Ghanima Atreides (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atreideslioness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2023-11-15 09:52 am
atreideslioness) wrote in fandomhigh2023-11-15 09:52 am
Entry tags:
The History of Assassination. Wednesday, First Period [11/15]
"Apologies for missing last week," Ghanima said as she breezed in, Trebor balanced on her hip as he chewed on her hair. "There was an issue with the Spacing Guild, and as wickedly clever as my brother is, the more delicate acts of diplomacy are not his strong suit."
Especially not with both Alice and Hania constantly urging him towards mischief.
"--however, he makes for an excellent distraction. Everyone is so busy watching the infamously 'volatile'," you could practically hear the airquotes, "--emperor, no one is watching the empress."
"But I hear the office moose found you a substitute teacher, and none of you died from it, so I shall assume class went as well as could be expected, and we shall start with today's lesson -- the 'assassination'--" there were the airquotes again, "--of Kit Marlowe."
"Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era, and is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the many imitations of his play Tamburlaine, and the enduring popularity of Faustus, modern scholars consider him to have been the foremost dramatist in London in the years just before his mysterious early death."
Ghanima grinned, expertly shifting Trebor. "Which is where the fun begins. The only undisputed fact is that on Wednesday, the 30th of May in 1593 CE, Marlowe was killed at the age of 29."
"Differing sensational reports of Marlowe's death in 1593 abounded after the event and are contested by scholars today owing to, unsurprisingly, a lack of good documentation." An unforgivable sin, in Ghani's eyes. "There have been many conjectures as to the nature and reason for his death, including a vicious bar-room fight, blasphemous libel against the church, homosexual intrigue, betrayal by another playwright, and espionage from the highest level: the Privy Council of Elizabeth I. Some have even said the killing was faked to allow Marlowe to escape his political enemies. An official coroner's account of Marlowe's death was discovered only in 1925, and it did little to persuade all scholars that it told the whole story."
"First, you must understand that Kit Marlowe collected scandal and enemies like Fandom residents collect weapons," she continued cheerfully. "He was smarter than was good for his health."
"In 1587, the university hesitated to award his Master of Arts degree because of a rumour that he intended to go to the English seminary at Rheims in northern France, presumably to prepare for ordination as a Roman Catholic priest," Ghani said. "Now, if true, such an action on his part would have been a direct violation of royal edict issued by Queen Elizabeth I in 1585, criminalizing any attempt by an English citizen to be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church."
"Religious tensions were at a boiling point in England, and large-scale violence between Protestants and Catholics on the European continent has been cited by scholars as the impetus for the Protestant English Queen's defensive anti-Catholic laws issued from 1581 until her death in 1603." Trebor waved his hands and made pfffffffffffft noise, and Ghanima patted his head. "That's right, dearest. It was all very silly."
"Now, despite the dire implications for Marlowe, his degree was awarded on schedule when the Privy Council intervened on his behalf," she continued, striding to the board to start writing. "--commending him for his "faithful dealing" and "good service" --" both quotes scrawled in her handwriting and underlined to drive home the point. "--to the Queen."
"What you need to understand is that the Privy Council isn't just a group that would step-in randomly for anyone. The Privy Council of England, also known as His -- or Her -- Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England. Its members were often senior members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, together with leading churchmen, judges, diplomats and military leaders. They did not intervene for college students as a matter of policy."
"Surviving college records from the period also indicate that, in the academic year 1584–1585, Marlowe had had a series of unusually lengthy absences from the university which violated university regulations. Surviving college buttery accounts, which record student purchases for personal provisions, show that Marlowe began spending lavishly on food and drink during the periods he was in attendance; the amount was more than he could have afforded on his known scholarship income."
