SHAKESPEARE’S COUSIN ROBERT SOUTHWELL ONE OF THE FORTY MARTYRS 25th OCTOBER Robert Southwell was born in 1561 in Protestant England. He was a cousin of William Shakespeare through Shakespeare’s mother’s family, the Ardens – a recusant family who were active in the underground Catholic resistance during the reign of Elizabeth I; Edward Arden, cousin of Shakespeare’s mother, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield in December 1583 for harbouring a Catholic priest. Arden’s head was set up on London Bridge beside the head of the Earl of Desmond. Though his family was Catholic, Southwell’s family fortune came from a monastery seized by Henry VIII, and Robert's father and grandfather both wavered between Catholicism and Protestantism. Robert, however, was catechised in the Catholic faith and was sent to Europe for a Catholic education when he was 15.* There, after matriculation, he petitioned the Jesuits to accept him. When this was denied, he walked to Rome to petition. His req...
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