Oxfordian

An Oxfordian is someone who denies that Shakespeare -- the author of the greatest plays in history -- was a common man of ordinary roots and upbringing.

An Oxfordian instead insists that a nobleman wrote the plays (and poems) under the stage name of "Shakespeare". Typically the nobleman identified under this theory is Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, who lived between 1550 and 1604. Note, however, that a few of Shakespeare's works postdate the death of this Earl.