"The nature of Marlowe's service was not specified by the council, but its letter to the Cambridge authorities has provoked much speculation by modern scholars, notably the theory that Marlowe was operating as a secret agent for Privy Council member Sir Francis Walsingham: Elizabeth's principal secretary in the 1580s and a man more deeply involved in state espionage than any other member of the Privy Council. The only surviving evidence of the Privy Council's correspondence is found in their minutes, the letter being lost. There is no mention of espionage in the minutes, but its summation of the lost Privy Council letter is vague in meaning, stating that "it was not Her Majesties pleasure--"" also written out on the board, "--that persons employed as Marlowe had been "in matters touching the benefit of his country should be defamed by those who are ignorant in th'affaires he went about." Scholars agree the vague wording was typically used to protect government agents, but they continue to debate what the "matters touching the benefit of his country" actually were in Marlowe's case and how they affected the 23-year-old writer as he launched his literary career in 1587."
"Little is known about Marlowe's adult life. All available evidence, other than what can be deduced from his literary works, is found in legal records and other official documents. In contemporary accounts, Marlowe has been described as a spy, a brawler, an atheist -- which held the dangerous implication of being an enemy of God and the state, by association -- a heretic, as well as a magician, a duellist, tobacco-user, counterfeiter, and 'rakehel.'"
"As to the charges of Kit being a spy... It has been speculated that Marlowe was the "Morley" who was tutor to Arbella Stuart in 1589, a potential rival to the Queen. In 1592 Marlowe was arrested in the English garrison town of Flushing in the Netherlands, for alleged involvement in the counterfeiting of coins, presumably related to the activities of seditious Catholics. He was sent to the Lord Treasurer, but no charge or imprisonment resulted. Experts speculate that this arrest may have disrupted another of Marlowe's spying missions, perhaps by giving the resulting coinage to the Catholic cause, and he was to infiltrate the followers of the active Catholic plotter William Stanley and report back to Burghley."
"In early May 1593, several bills were posted about London threatening the Protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands who had settled in the city. One of these, the "Dutch church libel", written in rhymed iambic pentameter, contained allusions to several of Marlowe's plays and was signed, 'Tamburlaine.'" Ghanima shook her head. "You can see how that did not reflect well on Kit, regardless if he was the actual author."
"On 11 May the Privy Council ordered the arrest of those responsible for the libels. The next day, Marlowe's colleague Thomas Kyd was arrested, his lodgings were searched and a three-page fragment of a heretical tract was found. In a letter to Sir John Puckering, Kyd asserted that it had belonged to Marlowe, with whom he had been writing in the room some two years earlier. In a second letter, Kyd described Marlowe as blasphemous, disorderly, holding treasonous opinions, being an irreligious reprobate and 'intemperate & of a cruel hart.' They had both been working for an aristocratic patron, probably Ferdinando Stanley, the Lord Strange. A warrant for Marlowe's arrest was issued on 18 May, when the Privy Council apparently knew that he might be found staying with Thomas Walsingham, whose father was a first cousin of the late Sir Francis Walsingham."
Ghanima smiled thinly. "Yes, the same Sir Francis that Kit was possibly spying for during his college years. Marlowe duly presented himself on 20 May but there apparently being no Privy Council meeting on that day, was instructed to 'give his daily attendance on their Lordships, until he shall be licensed to the contrary,' or, 'show up every day until we deal with you.' Ten days later, on Wednesday, 30 May, Marlowe was killed."
"Various accounts of Marlowe's death were current over the next few years. Then, in 1925, the scholar Leslie Hotson discovered the coroner's report of the inquest on Marlowe's death, held two days later on Friday 1 June 1593, by the Coroner of the Queen's Household, William Danby. According the inquest, Marlowe had spent all day in a house in Deptford, owned by the widow Eleanor Bull, with three men: Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley. All three had been employed by one or other of the Walsinghams. Skeres and Poley had helped snare the conspirators in the Babington plot and Frizer was a servant to Thomas Walsingham, probably in the role of a financial or business agent, as he was for Walsingham's wife Audrey a few years later. These witnesses testified that Frizer and Marlowe had argued over payment of the bill -- now famously known as the 'Reckoning' -- exchanging "divers malicious words" while Frizer was sitting at a table between the other two and Marlowe was lying behind him on a couch. Marlowe allegedly snatched Frizer's dagger and wounded him on the head. In the ensuing struggle, according to the coroner's report, Marlowe was stabbed above the right eye, killing him instantly. The jury concluded that Frizer acted in self-defence and within a month he was pardoned. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford immediately after the inquest, on 1 June 1593."
