, 2 the first triple step starts 3a4 and the second on 5a6.

In single time style (used with faster music) the triple steps are replaced by single steps, so two beats of music are used for each single step while each step in the rock (R) step (S) is still completed in one beat, finishing the cycle in six musical beats. Some instructors will teach vocalizing the single time style as" "Quick. Quick. Slow. Slow. " or "Back Step. Slow. Slow."

There is the choice to start with triples or with a rock step, however if you check the above chart where a triple step starts on a 1, 2 you can see that the pattern progresses and wraps back around. The choice of starting with a triple or a rock step does have musical consequences as music has phrasing with hits that often happen on 12, or 24 or 36... This means that dancers who choose to start with a rock step will probably find themselves on a rock step on every new phrase. Those who start with a triple will start with a triple on each new phrase. An advantage of starting with the triple step is that dancers can more easily change their foot work right at the start of the musical phrase.

title: East Coast Swing