Reflected People 1971 to 1972

THE END FOR LONG HAIR?

With the Beatles gone the hippy movement had a serious problem. The Beatles could chuck money at making albums, because they were rich. Most bands were not. The revolution for album sales thus needed rich bands. Trouble also brewed as most music artist want to be a star or very famous. Albums however then didn’t tend to make you famous. So as the costs of making albums increased these were passed on to the buyers. Older young people like the university hippies, bought them, however in Britain the numbers going to higher education was in decline, though only if you compare it with the number of youngsters. Those aged 13 to 16 were on the increase, they bought the cheaper singles. Marc Bolan of the group T. Rex worked this out. His group had benefited from the hippy types and from the fact he played the College Campus circuit. The original name for the band Tyrannosaurus Rex fitted the college image as many fans were probably studying palaeontology. And dinosaurs were popular, because of films like One Million Years BC. Even kids were nuts about them (including myself). However Bolan’s band had trouble having any kind of big hit. One reason was that DJ’s didn’t like saying the band’s name. They couldn’t say it! Fortunately for Marc his marriage to June Childe gave him some stability to his teenage lifestyle. Also Tony Visconti (his manager) got fed up of writing the full name of the band and shortened it. They also reduced the price of admission to gigs and kept it at a level that the teenager could afford. The effect was dramatic. Young girls got in and started to scream at Marc. These three things put the golden touch to Bolan’s next single and Ride A White Swan went to number one January 17 1971. It wasn’t anything to do with the violins, I can tell you! Another clever move was to appear on TOTP singing Hot Love Video below covered in glitter and make up. Boots the chemist had a field day Friday and Saturday from young teenage girls wanting make up products.

If anyone mentioned Elton John in 1970 it was likely to be the company account at Dick James Music moaning about the £70,000 being spent to develop him as an artist.¹ He had been of that name since 1968 and despite doing T.O.T.P. and making an album and been given good publicity by New Musical Express the public in his home country ignored him. Dick James was of course the man that Brian Epstein was sent to see about setting up the Beatles music-publishing firm. Therefore Mr James had made lots of friends and contacts in the US. One of these agreed to promote Elton providing that he did concerts there. Elton’s concert style was established when he tried to imitate Jerry Lee Lewis at Pinner County School, his grammar school when he was a teenager.² The audience loved it. As he is slightly autistic it went into his mind, along with a passion for collecting. Touring America he put into practice the Lewis style of piano playing (kicking away the stool, legs in awkward positions) and of course the Yanks loved it. He rapidly became a big star there. With lots of money he could buy things from Hollywood junk shops that he had seen from TV and old films. Returning to England and playing the Albert Hall, he came on dressed in one of his purchases. A gold tailcoat and outfit from a Busby Berkeley musical film, the same type seen in thirties films with men singing “I’m putting on my top hat, brushing up my tails....” This was still very popular entertainment in Britain and even Morecambe and Wise used the routine. Elton was not even top of the bill, yet stole the show.
By the end of 1970 he had come up with a smooth ballad that he didn’t need to play Lewis style. John Lennon loved it that much; he started sitting in front of a piano to perform and wrote his own unique song Imagine. The reason that Your Song would become a big hit and give Elton his first official UK hit was a lot to do with the BBC. During 1970 a lot of rock bands had become very big. Bands like Deep Purple and T Rex were however not very radio friendly. At least for the BBC and since the BBC had a virtual monopoly on radio stations, with only radio Luxemburg and the few illegal pirate stations to compete with, they held sway. Progressive Music as it was being called was shunted away to John Peel at Radio 1. The peak time for radio was breakfast. Since television wasn’t starting to even transmit, before children were in school. Holding the flagship post at Radio 1 was Tony Blackburn and in January of 71 he made Your Song his single of the week. Within weeks it climbed to number two³ and no further. Another Beatle however was keeping Elton going higher. Elton’s song also inspired another songwriter/musician to sit down in front of a piano and sing the same way.
The biggest problem for anyone who entertained people in Britain during the seventies, at least till Thatcher took over, was the tax. You just saw it as throwing money down the drain. One way round the problem was to invest it in new talent; at least that’s what Tom Jones’ manager found out. Gordon Mills created the label MAM (Management Agency and Music) purely for tax reasons. It generated even more cash as even its first release Dave Edmunds I Hear You Knocking went to number one. A cloth cap songwriter was also to be found on the label. He had tried most of the late sixties to get a hit on his own, but despite writing hit songs for others had no success till he contacted Mills. The change in music style by the end of 1970 fitted this new artist completely. Ok let’s name him, which is what Mills did, Gilbert, after the composer, as his real name was O’Sullivan! His skill with words even brought tears to people eyes, with the song about the death of his parents Alone Again (Naturally).

