William Stanley was the second son of Henry Stanley, fourth Earl of Derby, and his wife Margaret née Clifford, who was the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s younger sister Mary, Duchess of Suffolk. Henry VIII had given Mary's children precedence over the children of her elder sister, and so Margaret Stanley's children were directly in line to succeed Queen Elizabeth, a fact which had a profound effect on their lives. Henry Stanley, Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire and Chamberlain of Cheshire, was patron of a troupe of players (‘Derby’s Men’), and often attended the annual Chester summer festivities with his sons, where plays were presented by professional actors and also by working men – ‘rude mechanicals’. [MND] Visiting players frequently presented plays at his great mansions at Lathom and Knowsley in Lancashire, and he was a patron of Thomas Lodge and John Davies of Hereford.
As a younger son, William had no prospects and no responsibilities. He was educated with his brothers at St. John’s College, Oxford (1572-6), at a period when plays were often performed by the students and recent graduates. Some of these plays later informed several of Shakespeare’s plays, including Plautus, Menechmi [CE], George Gascoigne’s Supposes [TS], William Gager’s Meleager [MND] and Richard Eedes’ Caesar Infectus [JC, AC]. His friends at this period included Thomas Lodge, and Edmund and Robert Carey, whose elder brother George married Elizabeth Spencer, a sister of the wife of William’s elder brother Ferdinando. George Carey later became second Baron Hunsdon and in 1597 Lord Chamberlain, patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men who performed many of Shakespeare’s plays.
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