Even the premature death of Christopher Marlowe is surrounded with mystery...

• Christopher Marlowe / Nationality - British
• Lifespan - 1564-1593
• Father - a shoemaker
• Educated - Corpus Christi College Cambridge
• Career - Poet, Translator and Dramatist
• Famous book / play : Dr Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great and perhaps many others. The Mystery surrounding the life and death of Christopher Marlowe has intrigued many. It has even lead to serious debate as to whether Christopher Marlowe wrote the works attributed to William Shakespeare

Facts & History about the life of Christopher Marlowe - Poet, Translator and Dramatist
The following are additional facts about the life and history of Christopher Marlowe:

• Christopher Marlowe was baptised 26 Feb 1564 in Canterbury, Kent, England
• Educated at Cambridge University
• Believed to have been recruited by Walsingham as a spy
• Gained a BA in 1584 and an MA in 1587 ( A mystery surrounds the MA - Marlowe was absent (government spy work?) during much of this time but was awarded his MA on the instructions of the Privy Council)
• Marlowe entered the Court circle and started his literary work associating with the great court poets such as Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Philip Sydney
• He was a member of the secret society called "The School of Night" which was attended by fellow highly prominent Elizabethans - new beliefs were discussed and it is closely related to the mysterious Rosicrucian movement
• Christopher Marlowe also mixed with the dramatists and actors of the day such as Shakespeare, Edward Alleyn and Nashe
• He shared lodgings near the theatres in Southwark, London with Thomas Kyd
• His plays were produced to great acclaim by the Lord Admiral's company
• He was involved in various brawls and brushes with the law
• Thomas Kyd was arrested by the Privy Council as writer of the seditious notices. Kyd was imprisoned and tortured in the Tower of London when he implicated Marlowe who was branded an Atheist
• A warrant was issued by the Church's Star Chamber for the poet's arrest on charges of heresy, which carried the death penalty
• But before Christopher Marlowe faced the interrogation and probable torture he was killed...
• The surroundings of his death in Stepney were steeped in mystery...
• Christopher had met with three friends who were also known to be men were spies and secret agents for Walsingham - Robert Poley, Nicholas Skeres and Ingram Frizer
• They had met at a house owned by Eleanor Bull - she hired rooms in the house to Elizabethan gentry and provided food and drink for them
• Eleanor Bull was the sister Blanche Parry both cousins to John Dee
• Blanche Parry and Kat Ashley had cared for Queen Elizabeth since her childhood and became Gentlewomen of the Bedchamber. Eleanor Bull therefore had close connections with the court. Her house was believed to have been a safe meeting place for the agents of Walsingham and Lord Burghley
• Marlowe apparently argued with his friend Ingram Frizer and was lethally stabbed in the eye by his friend
• Christopher Marlowe was secretly buried in an unmarked grave...
• Frizer, pleaded self-defence and immediately received a Royal pardon from Queen Elizabeth...
• Christopher Marlowe date of death was documented as 30 May 1593 in Deptford, London, England
• But did he really die?