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Shakespeare had seven siblings: Joan, Margaret , Gilbert, another Joan, Anne, Richard, and Edmund

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He wrote 154 sonnets

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He was first mentioned as a playwright in The Attack by Robert Greene in 1592.

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Shakespeare is said to have died on his birthday, which is unknown, but is said to be on April 2

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John and Mary Shakespeare.

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Shakespeare had a total of seven siblings.

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Shakespeare wrote 37 plays in his lifetime.

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Shakespeare had three children, Susannah, and twins, Hamlet and Judith.

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Some people believe that Shakespeare is a fraud, because of his educational background.

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Mary, the queen of Scots, was beheaded for complicity in a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth I

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Richard Parker: When the Scotland flag was made

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Richard Parker: When the Scotland flag was made

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The Scotland flag was was made in 832 B.C.

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This is a credible source (taken from the news company, BBC) that recounts Scotland's War for Independence from Britain. This long and agonizing war is one reason why Scots are known to be fierce and tireless fighters.

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Photo: The Stone of Scone

Scotland and England are two nations divided by their experience of history. That divide was never wider than during the Wars of Independence in the 13th and 14th centuries when a chance event brought an era of relative friendship to an end in violent conflict.

The Succession Crisis

Alexander III dies: A History of Scotland.

The crisis began in 1286 when Alexander III fell from his horse on the sands of Kinghorn and broke his neck. After Alexander's death, Scotland was governed by the premier nobles and bishops of Scotland, known collectively as the Guardians of Scotland. In 1286 Alexander's heir to the throne was Margaret, the Maid of Norway, but her death in 1290 brought Scotland to the brink of civil war as two claimants emerged for the vacant throne, John Balliol and Robert Bruce (grandfather of the more famous Robert Bruce who fought at Bannockburn).

Both men had powerful claims. With Alexander's heir dead and the extinction of the royal line of William I the line of William's younger brother David, Earl of Huntingdon, became crucial to the succession crisis.

Balliol was a grandson of the eldest daughter of Huntingdon while Bruce was the son of Huntingdon's second daughter.

Bruce's claim rested on proximity of blood as he was one step closer than his rival to the Earl of Huntingdon. Balliol's claim was founded on primogeniture - he was the relative of the eldest of Huntingdon's daughters and therefore had a superior claim.

To avoid civil war someone would have to mediate and make a decision, and soon the Guardians turned to Edward I of England as a respected king and neighbour to adjudicate the contest.

Edward soon realised he could exploit the situation to his advantage. He invited the Scots to Norham Castle, just on the English side of the border. However, the Scots declined, fearing this would give Edward symbolic authority over them. He then asked the Scots to acknowledge his overlordship. The Scots declined, stating they could find no historical evidence for Edward's claims.

The task then fell to Bishop Wishart of Glasgow to tell Edward, to his face, that since there was no King of Scots, the Guardians of Scotland could not surrender any Scottish sovereignty to England, since only the rightful Scottish King could do so.

Thus far Edward's plans had been foiled, but, being an expert in legal matters, he cunningly exploited medieval law to achieve his end. Edward was to adjudicate between the two claimants, but if there were three or more, he would have to judge, and a judge had to have authority.

Edward procured a veritable avalanche of claimants, with Bruce and Balliol under the immediate pressure of others seeking Edward's favour. Of the two original claimants, Bruce was the first to pay Edward homage; Balliol, seeing his kingship slipping away, followed suit later.

John Balliol: King of Scots

Edward had what he wanted: whoever the king was to be, he had already recognised English overlordship. In 1292 John Balliol was judged to be the winner and was proclaimed King of Scots at Berwick.

No sooner was Balliol crowned than Edward began active interference in Scottish affairs, intervening in legal cases, keeping taxes and demanding Scottish troops to fight in France. Rapidly the Scots realised they would have to fight Edward - not a task undertaken lightly as Edward had one of the most formidable military machines in Europe at the time.