The endearing image most people have of him is the man playing the (school/pub) piano, probably in an Irish bar. Mills just so happened to have a young daughter and Gilbert would come to work on his arrangements at the Mils’ home. This resulted in the smash hit Clair for the girl’s name was just that. They even tickled her and put the sound on the end of the single. The upshot was that a lot of baby girls were suddenly called Clair!
Sugary records were dominating Radio 1, that much that even insiders like John Peel commentated on the fact that nothing that related to real music culture made it through to the airwaves. However Peel made records into chart hits by supporting acts that the rest of Radio 1 didn’t approve of yet! Bands like Status Quo; whose 1972 hit Paper Plane was slated by the industry. That single became a critical record in the development of Heavy Metal and was inspired by Roxy Music’ Virginia Plane.⁴

Bryan Ferry was the product of being a paper lad (crucially delivering Melody Maker) and Newcastle Art University. How much, would tell years later in a single called This is Tomorrow, the title of an exhibition there in 1956. Roxy (named after the cinema) was formed when Ferry met a chap with a £350 synthesiser, who knew another chap… How they got a record deal ended up in Virginia Plane, together with things associated with the American dream and the title from the cigarette brand.⁵
Other Rock bands were still being inspired by the Beatles. Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra, signed to Harvest Records, had their first hit in 1972. They combined the exocentric musical style of records like I Am Walrus with heavy drum and guitar work. However their musical style changes to a more commercial smooth sound, by the end of the decade. Others like Deep Purple and Black Sabbeth keep their heavy sound, till the present day. For most of these bands it was the life on the road (to the gigs) drinking and drugs and sex with girl groupies. Ah...The carefree life of sex, drugs and rock & roll, then or was it carefree...

Freedom Come Freedom Stays

Not everyone wanted sex with girl groupies for a start. Elton’s gay lifestyle would have come as a great shock to many people in the early seventies. The reason it’s not shocking anybody now is also the by product of the learning atmosphere. But then so is the culture of homosexuality. Although being “gay” is a perfectly natural condition for some humans; how they interact with others is not. Education thus becomes the catalyst to make the gay voice heard. At first glance the school culture would appear to very homophobic, with many gay children being beaten up for the first time there. This does not however prevent a culture forming from being at such places, obvious examples being single sex schools, with gay children forming their own cliques. The same sex school is more homophobic on the other hand, than a mixed one. Teachers would be one the look out more for homosexual behaviour in single sex than the other. Unless they were gay themselves, some teachers were powered by God to eliminate such forms of sexual activity. This empowerment by God came from the fact many schools were set up by religious orders, as Tom Robinson found out when he went to a Quaker boarding school. The school’s homophobic attitude, that was so powerful that he tried suicide, sent him off to join the Gay Liberation Front.⁶ Another part of the foundation of Gay Culture has a lot to do with higher or further education. The universities have always had a ‘male’ gay element in them, largely because in England women were excluded from attendance there. With the debating societies these places have, it opened up the possibilities that homosexual people had rights too. Although human rights have always been an issue since ancient times; the situation as regards of black people had grown more and more during the sixties. Along with women’s liberation, yet itself another product of education, the liberation of homosexuals would set out to do the same thing. The only thing to do was to take to the streets. Much of this had already occurred in America in

1970 when an alliance of activists had shouted “Gay Power” at the Mayor of New York. In Britain, the groups ‘starting slogan’ was met with humour, largely due to a language difference between the UK and the US. The UK population conjured up an idea of gay men having sex in small cupboards (rooms for brooms in the US) due to that slogan – “Out of the closet into the street”. In the end, it was more or less to do with New York, in particular, which didn’t allow men to kiss one another in the street, so they had to kiss in the male toilets (closets in the US). The British especially and around the world, took to ‘in the closet’ it would become a catchphrase for anybody who had not revealed their sexuality to friends, family and the public and that they were passing themselves as straight. It became a symbolised locked door to a room for an exclusive club. The door was only opened when the person felt they could cope with any abuse. Or when they had no choice and later when they were dying from what everyone thought was a gay plague. For when it was opened they felt liberated or

were destroyed. ‘Power’ on the other hand, could be used by any cause and ‘people power’ grew stronger with every shout. In some cases members of this club were genuinely confused themselves. Others probably exploited their sexual switching for profit or maybe just to mess around with the status quo of culture. It is reported that David Bowie a gay icon, was switching from gay to bisexual all the time in the seventies. In the land of clubs it was considered ‘chic’ to be either way. Outside this area to be queer and open about, was asking for trouble and probably a beating by either ‘bashing’ gangs or the police.
One man guaranteed to do some protesting and shouting was Lennon. Protesting and marching songs quickly became hits as the feel-good-factor; an aspect of marching with others comes out in the songs. Power To The People is typical, but the Blue Mink’s The Banner Man is more lively and not forgetting Freedom Comes Freedom Go by The Fortunes. I suppose you can also include Three Dog Night’s Joy To The World in this category. The underlining principles also came out in various hits. Racial mixing in Black & White by Greyhound and Melting Pot again by Blue Mink, nevertheless the whole thing became a bit clichéd when the New Seekers brought out the Coca Cola advert, who had cashed in on the spirit of the movement. “Harmonola” replaced the name in I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (in perfect harmony), which sold buckets loads of singles and Coca Cola.
Against this background conflict between the Government and any movement was going to be bitter. The most powerful of these movements was the Trade Unions. Heavily influenced by political theory of the left, coming out of the universities, they were certain to clash with the right in the Conservatives also coming out of higher education. Prime Minister Edward Heath had gone for tax cuts and together with cheap credit made workers feel better off. Buying goods on the ‘never-never’ as it was called pushed the country’s growth rate to 7.4%. Nevertheless it wasn’t called that for nothing. Buying goods means they have to be paid for at some point, getting credit means security for those offering it and that means high wages. The problem with that is that many politicians see high wages as damaging to the economy. To pay the debt man workers wanted higher wages, to do that they turned to the Unions. They had one principal that they needed to stick with- Free Collective Bargaining. So the new Government’s Industrial Relations Act of 1971 broke this principal. Unions had to sign up to the agreement and if they did the TUC expelled them! It wasn’t long before wage risers were being tackled head on by the government. By January of 72, miners had walked out and power stations were shutting down. When Midlands’ coke depots started supplying power stations miners from Yorkshire rushed to stop them. Headed by Arthur Scargill these men took on the name

