24 Facts About Richard Steele

Richard Steele was the grandson of Sir William Steele, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and his first wife Elizabeth Godfrey.

Richard Steele's father lived at Mountown House, Monkstown, County Dublin.

Richard Steele's father died when he was four, and his mother a year later.

Richard Steele was commissioned in 1697, and rose to the rank of captain within two years.

Richard Steele left the army in 1705, perhaps due to the death of the 34th Foot's commanding officer, Lord Lucas, which limited his opportunities of promotion.

In 1706 Richard Steele was appointed to a position in the household of Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain.

Richard Steele gained the favour of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.

Richard Steele became a Whig Member of Parliament in 1713, for Stockbridge.

Richard Steele was expelled for issuing a pamphlet in favour of the Hanoverian succession.

When George I of Great Britain came to the throne in the following year, Richard Steele was knighted and given responsibility for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

Richard Steele remained in Carmarthen after his wife Mary's death, and was buried there, at St Peter's Church.

Richard Steele's first published work, The Christian Hero, attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity.

The Christian Hero was ultimately ridiculed for what some thought was hypocrisy because Richard Steele did not necessarily follow his own preaching.

Richard Steele was criticized for publishing a booklet about morals when he himself enjoyed drinking, occasional duelling, and debauchery around town.

Richard Steele wrote a comedy that same year titled The Funeral.

In 1705, Richard Steele wrote The Tender Husband with contributions from Addison, and later that year wrote the prologue to The Mistake, by John Vanbrugh, an important member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club with Addison and Richard Steele.

Richard Steele wrote a preface to Addison's 1716 comedy play The Drummer.

Richard Steele wrote this periodical under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff and gave Bickerstaff an entire, fully developed personality.

Richard Steele described his motive in writing The Tatler as "to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour".

Addison and Richard Steele then founded The Spectator in 1711 and The Guardian in 1713.

In 1705, Richard Steele married a widow, Margaret Stretch, who died in the following year.

Richard Steele had an illegitimate child, Elizabeth Ousley, whom he later adopted.

Richard Steele plays a minor role in the novel The History of Henry Esmond by William Makepeace Thackeray.

Thackeray depicts Richard Steele in glowing terms as a warm, generous, talented mentor who befriends the title character in his youth and remains loyal to him for years despite their political differences.