Editing John Donne (section)

===Early life===
[[File:John Donne BBC News.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A portrait of Donne as a young man, {{c.}} 1595, in the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], London<ref name="NPG"/>]]

Donne was born in London in 1571 or 1572,{{efn|name=fn1}} into a [[recusant]] Roman Catholic family when practice of that religion was illegal in England.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Papazian |first1=Mary |author1-link=Mary Papazian |title=John Donne and the Protestant Reformation : new perspectives |date=2003 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |location=Detroit, Michigan |isbn=9780814330128 |page=3}}</ref> Donne was the third of six children. His father, also named John Donne, was married to Elizabeth Heywood. He was of Welsh descent and a warden of the [[Ironmongers Company]] in the [[City of London]]. He avoided unwelcome government attention out of fear of religious persecution.<ref name="Colly"/>{{sfn|Kunitz|Haycraft|1952|pp=156–158}}

His father died in 1576, when Donne was four years old, leaving his mother, Elizabeth, with the responsibility of raising the children alone.{{sfn|Colclough|2011}} Heywood was also from a recusant Roman Catholic family, the daughter of [[John Heywood]], the playwright, and sister of the Reverend [[Jasper Heywood]], a Jesuit priest and translator.{{sfn|Colclough|2011}} She was a great-niece of [[Thomas More]].{{sfn|Colclough|2011}} A few months after her husband died, Donne's mother married John Syminges, a wealthy widower with three children of his own.

Donne was educated privately. There is no evidence to support the popular claim that he was taught by [[Jesuits]].{{sfn|Colclough|2011}} In 1583, at the age of 11, he began studies at [[Hart Hall]], now [[Hertford College, Oxford]]. After three years of studies there, Donne was admitted to the [[University of Cambridge]], where he studied for another three years.<ref name="Venn"/> Donne could not obtain a degree from either institution because of his Catholicism, since he refused to take the [[Oath of Supremacy]] required to graduate.{{sfn|Walton|1999|p=}} In 1591 he was accepted as a student at the [[Thavies Inn]] legal school, one of the [[Inns of Chancery]] in London.{{sfn|Colclough|2011}} On 6 May 1592, he was admitted to [[Lincoln's Inn]], one of the [[Inns of Court]].{{sfn|Colclough|2011}}

In 1593, five years after the defeat of the [[Spanish Armada]] and during the intermittent [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)]], Queen Elizabeth issued the first English statute against sectarian dissent from the Church of England, titled "An Act for restraining Popish recusants". It defined "Popish recusants" as those "convicted for not repairing to some Church, Chapel, or usual place of Common Prayer to hear Divine Service there, but forbearing the same contrary to the tenor of the laws and statutes heretofore made and provided in that behalf". Donne's brother Henry was also a university student prior to his arrest in 1593 for harbouring a Catholic priest, [[William Harrington (priest)|William Harrington]], and died in [[Newgate Prison]] of [[bubonic plague]], leading Donne to begin questioning his Catholic faith.{{sfn|Kunitz|Haycraft|1952|pp=156–158}}

During and after his education, Donne spent much of his considerable inheritance on women, literature, pastimes and travel.<ref name="Colly"/> Although no record details precisely where Donne travelled, he crossed Europe. He later fought alongside the [[Earl of Essex]] and Sir [[Walter Raleigh]] against the Spanish at [[Capture of Cádiz|Cadiz (1596)]] and [[Islands Voyage|the Azores (1597)]], and witnessed the loss of the Spanish flagship, the ''[[San Felipe (Spanish ship)|San Felipe]]''.{{sfn|Colclough|2011}}{{sfn|Durant|Durant|1961|p=154}} According to [[Izaak Walton]], his earliest biographer, 
{{blockquote|... he returned not back into England till he had stayed some years, first in Italy, and then in Spain, where he made many useful observations of those countries, their laws and manner of government, and returned perfect in their languages.|source={{harvnb|Walton|1888|p=20}}}}

By the age of 25 he was well prepared for the diplomatic career he appeared to be seeking.{{sfn|Durant|Durant|1961|p=154}} He was appointed chief secretary to the [[Lord Keeper of the Great Seal]], Sir [[Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley|Thomas Egerton]], and was established at Egerton's London home, [[York House, Strand]], close to the [[Palace of Whitehall]], then the most influential social centre in England.