In 1295-6 the Scots declared their intentions to Edward I, signing the Auld Alliance with England's enemy, France. It was a declaration of war. The treaty made no immediate military difference, but recruiting the French as allies made Scotland's future an issue for Christendom at large. Edward's response was swift. The Scottish border-town of Berwick, second only to London in economic importance in medieval Britain, was sacked. Edward's army quickly stormed its wooden walls with horrific consequences for all inside.

Edward I invades Scotland: A History of Scotland.

'When the town had been taken in this way and its citizens had submitted, Edward spared no one, whatever the age or sex, and for two days streams of blood flowed from the bodies of the slain, for in his tyrannous rage he ordered 7,500 souls of both sexes to be massacred...So that mills could be turned round by the flow of their blood.'

Account of the Massacre of Berwick, from Bower's Scotichronicon

Marching north, Edward crushed the Scots army at Dunbar before penetrating into the scottish heartland, north of the Forth. King John Balliol was forced to surrender and was humiliated at Stracathro Churchyard. There he was stripped of the crown, his insignia ripped from his coat (giving him the nickname 'toom tabard', meaning empty coat), before he and much of the Scots nobility were imprisoned in England. However, for Edward 'Longshanks', conquest and ritual humiliation were not enough.

He set about stripping Scotland of its lodestones of identity, just as he had done to the Welsh in 1282. The Stone of Destiny, on which the Scottish Kings were inaugurated, the crown, and one of the Scots' holiest relics, the Black Rood of St Margaret (believed to be a piece of the True Cross), were all taken south. His aim was nothing less than the destruction of the Scots nation and its total incorporation into his kingdom. As he left Scotland, Edward was reported to remark - 'A man does good work when he rids himself of shit.'

William Wallace

Edward's conquest was not yet secure. Within a year, in 1297, he had lost control of Scotland. Risings led by two knights, William Wallace in the south and Andrew Murray in the north, loosened his grip. The grip was finally broken at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

William Wallace rebels: A History of Scotland

Wallace and Murray's victory was a stunning achievement, not just because the Scots had not defeated the English in battle for centuries, but because for the first time in the history of medieval battles a superior force of heavily armed knights had been defeated by a small army of spearmen. Unfortunately Murray was fatally wounded, but Wallace was proclaimed Guardian of Scotland and took the war to English soil, raiding deep into northern England.

Humbled, the English nobility united behind Edward. In 1298 he invaded Scotland again and this time defeated Wallace at The Battle of Falkirk. In defeat, Wallace resigned the Guardianship of Scotland, but the struggle continued. Many Scots had resolved to fight until the end.

The Battle of Falkirk: A History of Scotland

Every year for six years Edward led his army north to attack Scottish strongholds in a bitter war that laid waste to the south of Scotland.

From Edward's point of view the war was bearing little fruit. Even more worrying was the fact that the Scots appeared to be winning on the diplomatic front. William Wallace was dispatched to the court of Philip IV in France to drum up support. The Scottish Church, directed by Bishop Lamberton, appealed directly to the papacy (the equivalent of the UN in medieval Christendom) and seemed to be getting a sympathetic hearing. By 1302 it seemed that the Scots were on the verge of victory, with the exiled Balliol ready to return to claim the crown.

However, events would soon turn against the Scots. In the politics of the Scottish Guardianship, the Comyns, supporters of Balliol, had sidelined the Bruces, who, faced with Balliol's return, again submitted to Edward I.

Eventually Edward prevailed in the diplomatic game with the French and the Pope, who needed the English for his latest Crusade against Islam more than he needed the Scots. By 1304 it looked like Balliol was not to return after all, and, exhausted after seven years of war and diplomatic defeat, the Scots' nobility capitulated and cut a deal. Edward had triumphed.

Edward was relatively magnanimous in victory. He handed out public offices in Scotland to those who submitted to his rule, hoping to secure loyalty in return. Only William Wallace and his followers did not submit. An embarrassment to the Scottish nobles and a hindrance to their ambitions, he was outlawed, betrayed and executed after a show trial at Westminster.