Flying Pickets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biblical hits

While rock grew harder others went softer. Judy Collins wild life had brought her into therapy groups, meeting in churches in the US. The trouble was that they seemed as chaotic as the drugs sessions. Somebody suggested she sang something to change the mood and she sang Amazing Grace. She went on to record the tune, complete with gospel chorus and it went big around the world. Britain took to it well, ironically the words were written in the 1770’s by John Newton an English vicar. The tune was added at much later date and based on another Scottish tune. This probably explains why the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards went to the top with a bagpipes version of it in 1972. The church thought it would help them reconnect with young people. It was having a tough time with the young. Happy carefree youngest have little desire to be saved from sinful ways and probably wanted to do some of the sins! Iconic stars like Cliff Richard were heavily criticised over his religious leanings and struggled to convert young fans. To get round these narrow minded views, he links the causes of the young to fit in with Christian beliefs, for instance he used the ‘power’ word in 1973 in the song Power To All My Friends. You could argue that science, being taught in the schools; also put

questions in the young minds about the Bible. But religion was very much present in school and the local vicar came to schools, the scientists never. If you think about it maybe youngster were fed up with being preached to at school? The religious theme of Amazing Grace was still believed to be good news by the church and they conducted a survey of young people only to find out they thought it was about a girl called Grace! God meantime was making a lot of money out of the number one records, even if the people singing his praises didn’t sometimes. Using a choir was one way of making a pop tune a hit and the Congregation’s Softly Whispering I Love You did very well and was later used by Paul Young minus the choir. George Harrison is often seen by many people as being innovative in the field of pop music. Nevertheless he got into some serious trouble over My Sweet Lord. Basically like what he done over the Kink’s song he copied in many ways The Chiffons’ single He’s So Fine to produce his own tune. There are several reasons why George would have sufficient knowledge of the song in question. First the Beatles did work with Phil Spector and did record songs by him. Secondly the song came out in 63 when the Beatles where hitting the heights and they must have heard it, especially as it was number one in America! Harrison was taken to court and a musicologist, always brought in cases like that,

confirmed that both songs were based on Saint-Saens Second Symphony. Fortunately for Harrison & Spector the Judge did not agree! (Yes I know Maxwell’s Silver Hammer) and said George broke copyright ...only.... not deliberately.⁷ This is largely explained by Phil Spector actually working with him and he of course did the old tune. Phil did over 180 versions of the slide guitar, half of which were done by Eric Clapton, to get the tune right. The problem really is that once a record takes off (hits number one) somebody generally says it’s a copy of someone’s song, often the person claiming, while it is just sounding like another song or tune. Despite its religious bent as was the Chiffons’ single, being it was gospel based. Harrison never got the attack that was inflicted on Cliff Richard’s single in 1999.

Meanwhile a student approach to Jesus was to make him a rock star or at least a stage rock star. Andrew Llyod Webber decided to make Jesus bigger than the Beatles, well in

name anyway. His stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar quickly produced hits and had Mary Magdeline singing about Jesus as if he was the ultimate celebrity. Yvonne Elliman in the single I Don’t Know How To Love Him, claimed he was just man, but you could say the musical did the image of Jesus a lot of good, at least in some of the young.

 

 

 

 

 

College Greens

Cliff also picked up on a growing interest in environmental concerns with the song Joy of Living. This issue had been raised in song back in the sixties when Joni Mitchell hit the charts with Big Yellow Taxi. The spraying of weed killers such as DDT, had been linked to deaths and chemicals were being blamed for causing cancers. For many students, who’s fathers were producing pollution from their factories they owned, it was an opportunity to prove that adults were not as wise as they make out. Needless to say Nuclear power was the ultimate thumbs down. Protesting about these

issues was one way to get the message across, but so was singing. The massive road building programme and the ugliness of the Motorway had its share of youth indignation. These tracks of tarmac smashed through woods, fields and houses, which people cared about. Cliff refers to the car as ‘a multi coloured crocodile’ with further references to the exhaust fumes, as well as people living in high-rise blocks that the poor can’t afford. But he was not the only artist with concerns about the planet. Motown supremo Berry Gordy was forced to give Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye much greater control over the songs they sang or recorded. As a result Wonder produced Living for the City and Gaye made it clear his thoughts with What’s Going On?

The Media had also picked up on these issues and TV dramas such as Doomwatch and science based Horizon where running themes on ‘green’ topics. With the advent of BBC 2 the BBC started running ‘Trade Test Transmissions’.
These were placed on during the day on the channel, mainly for electrical shops that sold televisions, as the station didn’t broadcast till the evening. They showed various promotional films, one of them was for a exhibition centre and Evoloun Video below

one was about the effects of pollution. This film was also broadcast in schools and I remember seeing it several times, during science lessons. Hollywood also caught on to the ‘planet in peril’ over man made actions. Soylent Green (MGM 1973) had the result of pollution’s effect as wiping out the food supply and the food that people had to eat was the title of the film. This turned out to be made from the Human race. Yet in the film Silent Running (1971), man packs the in danger of extinction forests in giant greenhouses (in space) and then decides it doesn’t need them. An unhinged student-type, long-haired spaceman decides he will save one and does.

