Warning: My speculations are in italics. The rest is accepted historical fact. About seventy years after Shakespeare died, Richard Davies, chaplain of Corpus Christi College in Oxford wrote: William Shakespeare was born at Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire in about 1563-4. Much given to all unluckiness in stealing venison & rabbits particularly from Sr --- Lucy who had him oft whipt & sometimes Imprisoned & at last made Him fly his Native Country to his great Advancement......He [Shakespeare] died a Papist.