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Henry Wriothesely, third Earl of Southampton Biography

Henry Wriothesely, third Earl of Southampton Image

SOUTHAMPTON, HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, third Earl of (1573-1624). An English statesman, the patron of Shakespeare. He was born at Cowdray House, near Midhurst, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, and studied law at Gray's Inn. He was attached to Queen Elizabeth's suite, and received the dedications of various poets, including Shakespeare, who in 1593 addressed to him Venus and Adonis and next year The Rape of Lucrece. He is also supposed by some to be the anonymous patron of Shakespeare's Sonnets. He was a friend of the Earl of Essex, taking part in Essex's insurrection and was condemned to death. His sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life, and this was reversed by Parliament early in the reign of James I. In 1605 he became active in the colonization of America, being Governor of the Virginia Company from 1620 until its dissolution in 1624. In 1621 he was imprisoned in the Tower for opposing Charles I. After his release he commanded a regiment for the Dutch against the Spanish, and both he and his son died of fever contracted in the Netherlands.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 309.