Ghanima rolled her eyes. "And if you believe that, then I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you."
"One of the main reasons for doubting the truth of the inquest concerns the reliability of Marlowe's companions as witnesses. As an agent provocateur for the late Sir Francis Walsingham, Robert Poley was a consummate liar. The man was literally known as 'very genius of the Elizabethan underworld" and is on record as saying "I will swear and forswear myself, rather than I will accuse myself to do me any harm."
"The other witness, Nicholas Skeres, had for many years acted as a confidence trickster, drawing young men into the clutches of people in the money-lending racket, including Marlowe's apparent killer, Ingram Frizer, with whom he was engaged in such a swindle. Despite their being referred to as 'gentlemen' in the inquest report, the witnesses were professional liars and spies with zero incentive to tell the truth about anything, ever."
"Now, some biographers and historians take the inquest to be a true account of what occurred, but in trying to explain what really happened if the account was not true, others have come up with a variety of murder theories." Ghanima walked back to the board and began writing again...
"Since there are only written documents on which to base any conclusions and since it is probable that the most crucial information about his death was never committed to paper, it is unlikely that the full circumstances of Marlowe's death will ever be known. However, I'm curious. Just based on the evidence at hand... what do you think the more likely? An accident, a crime of passion, or a deliberate assassination?"
Especially not with both Alice and Hania constantly urging him towards mischief.
"--however, he makes for an excellent distraction. Everyone is so busy watching the infamously 'volatile'," you could practically hear the airquotes, "--emperor, no one is watching the empress."
"But I hear the office moose found you a substitute teacher, and none of you died from it, so I shall assume class went as well as could be expected, and we shall start with today's lesson -- the 'assassination'--" there were the airquotes again, "--of Kit Marlowe."
"Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era, and is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the many imitations of his play Tamburlaine, and the enduring popularity of Faustus, modern scholars consider him to have been the foremost dramatist in London in the years just before his mysterious early death."
Ghanima grinned, expertly shifting Trebor. "Which is where the fun begins. The only undisputed fact is that on Wednesday, the 30th of May in 1593 CE, Marlowe was killed at the age of 29."
"Differing sensational reports of Marlowe's death in 1593 abounded after the event and are contested by scholars today owing to, unsurprisingly, a lack of good documentation." An unforgivable sin, in Ghani's eyes. "There have been many conjectures as to the nature and reason for his death, including a vicious bar-room fight, blasphemous libel against the church, homosexual intrigue, betrayal by another playwright, and espionage from the highest level: the Privy Council of Elizabeth I. Some have even said the killing was faked to allow Marlowe to escape his political enemies. An official coroner's account of Marlowe's death was discovered only in 1925, and it did little to persuade all scholars that it told the whole story."
"First, you must understand that Kit Marlowe collected scandal and enemies like Fandom residents collect weapons," she continued cheerfully. "He was smarter than was good for his health."
"In 1587, the university hesitated to award his Master of Arts degree because of a rumour that he intended to go to the English seminary at Rheims in northern France, presumably to prepare for ordination as a Roman Catholic priest," Ghani said. "Now, if true, such an action on his part would have been a direct violation of royal edict issued by Queen Elizabeth I in 1585, criminalizing any attempt by an English citizen to be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church."
"Religious tensions were at a boiling point in England, and large-scale violence between Protestants and Catholics on the European continent has been cited by scholars as the impetus for the Protestant English Queen's defensive anti-Catholic laws issued from 1581 until her death in 1603." Trebor waved his hands and made pfffffffffffft noise, and Ghanima patted his head. "That's right, dearest. It was all very silly."
"Now, despite the dire implications for Marlowe, his degree was awarded on schedule when the Privy Council intervened on his behalf," she continued, striding to the board to start writing. "--commending him for his "faithful dealing" and "good service" --" both quotes scrawled in her handwriting and underlined to drive home the point. "--to the Queen."