 

Growing your hair long for some was alright for some, but one young lad in a band, had enough of eating his hair. The catalyst was Clint Eastwood in the film Dirty Harry and the young man was Midge Ure, now with a short hair cut based on Clint’s.⁸ Still he was the exception to the rule.

 

This chapter is not complete and is a work in progress.

1 Parkinson P42.

2 Parkinson P21

3 This is the actual chart position; it reached only no.7 in Music Week’s chart.  

4 Rossi & Parfitt P47.

5 Buckley PP19,23,34,42,79.

6 Napier-Bell P168.

7 Napier-Bell PP276-7

8 Ure P26.

Real William Shakespeare Chapter 7

SHAKESPEARE'S CHILDREN

ELIZABETH FEARED having children because of the threat that someone either would try to put that child on the throne, whilst she was still alive, or the child itself would attempt it later on. In either case this would have meant the Queen's death. A prospect, as one can imagine, she did not relish. The numerous efforts of Mary Stuart supporters to slay her didn’t continue with her son’s people. This was nothing to do with the consequences of Mary's execution. Her people from Scotland and the rest from England were Catholics and were prepared to put anyone on the throne that was of their faith. They did not bother with James as he was brought up a Protestant. Although this was not good news for the Catholics, it meant that James could curry favour with Elizabeth this he did. She was not unsympathetic to him and wrote often, establishing a friendly relationship, if not showing affection towards him. She was more like his own mother than what Mary was, even when she was alive.¹ In any case she granted him a pension of 4000 a year starting from 1586.² This was even before Mary's death! That event might have changed his attitude, you might think? Yet it appears not. Sure he did not want his mother's death, but it left him to become King, after Elizabeth. Mind you the Spanish Armada sent by Philip of Spain would not have set him on the throne, nor would he have seen it as revenge for his mother's death. Philip in his message to the Pope, made it clear that James was a heretic and wasn't going to make him King of England. No he had a much better person in mind, Philip himself!³ Undoubtedly he would then go on to take the Scottish Throne afterwards.

Curiously James was told (by Elizabeth) that Mary's death was a “miserable accident” and she was “innocent” of the deed, although she did not go into precise details of the event. This being left to Robert Carey (Lord Hunsdon' son) and what he said to James is not recorded. Oddly Robert also told James of Elizabeth's death sixteen years later.⁴

The upshots of this feeling towards him was that Shakespeare and his acting colleagues would (by Royal command) have to go to Scotland, to perform for King James. They might have gone with their patron’s son, Robert. I think it’s too much of a coincidence, when we find the King even took the actors to Denmark as part of the entertainments for his courtship of Anne, as the fleet of five ships would have been big enough. Certainly if William did not go, which I think near impossible, he got the details from someone who had gone, which was Ben Jonson, who‘s recorded as going. The entire episode is used as the ‘wooing scene’ between Henry and Katherine of France in the updated Henry V. There was possibly no Katherine in the first version at all. Fifteen year old Anne could only speak French, apart from her native language. So James would have to speak French too.⁵ It amused William anyway! All this would have taken place before 1590 and they would have been sent also for the wedding of James to Anne of Denmark, in 1590. There is evidence that actors went to Scotland for the purpose of entertaining James. They would have to have financed the journey themselves, because Elizabeth was not in favour of spending money on extravagant entertainments out of the public purse. Even so the actors would have asked, as they would have been cheeky enough to! Her reply would be that they could make people laugh as they travelled to Scotland, calling at the various Lords houses, the same Lords who would have been present at the court. They would have agreed, to court Royal favour, yet moaned about it between themselves after. Whether the Lord who was responsible for the troupe of players, paid for the trip, is I think, doubtful.

In any case the trip itself would have been profitable for the players, as they would not have to have paid for the expense of the theatre. It was not a new thing for them. They toured all over when the theatres had to be closed, even before as well. It also always did a world of good for Shakespeare's imagination; boosted by talks with the owners and family, plus the servants, of the places they stopped at, or performed in. The characters of his plays, if they had all come out of books, would seem dull and lifeless, but add some tales (even tall ones) and you have realism in the play. He could also pick up more information on the Queen’s past. Proof of tours can be found in 1603. We have a direct reference to Shakespeare being at the house of the Pembroke’s, (in Salisbury) performing As You Like It, for them and King James.⁶ The connection of James and the Bard was, in any case, there before James’s ascension to the English Throne, for why would the Bard and his fellows be in the procession through London in 1604? Not only that, they were given (each) 4 yards of red cloth, by the King’s Master of the Great Wardrobe, Sir George Home, who put Shakespeare’s name first, in his none alphabetical order accounts.⁷

I suspect two plays would directly come out of these trips to Scotland. No, one of them was not Macbeth! Actually it was Hamlet and the Tempest, though the Tempest would be greatly revised years later and the revised copies of all the plays that were printed in the Works, the originals mostly lost. Both had been performed for the first time by 1590. Most of Shakespeare's plays are either English, Italian, or about Ancient Rome. Only one is set in Denmark - Hamlet! Why? Well we do not need to look far for the answer to that one. Take one beautiful blond from Denmark and stick her in the court of James of Scotland, only when she tries to get there, the stormy Scottish weather nearly sinks the ship, one of 13. The Tempest opens with a sinking ship, on board is Miranda. This is of course Anne of Denmark; you can even make out her name in the word MY ANN A DANE, and that

is a fair bet what was going through William's mind, when he thought up the name. With shipwrecks and Denmark in his head the likelihood that our Will was in love with a third Anne!

