William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby

William Stanley
William Stanley, the 6th Earl of Derby
Born	1561
Died	29 September 1642 Chester
Title	Earl of Derby
Tenure	1594–1642
Known for	travels, Shakespeare authorship candidate
Nationality	English
Locality	Lancashire, Cheshire

William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, KG (1561 – 29 September 1642) was an English . Stanley inherited a prominent social position that was both dangerous and unstable, as his mother was heir to Queen Elizabeth I under the Third Succession Act, a position inherited in 1596 by his deceased brother's oldest daughter, Anne, two years after William had inherited the Earldom from his brother. After a period of European travel in his youth, a long legal battle eventually consolidated his social position. Nevertheless, he was careful to remain circumspect in national politics, devoting himself to administration and cultural projects, including playwriting.

His own literary works are lost or unidentified, but in the 1890s he was put forward as one of the contenders to be the true author of the works of William Shakespeare, according to some proponents of the Shakespeare authorship question.

William Stanley was a younger son of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, by his marriage to Lady Margaret Clifford. His maternal grandparents were Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland, and Lady Eleanor Brandon. Eleanor was the third child of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and of Mary Tudor. Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. His mother was the heiress presumptive of Queen Elizabeth from 1578 until her own death in 1596. After this, Anne Stanley, the daughter of his older brother Ferdinando, became the heir to the throne.