Edward de Vere's Family Tree

Sir William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's right-hand man, marries the scholarly Mildred Cooke; two of his children are Anne Cecil and Sir Robert Cecil. After John de Vere's death, Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, becomes Cecil's ward and joins the Cecil household.

Two of Oxford's uncles are poets; one is the Earl of Surrey, a noted poet, who appears in a large role in Sir Thomas More. His mother's brother is Arthur Golding, who translates Shakespeare's favorite book, Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Oxford's first cousin, Surrey's son, is Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk. Norfolk, Oxford's friend and mentor, is beheaded for treason when Oxford is in his early 20s The prosecution is headed by Cecil. .Shortly afterward, and possibly as the result of Oxford's having tried to rescue Norfolk, Oxford is reluctantly married to Anne Cecil.

Their children are:

• Elizabeth de Vere, whom Oxford does not believe is his child. She is engaged to Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, often identified as Shakespeare's Fair Youth of the Sonnets, but marries the Earl of Derby, who "writes plays for the common stage"
• Bridget de Vere
• Susan de Vere, who is an actor in Queen Anne's private theatricals, marries Philip Herbert, earl of Montgomery, co-dedicatee of the First Folio

After Anne's death, Edward de Vere marries a second wife, Elizabeth Trentham. Their child, Henry, succeeds his father as the eighteenth earl of Oxford, but dies without children.

After William Cecil's death, his son Robert Cecil takes over his father's role as the power behind the throne.