Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near Strand in
London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon (Lord Keeper of the Great Seal) by his
second wife, Anne (Cooke) Bacon, the daughter of the noted Renaissance
humanist Anthony Cooke. His mother's sister was married to William Cecil, 1st
Baron Burghley, making Burghley Bacon's uncle.
Biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing
to poor health, which would plague him throughout his life. He received tuition
from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a strong leaning toward
Puritanism. He attended Trinity College at the University of Cambridge on 5
April 1573 at the age of 12, living there for three years along with his older
brother Anthony Bacon (1558–1601) under the personal tutelage of John
Whitgift, future Archbishop of Canterbury. Bacon's education was conducted
largely in Latin and followed the medieval curriculum. It was at Cambridge that
Bacon first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious
intellect, and was accustomed to calling him "The young lord keeper".
His studies brought him to the belief that the methods and results of science as
then practised were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his
rejection of Aristotelian philosophy, which seemed to him barren, argumentative
and wrong in its objectives.
On 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate magistrorum at Gray's
Inn. A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English
ambassador at Paris, while Anthony continued his studies at home. The state of
government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable
political instruction. For the next three years he visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours,
Italy, and Spain. There is no evidence that he studied at the University of
Poitiers. During his travels, Bacon studied language, statecraft, and civil law
while performing routine diplomatic tasks. On at least one occasion he delivered
diplomatic letters to England for Walsingham, Burghley, Leicester, and for the
queen.
The sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to
England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a considerable sum of money to purchase an
estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so, and Francis was left
with only a fifth of that money. Having borrowed money, Bacon got into debt.
To support himself, he took up his residence in law at Gray's Inn in 1579,his
income being supplemented by a grant from his mother Lady Anne of the manor
of Marks near Romford in Essex, which generated a rent of £46.

Parliamentarian:
Bacon stated that he had three goals: to uncover truth, to serve his country, and
to serve his church. He sought to achieve these goals by seeking a prestigious
post. In 1580, through his uncle, Lord Burghley, he applied for a post at court
that might enable him to pursue a life of learning, but his application failed. For
two years he worked quietly at Gray's Inn, until he was admitted as an outer
barrister in 1582.
His parliamentary career began when he was elected MP for Bossiney,
Cornwall, in a by-election in 1581. In 1584 he took his seat in Parliament for
Melcombe in Dorset, and in 1586 for Taunton. At this time, he began to write on
the condition of parties in the church, as well as on the topic of philosophical
reform in the lost tract Temporis Partus Maximus. Yet he failed to gain a
position that he thought would lead him to success. He showed signs of
sympathy to Puritanism, attending the sermons of the Puritan chaplain of Gray's
Inn and accompanying his mother to the Temple Church to hear Walter Travers.
This led to the publication of his earliest surviving tract, which criticized the
English church's suppression of the Puritan clergy. In the Parliament of 1586, he
openly urged execution for the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots.
About this time, he again approached his powerful uncle for help; this move
was followed by his rapid progress at the bar. He became a bencher in 1586 and
was elected a Reader in 1587, delivering his first set of lectures in Lent the
following year. In 1589, he received the valuable appointment of reversion to
the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, although he did not formally take office until
1608; the post was worth £1,600 a year.
In 1588 he became MP for Liverpool and then for Middlesex in 1593. He later
sat three times for Ipswich (1597, 1601, 1604) and once for Cambridge
University (1614).
He became known as a liberal-minded reformer, eager to amend and simplify
the law. Though a friend of the crown, he opposed feudal privileges and
dictatorial powers. He spoke against religious persecution. He struck at the
House of Lords in its usurpation of the Money Bills. He advocated for the union
of England and Scotland, which made him a significant influence toward the
consolidation of the United Kingdom; and he later would advocate for the
integration of Ireland into the Union. Closer constitutional ties, he believed,
would bring greater peace and strength to these countries.