Wallace is executed: A History of Scotland

Robert the Bruce

On the surface it seemed the cause of Scottish independence was lost: Balliol wasn't going to return and the English were in firm control, but under the surface, covert plans were being hatched. The details are tantalisingly sketchy, but after Wallace's execution, Robert Bruce, the young Earl of Carrick, may have made an agreement with Bishop Wishart to spark another rising and claim the kingship.

In 1306 Robert Bruce met with the head of the Comyn family, John 'The Red' Comyn, at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries. We don't know what they discussed but an argument flared and Bruce stabbed Comyn before the high altar of the church. Within six weeks Bruce was crowned king at Scone.

Bruce becomes King of Scots: A History of Scotland

It was a disastrous start for him: outlawed, excommunicated and having provoked a civil war with the Comyns, Bruce was defeated and fled to the Gaelic west. There he changed tactics and started playing to win. He launched a successful guerrilla campaign against his enemies in Scotland.

In 1307, luck was on his side when a furious Edward I, died on his way north to crush Bruce's rising. The 'Hammer of the Scots' died a failure in his own eyes, having failed to bring Scotland to heel. Edward was so obsessed with the Scottish wars he ordered that he should not be buried properly until the Scots were conquered. So he remains to this day, entombed in a plain lead casket in Westminster Abbey.

Success bred success for Bruce however, and he seemed to many Scots to be the only hope of a liberated Scotland. By 1313 Bruce had taken back most of Scotland by force. In this new position of power, he now issued an ultimatum to the remaining Balliol supporters, to join him or forfeit their estates.

The Battle of Bannockburn

In England the new king Edward II had to react. He led a massive invasion force into Scotland, which met Bruce's army at the Battle of Bannockburn - the Bruce's finest hour and a humiliating defeat for Edward's army, who arrived with a vastly superior force.

The Battle of Bannockburn: A History of Scotland

Bruce was now King of Scotland in most Scots' eyes, but still lacked English and papal recognition of Scotland's independence and his own kingship. In complete military control, the Scots raided into northern England, invaded Ireland and outmanoeuvred further English invasions. On the diplomatic front they appealed to the papacy with the now famous statement of Scottish independence, the Declaration of Arbroath - all to no avail. The recognition they sought wasn't forthcoming.

In 1328 England fell into crisis after the deposition and murder of Edward II - a man not fit to be king in many of his countrymen's eyes. Bruce seized the moment and launched an invasion of Northern England, threatening to annex it to Scotland. It was a successful ploy. Edward III of England was forced to recognise Bruce's kingship and Scotland's independence. The war was won. Bruce retired to his house in Cardross near Loch Lomond and died a year later.

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Photo: The Stone of Scone Scotland and England are two nations divided by their experience of history. That divide was never wider than during the Wars of Independence in the 13th and 14th centuries when a chance event brought an era of relative friendship to an end in violent conflict.

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Silas Haviland: Information about Scotland

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Silas Haviland: Information about Scotland

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Scotland has over 700 islands

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It's the U.K.'s Northernmost country

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In 839, the Vikings defeated the Picts

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Drinking age is 18. But with parental guidance they can legally drink at the age of 16.

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Silas Haviland: Where Scotland is Located

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Silas Haviland: Where Scotland is Located

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Scotland is located in Europe, at the northern end of Great Britain

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Richard Parker: National Symbol of Scotland

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Richard Parker: National Symbol of Scotland

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The thistle is a national symbol of Scotland.

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Scotland's national animal is the Unicorn

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England and Scotland fought many times during the 14th 15th and 16th century

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Silas Haviland: When Scotland Was Founded

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Silas Haviland: When Scotland Was Founded

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843 AD

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The myth, the Loch Ness monster, lives in Scotland

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Shakespeare is widely considered the world's greatest dramatist.

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Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet

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The official animal of Scotland is the unicorn.

