Regaining Waltham Forest

[banner] roebuck English forest

7 May 2026
· Truth is truth though never so old ·

On this date in 1603, little more than a year before my somewhat-one-way trip to the undiscover’d country, I wrote to my late first wife’s brother. Robert Cecil was already doing for King James —⁠who finished his journey from Edinburgh to London that same day⁠— what he and his father had done for Queen Elizabeth for decades: the donkey work. My letter concerned a multigenerational legal impasse with the crown over some hereditary Oxford lands. I needed to find out whether the new sovereign would do what the old one would not.

[The old spellings, some punctuation, and a couple of words have been updated for clarity.]

To the right honourable my very good Lord, the Lord of Essendon [Cecil’s new title], one of his Majesty’s Privy Council

My very good Lord,

I understand by Mr Attorney [Sir Edward Coke] that he has reported the state of my title to the keepership of Waltham Forest and of the house and park of Havering, whereby it appears to his Majesty what right and equity is therein. Till the 12th of Henry the 8th [the regnal year beginning 22 April 1520] my ancestors have possessed the same, almost since the time of William Conqueror. At that time, which was the 12th year of Henry the 8th, the King took it for term of his life from my grandfather. Since which time, by the alterations of princes and wardships, I have been kept from my rightful possession. Yet from time to time both my father and myself have, as opportunities arose, not neglected our claim. Twice in my time it had passage by law, and judgement was to have passed on my side, whereof her Majesty the late Queen being advertised, with assured promises and words of a prince to restore it herself to me, caused me to drop my suit. But so it was that she was not so ready to perform her word as I was too ready to believe it. Whereupon pressing my title farther, it was by her Majesty’s pleasure put to arbitrament, and although it was an unequal course, yet not to contradict her will the Lord Chancellor Sir Christopher Hatton was sole arbitrer. After all the delays devised by Sir Thomas Heneage and the Queen’s council in law then being, Hatton having heard the cause was ready to make his report for me [in my favour], but her Majesty refused the same and by no means would hear it, so that by this and the former means I have been thus long dispossessed.

But I hope truth is subject to no prescription, for truth is truth though never so old, and time cannot make that false which was once true. And though this threescore years both my father and myself have been dispossessed thereof, yet there have been many claims made thereto within those threescore years, which I take sufficient by law to avoid prescription in this case.

Now therefore his Majesty having heard the report, I hope he will in his justice and favour do me that right which is to be expected from so gracious and virtuous a sovereign. But for that I know among so many matters of importance unless his Majesty be put in remembrance he may forget a private cause, therefore I shall most earnestly desire your friendship in this, that you will join with my Lord Admiral [Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham], my very good Lord and friend, to help me to his Majesty’s resolution. My Lord Admiral is Lord Chief Justice of Oyer and Terminer, and to whose office, indeed as I understand, it appertains to have heard my cause, but I know not why or with what advice it was referred to Mr Attorney and his Majesty’s council in law. But howsoever, his Majesty has the report made unto him, which if it be forgotten shall little prevail me, but I hope in his justice and in your two Lordships’ friendships, which, the cause being so just and honourable, I do fully rely upon. His Majesty parts with nothing but a keepership, and a keeper he must have, wherefore it is much more princely for him to restore it to me, his lawful keeper, than contrary to bestow it upon an intruder. Nothing adorns a King more than justice, nor in anything does a King more resemble God than in justice, which is the head of all virtue, and he that is endowed therewith has all the rest. So long as it was in the custody of my ancestors the woods were preserved, the game cherished, and the forest maintained in her full state, but since it was otherwise disposed all these things have impaired, as experience does manifest.

Thus therefore most earnestly craving your Lordships’ friendly and honourable furtherances, I most heartily recommend myself unto your good Lordships from Hackney this 7th of May.

Your Lordship’s most assured friend and brother-in-law to command,
knot signature e-oxenforde 1603
—

I added boldface in the second paragraph because that statement is still powerful and significant. You can find truth is truth several times in my plays, including Act 5 Scene 1 of Measure for Measure:

  • Isabella. It is not truer he is Angelo
  • Than this is all as true as it is strange;
  • Nay, it is ten times true, for truth is truth
  • To th’ end of reck’ning.

Did the letter work? Did Rob pass it along to his new boss, who saw the truth of my claim and was willing to do something about it?

Excerpted from the Writ of Privy Seal dated 18 July 1603:

We [the royal We], the premises considered, do restore & grant, and by these presents for us, our heirs & successors, do restore & grant to our well-beloved cousin Edward, now Earl of Oxford, cousin & heir male of the said John, late Earl of Oxford, all the foresaid bailiwick of the whole Forest of Essex aforesaid, and the keepership of our foresaid park & houses of Havering aforesaid, and the office of keeper & steward of the whole foresaid Forest of Essex, and the keepership & stewardship of the same Forest, with all fees & wages to the foresaid bailiwick, stewardship & keepership or any of them from of old appertaining.

[And so on.]

Yes. The custody and keeperships were returned at last to their rightful owner, though as things turned out I didn’t have much time left to spend there. So it goes.

Beginning with James’s infamous mother, the Stuarts came to England bringing dissention and later calamitous rule with them. As disastrous a dynasty as they were to become, the first Stuart king did right by me in the fifteen months between his accession and my death. He returned my forest. He renewed my annuity. He called me Great Oxford and meant it. James not only understood who I was and what I had done with my life, he was grateful to me for having done it. God Save the King.

Sources and additional reading

  • • King James calling me Great Oxford
  • · The Mysterious William Shakespeare, The Myth and The Reality
  • · by Charlton Ogburn Jr, 1984, 2nd edition 1992
  • · foreword by David McCullough
  • · page 766 [archive.org, login required]

the Great Hall at Hatfield House, medI tried to locate a scanned image of my old letter to include in this post, but that thing is buried so deep I wasn’t unable to unearth it from its interment at Hatfield. Perhaps it’s hiding behind the wainscot with all my other manuscripts. I don’t have much access to physical archives these days, and certainly not that one– those folks would tase me at the gate the moment they noticed the crowbar in my hand. (I’m kidding. It’s far more likely that Rob burned the lot, but that’s a guess for another day.) My thanks to Mr Purdy and Ms Green for their posted transcriptions, which were as close as I was able to get to my original.

Sequel: On 30 January 1604 (1603 by the calendar in use in England at the time) I wrote to King James to report on abuses I discovered once I began to exercise the responsibilities over the forest and deer park that he had returned to me the previous July. An image of that letter can be seen at Dr Roger Stritmatter’s website, Shake-Speare’s Bible. I could wish for higher resolution, but even without it my italic hand is entirely legible, and though I say it myself it is as elegant as one would expect from someone who had penned close to a million words in the course of his writing life.

VERO NIHIL VERIUS
VERITAS OMNIA VINCIT