Now of course this was way beyond what a man of Shakespeare's status should be about, yet as he says love knows no barriers and as I have shown with Elizabeth, he generally got his way. Yes good things do come in threes; still he has one hell of a problem with this one!

For starters she is going to marry King James, who is not going to let another man take advantage of his wife to be, is he? Then there’s the problem of her Royal family, back home, the scandal of the court, if it became known, not forgetting his wife and Elizabeth! After Anne was married, to continue this affair would be dangerous as the death penalty applied then for adultery with a Royal person. The other thing is that we don't know if Anne felt the same way towards William. Err we do! The results speak for themselves! No - unlike Elizabeth she didn't write things, which we can find in Shakespeare's Works. This is in the view of her limited intellect, agreed by most historians to be the case. In other words she was even more of a dumb blond than Elizabeth, having said that she would have to been very intelligent to pull the wool over James's eyes, if she wanted to make love to Will. No - again she wasn't. As we are surmising here, I think she was quickly spotted (by James) making eyes at William and he at her.

So how do we know that Anne and William made love? No I won’t tell you yet, till we have explored the reason James didn’t object to it.

King Queer and King Drunk

There can only be one reason why James Stuart, King of Scotland and only son of Mary Stuart, let William make love to his future wife, is that he didn't want to! The marriage had to be arranged. Once again in his court a great deal of pressure was applied to secure future heirs. Unlike Elizabeth, James was made of weaker stuff and he needed to find an excuse to get out of this marriage. Trouble was he couldn't likely find one. Unfortunately the other candidates, that were suggested, didn't meet with the approval of the Scottish people or James. Sir James Melville goes as far as to suggest that the King

himself started a riot, which occurred on the 28 May in Edinburgh, about the King marriage to Anne. He was probably told Anne was the most stupid princess in Europe and that he shouldn't marry her. Which, desperately grasping at straws, he took as a sign that he might not need to do the deed of making any children, as she wouldn't know what to do. Particularly if he had heard the story of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves, another princess who Henry didn't get a divorce from, as she had no idea what to do and the marriage was not consummated. No woman wanted to marry him, who was not stupid. This must also have been a big joke in the Royal Families of Europe for some time after.⁸ So unlike Elizabeth who evades marriage, James consented. To be accurate he was seen as quite keen! 

On the 18 June the party set off for Denmark and by December, James and Anne where at Elsinore. That’s got to be a big clue! So was Ben Jonson, another clue, for why is an actor there? Well we know what he did. For Ben was watching James, Anne’s father Frederick II, get legless on Danish sprits, German Ale and Prussian Beer! Doubtless Jonson and Shakespeare joined in. Turns out that Anne’s father is alcoholic as well!

Imagine James’ delight when he saw the pair of 'star crossed lovers'. This would have lead to great favours for William. The real question is would his new Queen go along with it, was she that stupid! Perhaps, we don't know, nevertheless James left a lot to be desired for a young woman. He drank excessively as we have just seen, and his table manners were appalling, these are just a few among a long list. ⁹ Then again in the case of drink so did William and so did her father. So perhaps she liked a drink as well! Maybe this is why the first child isn’t born until 1594. Perhaps she’s waiting for King James to do the deed, before giving up on him. After that she’s pregnant at least 12 times till 1606 on a regular basis, though only 9 are born.

Then the real reason James did not want to marry and have children, was he preferred men, yes he was homosexual, unlike William and we know he had many male favourites, as did his court. Long before he got married the Scottish court had to intervene in a relationship with another man, something James was very disappointed about. Nor was he seen in the company of women before this, unless he had to. Secondly he had been taught by George Buchanan to hold all women in contempt. Poetry from his youth has survived, which is very bigoted towards women! Even Queen Elizabeth knew he was gay, or as they would have viewed it then, not quite right, as she was told that young men lay in his chambers, this was in 1589!¹⁰

To be fair to James, he would have only been able to pull the false marriage off, because he was King, needing to remain in the closet, to stay King. If the people really knew he was what they called a ‘sodomite,’ he would have risked being put to death. To keep it a secret is quite an achievement for him. He nearly failed! It is known that the King in 1605 took libel action, against an unknown person. This person claimed that Henry was not James’ son, almost certainly, by suggesting that Anne was unfaithful.¹¹ Most biographers put this incident in reference to Mary’s adulteries and James’ suspect parentage, something that did vex James. It is of course possible for a gay man to produce children with a woman, but a belief, for many, in gay culture, it is something they would prefer not to do. Historians simply think that James turned heterosexual for a while then turned back. Few Gay people today doubt that can happen, never mind heterosexuals! However for many homosexual males, their culture then was of hatred to women. It was not a bit like modern times, where women tend to feel at ease more around gay men. In some ways it was just like those lesbians who are not keen on men in any part of their life. James’ later attitude to his wife is well recorded and her hatred is evident towards her husband.

King Charles Shakespeare

So did James prefer not to do it? The results speak for themselves! Hilliard and Oliver (the portrait painters) produced miniatures of the Royal family of Anne and supposedly James, however their children don't really look like James! You can see a match to Anne, but certainly not to James. What is most interesting is that the children bare a MORE striking likeness to Hilliard's miniature of a Man clasping a hand, or William Shakespeare. One miniature of a child of Anne of Denmark is so like

William, that when I first saw it I thought it was some kind of back dated picture of William when young. This theory was quickly abandoned, because of the painter and the clothing style. It turned out to be Charles I. Now I'm not going to base all my evidence on the fact that these paintings bare a resemblance to one miniature. Unfortunately William's own family can't help us trace evidence of hereditary features, as the lines all died out. However the line of the Royals didn't end. We know that the present Royal Family is descending along a female branch of their tree to Elizabeth Stuart. The miniatures and other portraits, of her, bare a strong similarity to William. If the present Royal Family were in fact descended from James, genetics and hereditary chromosomes would confer a likeness to James Stuart in members alive or dead. Yet when comparisons are made to the portraits of James, none seem to fit!