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Shakespeare was baptized on 26th April 1564

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Looking for facts about Shakespeare? Read our 56 facts about William Shakespeare to understand his life and works. Parents: John and Mary Shakespeare. Born:

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Shakespeare never spelled his name right.

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A list of interesting Shakespeare facts.

1. Shakespeare was born 26 April 1564, Stratford. (only later changed to Stratford Upon Avon)

2. Shakespeare is widely considered the world's greatest dramatist.

3. He wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets.

4. Shakespeare is most likely to have received a classical Latin education at King's New School in Stratford.

5. He married Anne Hathaway when he was only 18;

6. Anne (26) was 3 months pregnant when they married.

7. Their first child, Susanna was born six months after their marriage.

8. They later had two twins, Hamnet and Judith.

9. Shakespeare had seven brothers and sisters

10. Shakespeare worked as an actor, writer and co-owner of a drama company called the 'Lord Chamberlain's Men'- Later known as the King's Men.

11. His greatest plays include Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.

12. The first publishing of Shakespeare's works is the 'First Folio' published in 1623.

13. In the introduction to the First Folio, playwright Ben Johnson wrote a preface to Shakespeare's work with the quote '(Shakespeare) is not of an age, but for all time.'

14. Shakespeare's popularity blossomed after the Romantic period and during the Victorian period - receiving the praise of poets, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Victor Hugo and Voltaire.

15. Romantic poet John Keats kept a bust of Shakespeare near his desk in the hope that Shakespeare would spark his creativity

16. 'Bardolatry' was a term coined by George Bernard Shaw to illustrate the reverence held by many Victorians for anything Shakespeare.

17. By 1592, Shakespeare was receiving his first literary criticism with playwright Robert Greene, criticising Shakespeare for being a 'Jack of all trades' - a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others.

18. This criticism may be motivated by the fact Shakespeare was not university educated like contemporary writers such as Christopher Marlowe.

19. Early praise for Shakespeare came from writers such as Ben Johnson. Jonson remarked of Shakespeare he was the - "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage"

20. Shakespeare acted in many of his plays.

21. Shakespeare was acquainted with Queen Elizabeth I.

22. After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare's company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I and changed its name to the Kings Men.

23. Shakespeare is often referred to as Elizabethan playwright, but most of his players were written in the Jacobean period.

24. In 1599, the company built their own theatre, The Globe on the south banks of the River Thames.

25. Shakespeare lived through an outbreak of the bubonic plague in London (1524-94) and 1609. The plague also came to Stratford, when Shakespeare was just 3 months old

26. Many of Shakespeare's plays were based on historical accounts, dramatised by Shakespeare. He also dramatised stories from classical writers such as Plutarch and Holinshed.

27. Hamlet was based on a well known Scandinavian legend called -Amleth,

28. Shakespeare's plays contain 200 references to dogs and 600 references to birds.

29. In 1890, Eugene Schiffelin an American 'Bardolator' decided to import every kind of bird mentioned in Shakespeare but not native to America. This included a flock of 60 starlings released in New York. Starlings have now driven many native birds to the edge of extinction.

30. Shakespeare's plays are usually separated into three main divisions
Comedies - 'All's well that Ends Well', 'Much Ado About Nothing'
Histories - 'Henry V'
Tragedies - 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Hamlet', and 'Othello'.

31. There are those who question whether William Shakespeare was actually the author of the plays, attributed to him. Other contenders include the 'Oxford school' - suggesting Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was a better contender.

32. Shakespeare was the most quoted author in Samuel Johnson's early "Dictionary of the English Language'

33. Before Shakespeare, the English language was much less codified with no official dictionary and many variations on spelling.

34. Shakespeare has given many words (estimate of 1,700 - 3,000) to the English language.

35. Estimations of Shakespeare's vocabulary range from 17,000 to 29,000 words.

36. Shakespeare has given many memorable phrases to the English language, such as "wild goose chase", "foregone conclusion" "in a pickle"

37. Shakespeare has given many memorable insults, "Thou art like a toad; ugly and venomous.", "You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe!", "Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!"