"What you need to understand is that the Privy Council isn't just a group that would step-in randomly for anyone. The Privy Council of England, also known as His -- or Her -- Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England. Its members were often senior members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, together with leading churchmen, judges, diplomats and military leaders. They did not intervene for college students as a matter of policy."
"Surviving college records from the period also indicate that, in the academic year 1584–1585, Marlowe had had a series of unusually lengthy absences from the university which violated university regulations. Surviving college buttery accounts, which record student purchases for personal provisions, show that Marlowe began spending lavishly on food and drink during the periods he was in attendance; the amount was more than he could have afforded on his known scholarship income."
"The nature of Marlowe's service was not specified by the council, but its letter to the Cambridge authorities has provoked much speculation by modern scholars, notably the theory that Marlowe was operating as a secret agent for Privy Council member Sir Francis Walsingham: Elizabeth's principal secretary in the 1580s and a man more deeply involved in state espionage than any other member of the Privy Council. The only surviving evidence of the Privy Council's correspondence is found in their minutes, the letter being lost. There is no mention of espionage in the minutes, but its summation of the lost Privy Council letter is vague in meaning, stating that "it was not Her Majesties pleasure--"" also written out on the board, "--that persons employed as Marlowe had been "in matters touching the benefit of his country should be defamed by those who are ignorant in th'affaires he went about." Scholars agree the vague wording was typically used to protect government agents, but they continue to debate what the "matters touching the benefit of his country" actually were in Marlowe's case and how they affected the 23-year-old writer as he launched his literary career in 1587."
"Little is known about Marlowe's adult life. All available evidence, other than what can be deduced from his literary works, is found in legal records and other official documents. In contemporary accounts, Marlowe has been described as a spy, a brawler, an atheist -- which held the dangerous implication of being an enemy of God and the state, by association -- a heretic, as well as a magician, a duellist, tobacco-user, counterfeiter, and 'rakehel.'"
"As to the charges of Kit being a spy... It has been speculated that Marlowe was the "Morley" who was tutor to Arbella Stuart in 1589, a potential rival to the Queen. In 1592 Marlowe was arrested in the English garrison town of Flushing in the Netherlands, for alleged involvement in the counterfeiting of coins, presumably related to the activities of seditious Catholics. He was sent to the Lord Treasurer, but no charge or imprisonment resulted. Experts speculate that this arrest may have disrupted another of Marlowe's spying missions, perhaps by giving the resulting coinage to the Catholic cause, and he was to infiltrate the followers of the active Catholic plotter William Stanley and report back to Burghley."
"In early May 1593, several bills were posted about London threatening the Protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands who had settled in the city. One of these, the "Dutch church libel", written in rhymed iambic pentameter, contained allusions to several of Marlowe's plays and was signed, 'Tamburlaine.'" Ghanima shook her head. "You can see how that did not reflect well on Kit, regardless if he was the actual author."
"On 11 May the Privy Council ordered the arrest of those responsible for the libels. The next day, Marlowe's colleague Thomas Kyd was arrested, his lodgings were searched and a three-page fragment of a heretical tract was found. In a letter to Sir John Puckering, Kyd asserted that it had belonged to Marlowe, with whom he had been writing in the room some two years earlier. In a second letter, Kyd described Marlowe as blasphemous, disorderly, holding treasonous opinions, being an irreligious reprobate and 'intemperate & of a cruel hart.' They had both been working for an aristocratic patron, probably Ferdinando Stanley, the Lord Strange. A warrant for Marlowe's arrest was issued on 18 May, when the Privy Council apparently knew that he might be found staying with Thomas Walsingham, whose father was a first cousin of the late Sir Francis Walsingham."
Ghanima smiled thinly. "Yes, the same Sir Francis that Kit was possibly spying for during his college years. Marlowe duly presented himself on 20 May but there apparently being no Privy Council meeting on that day, was instructed to 'give his daily attendance on their Lordships, until he shall be licensed to the contrary,' or, 'show up every day until we deal with you.' Ten days later, on Wednesday, 30 May, Marlowe was killed."
