released because a Muslim noblewoman wanted to marry him. According to the story, he turned her down, travelling on to Moscow and then to Greenland, from where he returned to Europe in a whaling ship. These colourful adventures are traceable to a popular ballad entitled Sir William Stanley's Garland, which exaggerates his three years away from England to "twenty-one years travels through most parts of the world". This was recorded in 1800 and its contents published in 1801. There is no extant documentary evidence for these supposed adventures, but the stories were regularly repeated in 19th-century biographies of the sixth Earl. Inheritance dispute After the death of his father in 1593, William as the second son was bequeathed a number of Manors and Lordships including Bicester, Oxfordshire; Holborn, Middlesex; Burton in Lonsdale, Yorkshire and West Lidford in Somerset, his elder brother Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, inherited the Earldom and its estates, but he died a few months later in April 1594, leaving three daughters but no sons. Ferdinando's daughters claimed their father's estates, while William inherited the titles of Earl of Derby and Baron Strange. A further complexity was that Ferdinando's eldest daughter Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven, became officially the heir presumptive to Elizabeth's throne in 1596 on the death of her grandmother. A complex legal dispute followed, which dragged on for many years. This led to a judgement that the Isle of Man, a possession of the 5th Earl, was forfeit to the Queen. However, the Queen ceded her right to it in recognition of the Stanley family's services. Stanley was granted Lathom and Knowsley, with other lands and estates in Lancashire, Cumberland, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Wales, and elsewhere, while Ferdinando's daughters received estates linked to baronies and the Isle of Man, but they sold it to their uncle, the 6th Earl, and his title to it was later confirmed by James I. While retaining the title of Lord of Mann, Derby passed the administration of the Isle of Man to his niece, Anne Stanley. In 1612 he transferred the title to his wife, Elizabeth. Derby's assumption of the barony of Strange was not contested in his lifetime, but after his death, it was determined to have been incorrect, and a new creation of the barony was given to his son. Career The Stanley family, as the lawful heirs to the throne of England through Henry VIII's