38. Shakespeare never seemed to spell his name properly, often signing his name "Willm Shakp,"

39. By others, he was referred to by over 80 different names, such as Shaxberd." and "Shappere"

40. Macbeth was often unpopular for its reference to witches which created fear in the middle ages. There remains a long theatre superstition of saying aloud the name 'Macbeth'

41. In his will, he appeared to only give his wife (Anne) a bed.

42. Shakespeare's grave includes a curse against moving his bones.

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition at Amazon

Shakespeare: The Biography

Shakespeare: The Biography at Amazon
Related pages Biography of William Shakespeare
Famous English people - Famous English men and women. From Anne Boleyn and Queen Elizabeth I to Henry VIII and Winston Churchill. Includes the great poets - William Shakespeare, William Blake and William Wordsworth.

Great Briton list - Top 100 famous Britons as voted by a BBC poll. Including Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare, Thomas Cromwell and Queen Elizabeth I.

Writers and authors - Famous authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, William Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling, Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway.

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A list of interesting Shakespeare facts. Shakespeare was born 26 April 1564, Stratford. (only later changed to Stratford Upon Avon) Shakespeare is widely considered the world's greatest dramatist. He wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets. Shakespeare is most likely to have received a classical Latin education at King's New School in Stratford.

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Dakota: Shakespeare's First Published Play

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Dakota: Shakespeare's First Published Play

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Shakespeare's first published play was Henry VI, Part Two, which appeared in 1594.

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Shakes sphere married an older woman who was three months pregnant at the time.

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Shakespeare had 7 siblings Joan, Margaret, Gilbert another Joan and Edmund.

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Shakespeare's father was paid to drink alcohol and had many different jobs.

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1. Shakespeare's father held a lot of different jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer.

The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551 and began dabbling in various trades, selling leather goods, wool, malt and corn. In 1556 he was appointed the borough's official "ale taster," meaning he was responsible for inspecting bread and malt liquors. The next year he took another big step up the social ladder by marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of an aristocratic farmer who happened to be his father's former boss. John later became a moneylender and held a series of municipal positions, serving for some time as the mayor of Stratford. In the 1570s he fell into debt and ran into legal problems for reasons that remain unclear.

2. Shakespeare married an older woman who was three months pregnant at the time.

In November 1582, 18-year-old William wed Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter eight years his senior. Instead of the customary three times, the couple's intention to marry was only announced at church once-evidence that the union was hastily arranged because of Anne's eyebrow-raising condition. Six months after the wedding, the Shakespeares welcomed a daughter, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585. Little is known about the relationship between William and Anne, besides that they often lived apart and he only bequeathed her his "second-best bed" in his will.

3. Shakespeare's parents were probably illiterate, and his children almost certainly were.

Nobody knows for sure, but it's quite likely that John and Mary Shakespeare never learned to read or write, as was often the case for people of their standing during the Elizabethan era. Some have argued that John's civic duties would have required basic literacy, but in any event he always signed his name with a mark. William, on the other hand, is thought to have Stratford's local grammar school, where he would likely have mastered reading and Latin. His wife and their two children who lived to adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl her signature.

4. Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592.

To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare disappears from the historical record between 1585, when his twins' baptism was recorded, and 1592, when the playwright Robert Greene denounced him in a pamphlet as an "upstart crow." The insult suggests he'd already made a name for himself on the London stage by then. What did the newly married father and future literary icon do during those seven "lost" years? Historians have speculated that he worked as a schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that was passing through Stratford. According to one 17th-century account, he fled his hometown after poaching deer from a local politician's estate.

5. Shakespeare's plays feature the first written instances of hundreds of familiar terms.

William Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining-or, at the very least, popularizing-terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation. Examples include the words "fashionable" ("Troilus and Cressida"), "sanctimonious" ("Measure for Measure"), "eyeball" ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and "lackluster" ("As You Like It"); and the expressions "foregone conclusion" ("Othello"), "in a pickle" ("The Tempest"), "wild goose chase" ("Romeo and Juliet") and "one fell swoop" ("Macbeth"). He is also credited with inventing the given names Olivia, Miranda, Jessica and Cordelia, which have become common over the years (as well as others, such as Nerissa and Titania, which have not).

