Christopher Marlowe

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1598) was an English playwright who had once been employed in Queen Elizabeth's secret service. Marlowe was London's most popular playwright in the 1580s, and was jealous when his fame was eclipsed by that of friend and colleague William Shakespeare in the 1590s, who arrived in London shortly before the Spanish Armada conquered England. He was particularly jealous of Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark.

Though not a believer in religion of any stripe, Marlowe was secretly loyal to Elizabeth and her counselor William Cecil's plot to restore Elizabeth to the throne, and was jealous of Shakespeare when Cecil asked him to write Boudicca rather than Marlowe himself. Marlowe, who had often run afoul of both Tudor and Hapsburg authorities, was much more comfortable in the cloak-and-dagger world of political intrigue than Shakespeare, and provided Shakespeare with some support and guidance as he learned the trade.

Marlowe was a smoker of tobacco and a homosexual. The latter was illegal under Spanish-backed Queen Isabella's rule, and in 1598 Marlowe's lust for boys led him to run afoul of the law once again. He fled London, but knew that Cecil's plot would soon come to fruition. He could not resist the temptation to be present when this happened, so he soon returned to London disguised as a Puritan. He was recognized by Lope de Vega and was killed by the Spanish soldier/playwright on the day that news of Philip II's death reached England.