 A number of new candidates were proposed in the early 20th century, notably Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland, William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, dethroning Bacon as the sole alternative to Shakespeare.Furthermore, alternative authorship theories failed to make any headway among academics.In 1880 Ignatius L. Donnelly, a U.S.