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Alexander Tobius was a British revolutionary during the 15th century. He was most famous for his serialized satirical works, largely lampooning the British monarchy. Shortly following the coronation of Henry VI of Lancaster, the English Parliament accused Alexander of high treason and sentenced him to be executed.

Childhood

Alexander Tobius was an only child and the son of a poor farmer, Robert Tobius. His mother died at a young age and this left Alexander and his father alone to work a small plot of land that they had invested their livelyhood into. He was frequently beaten by his father and at the age of 12 he ran away and joined the English Navy. In his personal memoirs he wrote, "...[Every] day was back-breaking torment, of the likes which no young lad should oft see. As the Navy Royal was a glorious thing to behold, as were my youthful passion, I joined it thus and made fast with the worst decision of mine entire life lived."

The Navy

Barely literate and too young to be of importance, Alexander was assigned to cleaning duties on the small ship he was assigned to. In his free time he escaped by reading books and by writing little stories. Books were very expensive and rare at the time, but Tobius was well liked by the captian of his ship, Captain John Arygus, and was able to borrow books from the Captain's personal collection. In his memoirs Tobias does not reveal much about his time in the navy, only that he found his love for writing and that he jumped ship when he was in port at the age of 16.

Early Career

After jumping ship in Monaco, Alexander befriended a local paper merchant. Although somewhat of a social recluse in the shop, his employer soon noticed the skill in which the young man could read and write, and hired him to write advertising pamphlets for the merchant's paper business. The government of Monaco could not allow the paper business to run without taxing it heavily, and the business went under nearly a year after Alexander's departure from Arygus's ship, the Navy Royal's Contempore.

Significance

The existence of Alexander Tobius and his small world has long been forgotten and no public historical record existed of him until September 29, 1967, when Alfred Tobius' estate was liquidated. He had no direct family and all of his possesions went to the state of Virginia. But in his book collection was a trove of extremely rare and old books, including the personal memoirs of Alexander Tobius, a distant but direct blood relative. These books are now scattered and their whereabouts are unknown, but it is known that Dirk Hasimoto, a good friend of Alfred's, once had a copy of Alexander's memoirs. This reported copy once sat in a library at Virginia Polytechnical Institute, but was stolen by an unknown person. Only a few photocopied pages remain in the hands of Hasimoto and he is one of the few people that is trying to track down Alfred Tobius's books, which were all quietly "lost" in the bureaucratic proceedings of Tobius's estate liquidation. Hasimoto estimates in his interview that the books in Alfred's collection are, "...worth millions, though to any historian they would be absolutely priceless. The small insights and the unprecedented viewpoints that existed in his collection were just phenominal, and could help shed new light on history that we know so little about.". Speculation exists on all sides of this issue and the mysterious disappearance of Alfred Tobius in the 60's only helps fuel the controversy surrounding the issue.

Works Cited:

Personal memoir of Alexander Tobius. 1455

Tobius, Alfred (Last known decendent of Tobius and Head advisor to the U.S. Congressional Archives)
Var. written essays and interview transcripts. 1948.

Hashimoto, Dirk (Grand Marshall of Virginia Polytechnical Institute English Department). Personal interview. 13 August 1964