(born 1564, died 1616)

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This page is organised differently to those of the Tudor monarchs because Shakespeare is an internet superstar! There are pages and pages of information on Shakespeare, and pages of links to pages on Shakespeare... So here instead we've listed our favourite sites plus a few extras which caught our attention.

Shakespearean Sites
Massive sites covering almost everything you need to know about Shakespeare.
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
An annotated guide to Shakespeare resources on the internet. By Terry A. Gray, this is probably the single best Shakespeare site online.
Shakespeare Resource Center
Another excellent Shakespeare metasite with a particularly good reading list.
Shakespeare Online
A metasite by Amanda Mabillard, also author and editor of About.com: Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare at eNotes
Many pages on Shakespeare's life and work, together with eNotes to more than twenty titles. For the original Shakespeare.com go here.
Shakespeare Studies at CMU
A page of links for Shakespeare, his works and the Elizabethan theatre.

Biography
The life, work and times of William Shakespeare in detail.
William Shakespeare
An informative, illustrated article from Wikipedia. We recommend taking Wikipedia articles with a pinch of salt but in general this is an excellent example of collaborative writing by members of public.
Shakespeare's Life and Times
Designed to introduce the reader to the world in which Shakespeare lived and worked.
Shakespeare's Biography
A biography from Shakespeare Online.
Shakespeare's Life and Times
A selection of her writings.
The Life and Times of William Shakespeare
Comprehensive coverage.
The Life, Times, Works and Biography of William Shakespeare
A.

The Works of William Shakespeare
The plays and poetry.
Internet Shakespeare Editions
"Scholarly, fully annotated texts of Shakespeare's plays, with multimedia explorations of the context of Shakespeare's life and works, and records of his plays in performance". Also with aSearch function for the texts.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's plays and poetry from the Complete Moby(tm) Shakespeare.
The Collected Works of Shakespeare
Genuinely the internet's first edition of Shakespeare, also based on the Complete Moby(tm) Shakespeare. Searchable text and HTML versions of the plays.
Open Source Shakespeare
Taken from the historic 'Globe' edition of the 1860s, this site attempts to be the best free Web site containing Shakespeare's complete works and is very accessible.
The Complete Literary Works of William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's works in English and German. From the the Classic Literature Library.
No Fear Shakespeare
Shakespeare's work arranged side-by-side with a modern English translation. From SparkNotes.

Articles And Artefacts
Pages on specialist themes and items associated with William Shakespeare.
William Shakspere of Stratford
A look at the documentary evidence, with examples.
Shakespeare and the Documents, Part 1: Early Life:
A look at the surviving evidence to accompany Michael Wood's TV documentary 'In Search of Shakespeare', with two further parts on Shakespeare's career and his religion.
Selected Writing and Speeches of Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533, r. 1558-1603)
A selection of her writings.
Lord Chamberlain's Book of Accounts for 15 March 1604
Transcriptions of key royal accounts of the reign of King James I.
Shakespeare and Food
Described as "An alphabetical garden of the Bard's esculent poesies" this page collects and briefly analyses Shakespeare's references to food. From Soup of the Evening...Beautiful Soup (we kid you not).
Shakespeare Magnet Poetry Machine
Rearrange the words to create works of your own!
Shakespeare Parodies: Colection of Parodies of Shakespeare Tragedies
Not exactly the latest in Shakespearean scholarship but quite funny!

Who Wrote Shakespeare?
For very little reason we can think of, controversy has raged since the eighteenth century as to who Shakespeare really was. A large number of other names have been offered as alternative candidates for the real author, including Queen Elizabeth herself! Some of those most involved in the debate have been less than scholarly and indeed, less than sane (Delia Bacon, anyone?). Reliable scholars have dismissed the majority of arguments against Shakespeare, but review the evidence for yourself and see what you think.
Shakespeare's Authorship
A brief but clear response to the argument which makes excellent points about modern class snobbery and misunderstanding of the breadth of Elizabethan education.
Shakespeare Authorship Question
A detailed and impartial overview of all sides of the argument, from Wikipedia.
The Shakespeare Authorship Page
This site openly proclaims that it's "Dedicated to the Proposition that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare", but it has the most complete, thorough, lucid and least lunatic investigation of the evidence available online.
Shakespeare Authorship Pages
Another scholarly view of the issue, from an historian of Oxford and of the period.
An Authorship Analysis
"Francis Bacon as Shake-speare" - presents the original documentary evidence for both Bacon and Shakespeare.
Shakespeare Oxford Society
A UK society and the principal site for Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
The Shakespeare Fellowship
Another pro-Oxford society, with good resources.
Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable
A look at the other candidates.
The Shakespeare Authorship Page
This site quite openly proclaims that it's "Dedicated to the Proposition that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare", but it has the most complete, thorough and least lunatic look at the evidence currently online.
Shakespeare Authorship Information Centre
This grandly-titled and overblown site promotes Sir Francis Bacon as author of Shakespeare AND Miguel Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Shakespeare's England
There are related links scattered throughout this site, but here's a taster.
Life In Elizabethan England
Everyday life in Elizabethan England, a good introduction to the subject.
Sixteenth Century Renaissance English Literature: Background Information
An excellent set of links covering all kinds of topics from politics to women's history to food and drink.
Wrong Side of the River: London's Disreputable South Bank in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
An article by Jessica A. Browner on the seamier side of London..
Elizabethan England
Another site on Elizabethan life, aimed at schoolchildren.

You can now buy Tudor-related books and more through our Tudor Books US or Tudor Books UK aStores.