They same is not true of William Shakespeare. Even some pictures of our Queen Elizabeth are

remarkable like him!!

Compare George VI, Edward VIII even Victoria and you will see William - NOT James, in their faces. I was amazed to discover that because the Royal members often married their relations, like Victoria and Albert, who were cousins, the likeness to Shakespeare was carried through to subsequent generations. The future heirs to the British Throne by Charles and Diana have also the same combination of genetics, inherited from their father and even more so from their mother, just like Albert & Victoria. The Royal Family Tree is of course the best-documented family tree ever. Members of the family included the other Royal Families of Europe. A policy of marrying Royal to Royal has meant the hereditary features of Shakespeare have spread to all the European countries. We know that not only a likeness but also other things are passed from generation to generation. Disease is the most obvious one. Researchers have tracked Porphyria through the Royal Family and we know Shakespeare openly comments on madness in Hamlet and other plays. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that either William or HIS family had a sufferer of Porphyria. However claims have been made that Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots also suffered from it. I however disputed this in the book Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart and stand by this argument. Porphyria is more common in women, so the fact that the Royals came off Elizabeth Stuart means that she was the child of Shakespeare that gave the family the illness, if at all.¹²

Without doubt many of the Royal males have had Shakespeare's liking of women, and have gone down in the book of great lovers!

The other picture of Shakespeare by Soest, also strongly resemble members of the Royals, like the Jules Bastien - Lepage picture of Albert Edward from 1879, one of those great lovers. He is believed

to be another one infected with Porphyria, yet his symptoms fit better with Alcoholism, listed in James Graham’s book.

Admittedly the ‘wig’ wearing members of the family are much harder to make comparisons with William and James. However we know they are related to the present family so it makes no difference. The other funny thing is that some of the miniatures of James himself bear a resemblance to William’s earlier picture. His main portraits do not and the large doleful eyes¹³ of these and descriptions of him, are not a characteristic of his children or descendants. Yet all this only means that the miniatures of him are based on the patterns that were drawn for Shakespeare. James detested having his picture painted. Nor did he like being on public display at all.

It’s not inconceivable that William used to impersonate the King. As Will was an actor this is not too hard to imagine and ideal for security purposes. This idea has been used in recent times for a whole string of important people and could have been used then. James himself lived in fear of attempts on his life and one of these is still

celebrated oddly enough, currently. The King also suspected that Anne, his wife, might have been part of the plots.

We should not play down Anne of Denmark part in this process of beautifying the future ancestors. Her genes contributed good looks to many of the Royals, plus William was also good looking as well. Her influence can be seen at its best in the late Princess Diana, who has been seen as one of the most beautiful women of the late 20th Century. In the end Anne moved away from her husband and where she set up her home is still called Denmark House even today.

 

 

 

 

King Impotent the First

Of course it’s equally feasible that James did want children with his wife, for he doesn’t have ill feeling to the royal children. If you look at the tombs of those that died early and the sheer expense on them, it would suggest great love of the kids. Yet they still don’t look like him. So what if James and Anne did try for children and their efforts came to nothing? What other ways to procure heirs were left open to them?

However what evidence do we have that they did try for kids together? Well for one thing Anne doesn’t get pregnant for four years after they were married. Then she never stops. Now if the kids did look like James, then I would believe either a medical problem was responsible for the delay (in either parent) or they were not trying for children. As we are talking 16^th Century here they were unquestionably at it and again they don’t look like… So as Anne could produce children it was James shooting blanks. As I was so preoccupied with James’ being Gay, I never considered the more likely explanation that James was infertile. Male infertility is a problem now. Most males wouldn’t be keen on talking about it now, yet there must be a percentage of the male population who can’t farther children. That number must have also been there in the past and would probably be greater than now, I assume. We know that various common diseases can cause it and genetic problems, as well as sexual transmitted disease. Some children’s infections caught when mature can do the trick. With no cures male infertility must have been widespread, compared to modern times. Historian Alan Haynes also mentions injury by the kick from a horse and other forms of injury. As I strongly suspected, male infertility reports are difficult to find in historical records, according to Haynes.¹⁴ If James did injure his genitals, I do not know of any records, but the King being just sick, after puberty, was probably common. Any recorded sickness after that could have made him un-reproductive. James would never know. Haynes also suggests that, without the kick in the balls, the 16^th Century man put this lack of knowledge (as to the cause of him shooting blanks) down to ungodly or mystical ways. 

