Little do we know about the true history of William Shakespeare; there are many conspiracies that surround his life. For centuries, scholars have debated over the true authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Many books and articles have been written arguing that someone other than William Shakespeare wrote the plays and poems published under his name. Many quarrels have been exchanged, but the problem remains unresolved.
William Shakespeare is a man of immense mystery. There are many blanks left unfilled about his life due to lost records. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. His most widely accepted date of birth is on April 23, 1564. However his actual date of birth still remains a mystery. A record from the parish register of Holy Trinity Church in his hometown was found, which states that he was baptized on April 26, 1564. Based on this record, and considering that children of Shakespeare's time were usually baptized two or three days after their birth, April 23 became traditionally accepted as Shakespeare's date of birth.
English: Birth place of William Shakespeare, Strat...
Sir John Gilbert's 1849 painting: The Plays of Wil...
Shakespeare's funerary monument, Holy Trinity Chur...Details about his life are only known from few surviving documents. Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, a locally well-known merchant, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a prosperous landowner. He was the eldest of eight children. Shakespeare probably went to the King's New School grammar school in Stratford; but he had no education after that. In November of 1582, at the age of eighteen, a license was issued to permit Shakespeare to marry Anne Hathaway, who was eights years his senior and also pregnant with their first child, Susanna. Hathaway was the daughter of a Warwickshire farmer, owner of the Hathaway farmhouse, which later became known as Anne Hathaway's Cottage. Susanna, their first child, was born on May 26, 1583. Later, in 1585, Shakespeare's wife was...