The pamphlet war between Edward de Vere and Gabriel Harvey

Pamphlet wars were both common and significant during Elizabethan times, serving as a vital medium for public discourse and ideological battles.  Pamphlet production surged in Elizabethan England as printing became more accessible and affordable. By the 1560s, pamphlets replaced broadsheet ballads as the primary means of disseminating information to the public. They covered a wide range of topics, including religious controversies, political debates, and social issues.  Pamphlets were cheap and widely available, costing as little as tuppence—affordable even for middle-class readers. Their accessibility made them an essential tool for shaping public opinion and engaging in ideological conflicts. (Response generated by Perplexity AI, March 31, 2025)

A very famous pamphlet war that started in 1580 was fought between Edward de Vere and Gabriel Harvey.  Imagine it today as a battle on social media as Phoebe Nir has done, with interpretations by Robert Prechter and featuring guest appearances by Edmund Spencer and Robert Greene.

This video presentation depends partly on the idea that Robert Greene, widely accepted as a real-life author of the Elizabethan age, was in fact a pen name of the Earl of Oxford. Stephanie Hopkins Hughes and Nina Green first advanced the thesis in the late 1990s, and Prechter expanded upon it in his online book, Oxford’s Voices.

The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship holds no official position on this question. As with the proposal that Oxford wrote under the pen name Shakespeare, there is no primary source evidence proving the point, only circumstantial evidence.

Available discussions include the following paper, speech, interview and book chapter, the first three of which are available for free at the highlighted links:

Paper: Prechter, 2015. “Is Greene’s Groats-worth of Wit About Shakespeare, or by Him?” The Oxfordian, Vol. 17, (September 2015), pps. 95-132.

Speech video: Prechter, 2015. “Why Did Robert Greene Repent His Former Works?” September 25, 2015.

Video: Prechter, 2024. “Robert Greene at the Blue Boar Tavern” a 1-hour chat about Robert Greene, July 10, 2024

Book chapter (~200 pages): Robert Greene: Pen Name of the Earl of Oxford, available on Amazon for $4