As far as I know there are also no bastard children for James, not that it is really significant, for Kings are not supposed to have them anyway, but most seem to anyhow. Yet there wouldn’t be if my scenario is correct. So James being a King had no-choice to go elsewhere to get his wife pregnant. We also know that he suffered with the usual diseases that have these side effects. Is there any evidence though for infertility to be the reason William fathers the royal children? Hearsay unfortunately is the answer. Haynes, looking for clues to fill in the gaps caused by the gaps in recorded history about infertility, picks up that Ben Jonson has an uncommon interest in his plays about the subject. But he is not the only playwright with a fixation. And there’s no smoke without fire! Thomas Middleton picks up the story in his play A Chast Mayd In Cheapside. Clearly both Middleton and Jonson knew the King wasn’t the father of his children. Middleton perhaps knew who was! He clearly made the two Shakespeare brothers into his characters Touchwood Junior\Senior. (William being Senior the other being Edmund). We can gather from this play that William has it off with any female he sees and these results in children more often than not. Sir Oliver & Lady Kix in the play are having problems with getting a baby…Well you see where it’s going. Needless to say Touchwood has this magic water which he gives to Lady Kix – on the bed! If Middleton has insider information on Shakespeare and he has put it this play, we can take Sir Oliver’s instructions to Touchwood has being King James to Shakespeare “get children, and I’ll keep them.”¹⁵

James also has a pet hate, which is thought to stem from storms nearly killing him and his new wife. These storms were conjured up women who were branded witches. Henceforth James persecuted them. I don’t think he did this over storms. The ungodly ways of witches were enough for him to be the cause of James’ impotence. Witchcraft was blamed for anything without logical explanations and male infertility was no exception. Perfect male arrogance, when you think about it. Blame the witch! It’s quite possible that women called that, who were single were lesbians and had male hatred chucked at them as well. Thomas Campion, even put the idea that witches caused it, into a song.¹⁶ Ironically witches killed had no idea they were dying because the King was infertile. Even if they cursed his future generation their curse would amount to nothing for he had no future generation. Shakespeare however helped create the images of witches with his play Macbeth. He also created… This new sort of occupation for William (creating Royal children) could be an explanation why there are no new plays, listed in the Works, being produced after1590. However I think this highly unlikely. Then again I have found further evidence that fits Shakespeare and his fathering techniques.

Dark Lady Lane

In his search for the now mythical Dark Lady of the Sonnets, the historian A. L. Rowse thought she would be in Simon Forman’s writings of the period.¹⁷ Forman, astrology come doctor, made extensive notes, because of the need to find the correct time and date of birth for astrological purposes. He didn’t see Shakespeare (the man himself) because William didn’t know his date or time of birth. Most likely he couldn’t remember them, again due to drink, which is known to destroy Brian cells associated with memory. This fact is established from some court case, where Will was required to give evidence, they did establish he was born in 1564.

Forman did see some of the plays, although his notes just record very basic facts, which can be gained from reading them. Rowse wasn’t interested in this for he saw a lady of some standing connected with Lord Hunsdon, who had sex with just about anyone - even Forman. The ‘bad reputation’ he needed for the Dark Lady and Shakespeare Boss if you like!¹⁸ Of course she had nothing to do with the Sonnets. Yet name should ring bells. It’s Emilia Lanier (nee Bassanio), one of William’s actress’. This does not put her out of the question as some kind of mistress to Shakespeare, for she has a book published in 1611. The printer, one Valentine Simms, also printed plays of Shakespeare. The publisher was a Richard Bowen, who as yet in my investigation reveals no connection with the Bard. ¹⁹ Called Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (Hail, God King of the Jews) modern historians think it is one of the earliest Feminist works ever recorded! Plus it’s also very rare, as only 4 copies are known to exist.²⁰ Feminists had a field day as well and Emilia is now taught to up and coming feminists at the universities.

Historians and feminists should have known better. Rowse even spotted similarities with Shakespeare yet passed them off as common. We must forgive them, because they see no links with Queen Elizabeth, Anne of Denmark, or a change of religion. On the other hand I do! I and now you do that William was blessed by Liz’s favour in his youth and is mentioned in a dedication to the Great Queen herself. Something that Rowse, misreading Forman notes on Emilia attributed to Emilia herself. Forman made it clear that she had it hard during her youth, not very likely if the Queen was involved! Other problems are the clear attraction to women, with more poems dedicated to them, something that Emilia could be in all honesty, not be interested in, putting it crudely she was a ‘slut’ by modern standards. She for instance calls Susan, the Countess of Kent, “the mistress of my youth”

So Emilia Lanier did not write these poems, William Shakespeare did! How did Lanier’s name come to be on them, you say? Again it could be just the publisher trying to make money from poetry scraps that had come into his possession. Some clearly date from earlier than 1611. But why put Lanier’s name on it? Personally I think the most likely explanation is she was given them as a present from William himself. As I’m convinced she was one of his actresses, and as shown in a previous chapter had the royal backing to be one. Simon Forman’s notes also back this up oddly! His only real description of Emilia is that she has a mole on her neck. But he backs this up and the way he does it is by saying “just like Imogen in Cymbeline.”²¹ Of course Simon didn’t figure out that she was the actress. Nobody has till now! And we could lump her as a prostitute as well, more than likely. Let’s face it she sleep with anyone then, that’s how she got the texts. We find later she is desperately short of money, from Forman’s notes, and must have sold them off to a publisher under her own name. The volume is suppressed for being blasphemous, it breaks the 1606 rules for a start, plus other references which were way beyond what Stuart society would have tolerated. The way it avoid detection as to the true writer, is that Emilia added some gender changes and some small details. This was easy for she was blessed by knowing more about Shakespeare than his wife probably.