"Various accounts of Marlowe's death were current over the next few years. Then, in 1925, the scholar Leslie Hotson discovered the coroner's report of the inquest on Marlowe's death, held two days later on Friday 1 June 1593, by the Coroner of the Queen's Household, William Danby. According the inquest, Marlowe had spent all day in a house in Deptford, owned by the widow Eleanor Bull, with three men: Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley. All three had been employed by one or other of the Walsinghams. Skeres and Poley had helped snare the conspirators in the Babington plot and Frizer was a servant to Thomas Walsingham, probably in the role of a financial or business agent, as he was for Walsingham's wife Audrey a few years later. These witnesses testified that Frizer and Marlowe had argued over payment of the bill -- now famously known as the 'Reckoning' -- exchanging "divers malicious words" while Frizer was sitting at a table between the other two and Marlowe was lying behind him on a couch. Marlowe allegedly snatched Frizer's dagger and wounded him on the head. In the ensuing struggle, according to the coroner's report, Marlowe was stabbed above the right eye, killing him instantly. The jury concluded that Frizer acted in self-defence and within a month he was pardoned. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford immediately after the inquest, on 1 June 1593."
Ghanima rolled her eyes. "And if you believe that, then I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you."
"One of the main reasons for doubting the truth of the inquest concerns the reliability of Marlowe's companions as witnesses. As an agent provocateur for the late Sir Francis Walsingham, Robert Poley was a consummate liar. The man was literally known as 'very genius of the Elizabethan underworld" and is on record as saying "I will swear and forswear myself, rather than I will accuse myself to do me any harm."
"The other witness, Nicholas Skeres, had for many years acted as a confidence trickster, drawing young men into the clutches of people in the money-lending racket, including Marlowe's apparent killer, Ingram Frizer, with whom he was engaged in such a swindle. Despite their being referred to as 'gentlemen' in the inquest report, the witnesses were professional liars and spies with zero incentive to tell the truth about anything, ever."
"Now, some biographers and historians take the inquest to be a true account of what occurred, but in trying to explain what really happened if the account was not true, others have come up with a variety of murder theories." Ghanima walked back to the board and began writing again...
- Jealous of her husband Thomas's relationship with Marlowe, Audrey Walsingham arranged for the playwright to be murdered.
- Sir Walter Raleigh arranged the murder, fearing that under torture Marlowe might incriminate him.
- With Skeres the main player, the murder resulted from attempts by the Earl of Essex to use Marlowe to incriminate Sir Walter Raleigh.
- He was killed on the orders of father and son Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil, who thought that his plays contained Catholic propaganda.
- He was accidentally killed while Frizer and Skeres were pressuring him to pay back money he owed them.
- Marlowe was murdered at the behest of several members of the Privy Council, who feared that he might reveal them to be atheists.
- The Queen ordered his assassination because of his subversive atheistic behaviour.
- Frizer murdered him because he envied Marlowe's close relationship with his master Thomas Walsingham and feared the effect that Marlowe's behaviour might have on Walsingham's reputation.
- Marlowe's death was faked to save him from trial and execution for subversive atheism.
"Since there are only written documents on which to base any conclusions and since it is probable that the most crucial information about his death was never committed to paper, it is unlikely that the full circumstances of Marlowe's death will ever be known. However, I'm curious. Just based on the evidence at hand... what do you think the more likely? An accident, a crime of passion, or a deliberate assassination?"
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During the Lecture
Re: During the Lecture
Don't mind Gray, he was just over here sliding down in his seat and subtly texting Daman, Hey, do you remember that Kit Marlowe guy?
Do you know how he died?
Asking because of reasons.
Re: During the Lecture
* The Secret Playwright Wars of the 1590s, with Shakespeare emerging victorious.
Sometimes she could be a little ridiculous, yes.
Discussion!
"Remember, the inquest paperwork was found hundreds of years after the event, and if it was an assassination, the culprits had plenty of time to collaborate and plan. While there were ten days between Kit's arrest and murder, it could have been in the works before that."
Re: Discussion!
She shrugged. "That's just sloppy. If they were going to do it, it would have been obviously an accident, or done in such a way as to send a message. There's no point in making it equivocal."
Talk to Ghanima & Trebor
ooc
Re: ooc