Page "Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford" Paragraph 82

In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he gone for his health: ' I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.

' In September Oxford again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen.

Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that ' Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead '.

Whether the rumour of Oxford's death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown.

Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of failing health.