Today in 1564 Christopher Marlowe was baptized. He was a preeminent poet and playwright of the Elizabethan era and his plays influenced Shakespeare. In fact, some of the plays he wrote prefaced Shakespeare like The Jew of Malta, which used a theme that Shakespeare then used in Merchant of Venice.
He’s most famous for the mystery surrounding his death though. On the 18th of May in 1593, a warrant was issued for his arrest with no reason given, though many think it was related to an accusation of blasphemy. One of Marlowe’s manuscripts supposedly contained heretical concepts.
On the 20th of May, he was brought before the court for questioning, but there’s actually no record that court met that day, and so he was commanded to come back each day until they told him that he was free to go. Ten days later, he was stabbed to death, but we still don’t know whether this was related to his arrest or not.
There are still those who believe that Marlowe actually wrote Shakespeare’s plays.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Episode 149: The Mysterious life and death of Christopher Marlowe
Episode 44: Elizabethan Theater
The Theater Part III: The Other Major Players Who Aren’t Named Shakespeare
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.