Oxford, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604)

English courtier and poet, credited with around 15 surviving lyric poems. He went to Cambridge University at the age of eight and succeeded to the earldom and hereditary office of Lord Great Chamberlain at the age of 12.

He was tutored by his uncle Arthur Golding, the translator of Ovid. Of unruly temperament, he quarrelled with many people, including - famously - a quarrel with Sir Philip Sidney in 1579 that started on a tennis court and threatened to become murderous. Though he was certainly a literary patron and received dedications of works by various writers, there is no factual basis for the conspiracy claims made by T J Looney and others that he was the secret author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare.