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Apr 23, 1564
The beginning of the life of William Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare was born in the town Stratford-upon-Avon (a County Warwickshire) in 1564, according to tradition, April 23. His father, John Shakespeare, was a wealthy craftsman (Glover) and the moneylender, often elected to various public positions once he was elected mayor of the city. He did not visit Church divine services, for which he paid large fines (perhaps he was a secret Catholic). His mother, née Arden, belonged to one -
Mar 18, 1579
His childhood.
Located 103 miles west of London, during Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a market town bisected with a country road and the River Avon. William was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. William had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. Before William's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bail -
The marring William Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. William was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.
