1. The Shakespeare Authorship Question 2. The real Shakespeare 3. The Neville heritage 4. Becoming William Shakespeare, 1582-94 5. The road to the top, 1595-99 6. Ambassador to France, 1599-1600 7. The catastrophe, 1601-03 8. Freedom and disappointment, 1603-08 9. Towards closure: the last plays, the Sonnets and the parliamentary 'Undertaker', 1609-15 10. Life after death: the First Folio and the apotheosis of Shakespeare 11. Documentary evidence: analyses and Shakespearean parallels Appendices 1. Commendatory verses and the three suns 2. Sir Henry Neville and the Essex rebellion 3. Sir Henry Neville's voyage to France, and its double 4. A review of Shakespeare and the Founders of Liberty in America 5. Genealogical notes 6. The chronology of Shakespeare's works