It reveals even more important details about Shakespeare (let alone the fact he’s a feminist) than his works do. He makes it clear in this book, which Elizabeth wrote for him. That her death he took personally, with only the hope that Queen Anne would raise his ‘sad dejected muse’ and to her/his daughter Elizabeth (written later) Liz’s ‘first-fruits of a woman’s wit.’ So maybe he did consider letting somebody know of the late Queen’s part in his works. William then tells us that he had known a long time Lady Arbella Stuart, the nice of Mary, Queen of Scots, also both connected to Bess of

Hardwick. He fancied Arbella too! Ruth Norrington along with many university types, think she was mad and suffering from guess what? The royal madness! Arbella admitted she had a lover, though when questioned, told them the ‘King of Scots’ for she wasn’t that daft and wasn’t going to tell them it was William Shakespeare. Her ‘crazy’ letters are not crazy, when you compare them with Shakespeare’s plays and are full of references to them.²² People appear crazy sometimes, if you don’t know what they are talking about. When you do it makes sense. Her poor health (used to prove the royal disease and madness) might be some kind of hereditary thyroid problem, like Mary Stuart had.

 

 

 

 

Bard the Idol of women

Arbella was not the only one Shakespeare fancied, for the Mary Herbert Countess of Pembroke, Lucy

(Countess of Bedford), Margaret (Countess of Cumberland), have poems about them! You can also bet that the Countess of Suffolk, though he did not know her when the poem was written, knew him intimately afterwards. One suspects that Will loved them all, maybe physically as well. Portraits of Mary Herbert’s sons resemble the Hilliard picture of Shakespeare. And William was only 16 when the first one was born! Which means that some of the gentry may have Shakespeare genes in them? He thought so and gives us the biggest clues that he fathered children of the gentry and if not the Royals.

 

 

 

 

 

Then how did the Gentry come to rise and fall?

Or who is he that very rightly can

distinguish of his birth or tell at all

in what mean state his ancestors have been

Before some one of worth did honour win (Him)²³

Then to add to that he writes more cryptic lines, which must mean he did father King James’ children, if you put emphasis on the word “successors”.

Whose successors although they bear his name

possessing not the riches of his mind

How do we know they spring out of the same

True stock of honour being not of that kind?

Actually he was hoping that the Countess of Dorset would defend his work from the ‘Scandal the world can frame.’ She did a good job if she did, because it was censored and the world (till now) knew nothing! He then finishes this piece with something everyone knows! ‘For well you know this world is but a stage....’ ²⁴

Most of the rest of the poems attack men for not treating women right. Quote more information on Shakespeare’s list of famous women and reveals that he was a tradesman’s son, which we know. Then he mentions the place Cookham, where something important happened to him early on in his life. Then you can guess what that would be when I tell you it’s very near Windsor!

The bigger question is how did Shakespeare get away with being involved with married women? To some extent this might have been his charm, or “his way with the ladies” as many womanising men say. There’s a much simpler answer. As most historians of the period will tell you marriages were not love matches, but property contracts and securing wealth and status. Most families, as in many arranged marriage proposals, believed that affection between husband and wife would come about in time. In some cases it may have done, in a few the affection was there already, as with the Shrewsburys. In practice it never came about and children didn’t follow on. Very common in aristocratic males was the tendencies to have a mistress, who would have been an unsuitable candidate (for various reasons) as a wife. Most of these mistress’ were already around, before the arranged marriage. Women generally didn’t have these kind of dalliances before marriage, due to a condition report on their virginity, being required sometimes to assure purity of bloodlines. Afterwards it didn’t matter their being no tests, only if the child looked different from the husband, however that can happen anyway. Crafty William exploited this, there’s no reason to suppose the husband was bothered and he might have paid the bard for his discretion. In some cases the married couple might have hated each others guts, so Shakespeare was doing them both a favour for allowing the line to continue.

The commoner sort of Royal

Nevertheless, if William Shakespeare did father Elizabeth Stuart, the only one of the children that has lead to surviving descendents, then it means that the line of Mary Stuart died out with her son. The other implication is that the descent of the Royal line is Anglo-Danish and not Scottish-Danish! Also that the Royal blood is part Royal and part commoner!! However the Royal Blood was part commoner, before William Shakespeare couldn’t keep his trousers on with Anne of Denmark. It turns out that Edward IV’s mother had it off with an archer. The bastard son inherited the thrown and Shakespeare mention’s this in the play about him. Thus the archer’s line dies out with James I or VI. To be replaced by another commoner!

1 When he was a child, Liz thought he would be safer in England.

2 Ross P116.

3 Bingham P102.

4 Bingham PP 98-100. For the reason of Mary's death see My book Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart.

5 Bingham PP 120-121.

6 Chambers & Williams PP177-8.

7 Chambers & Williams PP144-5.

8 It certainly was to some of the princess, one said ‘when I’ve grown another head!’

9 Somerset P31.

10 Somerset P43.

11 Stewart P182.

12 Dr Geoffrey Dean has completely ruled out the disease in both Stuart and Hanoverians lines. Holmes P68.

13 Ross P114.

14 Haynes P148-150.

15 Muir P64.

16 Haynes P148.

17 Rowse Simon Forman PP96-117.

18 Rowse Simon Forman PP102-3.

19 Cook PP222-3. Richard had a shop near St Paul’s.

20 It came out within weeks of the Sonnets being printed.

21 Wood P200.

22 Norrington PP61-71. Ruth, however corrects the spelling of Albion to Albian in the ‘crazy’ letter, there are a number of words uncorrected and an ‘author’ remark.

23 I think that the word ‘win’ should be ‘him.’

24 Rowse Simon Forman PP104-115. This is for all references to Lanier’s book.