6. We probably don't spell Shakespeare's name correctly-but he may not have either.

Sources from William Shakespeare's lifetime spell his last name in more than 80 different ways, ranging from "Shappere" to "Shaxberd." In the handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard's name is never spelled "William Shakespeare." Instead, there are variations and abbreviations such as "Willm Shakp," "Willm Shakspere" and "William Shakspeare" instead. However it's spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from the Old English words "schakken" ("to brandish") and "speer" ("spear"), and probably referred to a confrontational or argumentative person.

7. Shakespeare's epitaph wards off would-be grave robbers with a curse.

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52-not bad for an era when the average life expectancy ranged between 30 and 40 years. We may never know what killed him, although an acquaintance wrote that the Bard fell ill after a night of heavy drinking with fellow playwright Ben Jonson. Despite his swift demise, Shakespeare supposedly had the wherewithal to pen the epitaph over his tomb, which is located inside a Stratford church. Intended to thwart the numerous grave robbers who plundered England's cemeteries at the time, the verse reads: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare, / To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones." It must have done the trick, since Shakespeare's remains have yet to be disturbed.

8. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring-or so we think.

Our notion of William Shakespeare's appearance comes from several 17th-century portraits that may or may not have been painted while the Bard himself sat behind the canvas. In one of the most famous depictions, known as the Chandos portrait after its onetime owner, the subject has a full beard, a receding hairline, loosened shirt-ties and a shiny gold hoop dangling from his left ear. Even back in Shakespeare's time, earrings on men were trendy hallmarks of a bohemian lifestyle, as evidenced by images of other Elizabethan artists. The fashion may have been inspired by sailors, who sported a single gold earring to cover funeral costs in case they died at sea.

9. North America's 200 million starlings have Shakespeare to thank for their existence.

William Shakespeare's works contain more than 600 references to various types of birds, from swans and doves to sparrows and turkeys. The starling-a lustrous songbird with a gift for mimicry, native to Europe and western Asia-makes just one appearance, in "Henry IV, Part 1." In 1890 an American "bardolator" named Eugene Schiffelin decided to import every kind of bird mentioned in Shakespeare's oeuvre but absent from the United States. As part of this project, he released two flocks of 60 starlings in New York's Central Park. One hundred twenty years later, the highly adaptable species has taken over the skies, becoming invasive and driving some native birds to the brink of extinction.

10. Some people think Shakespeare was a fraud.

How did a provincial commoner who had never gone to college or ventured outside Stratford become one of the most prolific, worldly and eloquent writers in history? Even early in his career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that displayed in-depth knowledge of international affairs, European capitals and history, as well as familiarity with the royal court and high society. For this reason, some theorists have suggested that one or several authors wishing to conceal their true identity used the person of William Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert. Most scholars and literary historians remain skeptical about this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights.

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10 Things You Didn't Know About William Shakespeare | HISTORY

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Explore fascinating facts about the life and legacy of England's famous and mysterious Bard.

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He was born on April 23, 1564

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Shakespeare was married at age 18 to a woman named Anne Hathaway.

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No one actually knows when Shakespeare was born.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/shakespeare-400-10-of-the-most-interesting-facts-about-the-bard-a6996621.html

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Shakespeare performed in front of Queen Elizabeth

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Looking for facts about Shakespeare? Read our 56 facts about William Shakespeare to understand his life and works. Parents: John and Mary Shakespeare. Born:

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I found this informative website that gives a timeline about Scottish history.

On the timeline, I found out that Macbeth was an actual person who was a famous Scottish king!

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The history of Scotland is fascinating and complex; there are Roman soldiers, Vikings, noble clansmen, powerful ruling monarchs and enlightened philosophers.

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John and Mary Shakespeare. re his parents.