Anne Hathaway: Wife of William Shakespeare, Lover of John

This is my own interpretation of the life and times of Anne Hathaway based on what little we know about her. My version is somewhat sensational, please excuse me for this.

Anne (alias Agnes) Hathaway was born in 1556 to parents Richard and Joan and was certainly raised with her brothers and sisters at Hewlands Farm Shottery. Her Father was a Farmer and he was to remarry when Joan Hathaway died.

We can assume that Anne Hathaway received home schooling at best or no schooling at all at worst and lived most of her life until marriage in the hamlet of Hamlet, one mile away from Stratford in the forest of Arden. She certainly was a regular visitor to Stratford and her family was well acquainted with the Shakespeares of Henley Street. Despite the age gap, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway knew each other.

Anne Hathaway was not a particularly attractive woman but marriage had eluded her upto 1581-82. Then her Father died Autumn 1981 and she received a conditional inheritance from his Will. She had to marry. Who would she marry?

It is my supposition that she was the 'secret lover' of John Shakespeare and became pregnant by him (not by William) although she certainly 'made out'with William during the hot summer of 1582. John Shakespeare was, in many ways, a man more mysterious than his own eldest Son and his personal failings would lead, as we know, to his downfall in Stratfordian society during the 1580s and 1590s.

The Debdales were another Shottery family known to both the Hathaways and the Shakespeares. Robert Debdale was their Son and at school had been a personal friend of William Shakespeare. Debdale had left for jesuit priesthood with tutor Simon Hunt in 1575. Unfortunately he fell into a trap on his re...

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...son, Francis Bacon, John Hemmings and Richard Burbage. It was Anne Hathaway who called for the meeting one year after Williams death, hosted by Francis Bacon at Gorlambury Manor near St Albans.

Anne Hathaway was escorted to the meeting by her son in law Dr John Hall. Her only request was that there was a complete publication of all her husbands works before she died. Ironically, this was the First Folio which was published in August 1623 and she died herself one month later, to be buried alongside her husband William in the Chancel of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

Anne Hathaway was very much a woman in the background who helped secure her husbands name into immortality. She was not a woman motivated by money or material wealth and she endured a lot in her life. Those who looked after William in his lifetime ensured that Anne Hathaway was remembered also.