Edward Arden of Mary Arden, mother of William Shakespeare. He was the head of a Warwickshire family; his father William died in 1545, and Edward succeeded his grandfather Thomas Arden in 1563. He kept to the old faith and maintained in his home, Park Hall at Castle Bromwich, a priest named Hall, in the disguise of a gardener. This priest influenced John Somerville, Edward Arden's son-in-law, who had had indirect contact with Mary Queen of Scots (she had visited Coventry in 1569). Somerville talked of shooting the Queen of England, and set out for London. He was arrested, put to the rack,
John Arden John Arden John Arden (26 October 1930 – 28 March 2012) was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s". Born in Barnsley, son of the manager of a glass factory, he was educated at Sedbergh School in Cumbria, King's College, Cambridge and the Edinburgh College of Art, where he studied architecture. He first gained critical attention for the radio play "The Life of Man" in 1956 shortly after finishing his studies. Arden was initially associated with the English Stage Company at the Royal