Bad news and good news

The record of the death of Hamnet. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Records Office.

For Shakespeare, 1596 was a year of mixed fortunes: domestic tragedy and worldly advance.

• Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, was buried on 11 August. He was only eleven years old.
• In October, the Shakespeare family became gentry; Shakespeare's father was granted a coat of arms.

It is a cruel irony that a scant two months before the grant, Shakespeare had lost the only male heir in his family to whom the arms could descend.