Final years of Elizabeth's reign:

Bacon soon became acquainted with Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex,
Queen Elizabeth's favourite. By 1591 he acted as the earl's confidential adviser.
In 1592, he was commissioned to write a tract in response to the Jesuit Robert
Parson's anti-government polemic, which he titled Certain Observations Made
upon a Libel, identifying England with the ideals of democratic Athens against
the belligerence of Spain. Bacon took his third parliamentary seat for Middlesex
when in February 1593 Elizabeth summoned Parliament to investigate a Roman
Catholic plot against her. Bacon's opposition to a bill that would levy triple
subsidies in half the usual time offended the Queen: opponents accused him of
seeking popularity, and for a time the Court excluded him from favour.
When the office of Attorney General fell vacant in 1594, Lord Essex's influence
was not enough to secure the position for Bacon and it was given to Sir Edward
Coke. Likewise, Bacon failed to secure the lesser office of Solicitor General in
1595, the Queen pointedly snubbing him by appointing Sir Thomas Fleming
instead. To console him for these disappointments, Essex presented him with a
property at Twickenham, which Bacon subsequently sold for £1,800.
In 1597 Bacon became the first Queen's Counsel designate, when Queen
Elizabeth reserved him as her legal counsel. In 1597, he was also given a patent,
giving him precedence at the Bar. Despite his designations, he was unable to
gain the status and notoriety of others. In a plan to revive his position he
unsuccessfully courted the wealthy young widow Lady Elizabeth Hatton. His
courtship failed after she broke off their relationship upon accepting marriage to
Sir Edward Coke, a further spark of enmity between the men. In 1598 Bacon
was arrested for debt. Afterward, however, his standing in the Queen's eyes
improved. Gradually, Bacon earned the standing of one of the learned counsels.
His relationship with the Queen further improved when he severed ties with
Essex—a shrewd move, as Essex would be executed for treason in 1601.
With others, Bacon was appointed to investigate the charges against Essex. A
number of Essex's followers confessed that Essex had planned a rebellion
against the Queen. Bacon was subsequently a part of the legal team headed by
the Attorney General Sir Edward Coke at Essex's treason trial.After the
execution, the Queen ordered Bacon to write the official government account of
the trial, which was later published as A DECLARATION of the Practices and
Treasons attempted and committed by Robert late Earle of Essex and his
Complices, against her Majestie and her Kingdoms ... after Bacon's first draft
was heavily edited by the Queen and her ministers.
According to his personal secretary and chaplain, William Rawley, as a judge
Bacon was always tender-hearted, "looking upon the examples with the eye of
severity, but upon the person with the eye of pity and compassion". And also
that "he was free from malice", "no revenger of injuries", and "no defamer of
any man".

James I comes to the throne

Bacon, c. 1618
The succession of James I brought Bacon into greater favour. He was knighted
in 1603. In another shrewd move, Bacon wrote his Apologies in defence of his
proceedings in the case of Essex, as Essex had favoured James to succeed to the
throne. The following year, during the course of the uneventful first
parliamentary session, Bacon married Alice Barnham. In June 1607, he was at
last rewarded with the office of Solicitor General and in 1608 he began working
as the Clerkship of the Star Chamber. Despite a generous income, old debts still
could not be paid. He sought further promotion and wealth by supporting King
James and his arbitrary policies. In 1610 the fourth session of James's first
Parliament met. Despite Bacon's advice to him, James and the Commons found
themselves at odds over royal prerogatives and the King's embarrassing
extravagance. The House was finally dissolved in February 1611. Throughout
this period Bacon managed to stay in favour with the King while retaining the
confidence of the Commons.
In 1613 Bacon was finally appointed Attorney General, after advising the King
to shuffle judicial appointments. As Attorney General, Bacon, by his zealous
efforts—which included torture—to obtain the conviction of Edmund Peacham
for treason, raised legal controversies of high constitutional importance. Bacon
and Gray's Inn produced The Masque of Flowers to celebrate the wedding of
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset and his wife, Frances Howard, Countess of
Somerset, and he successfully prosecuted them for murder in 1616.
The so-called Prince's Parliament of April 1614 objected to Bacon's presence in
the seat for Cambridge and to the various royal plans that Bacon had supported.
Although he was allowed to stay, Parliament passed a law that forbade the
Attorney General to sit in Parliament. His influence over the King had evidently
inspired resentment or apprehension in many of his peers. Bacon, however,
continued to receive the King's favour, which led to his appointment in March
1617 as temporary Regent of England (for a period of a month), and in 1618 as
Lord Chancellor. On 12 July 1618 the King created Bacon Baron Verulam of
Verulam in the Peerage of England; he then became known as Francis, Lord
Verulam.
Bacon continued to use his influence with the King to mediate between the
throne and Parliament, and in this capacity he was further elevated in the same
peerage as Viscount St Alban on 27 January 1621.

Lord Chancellor and public disgrace:

Bacon and members of Parliament on the day of his 1621 political fall
Bacon's public career ended in disgrace in 1621. After he fell into debt, a
parliamentary committee on the administration of the law charged him with 23
separate counts of corruption. His lifelong enemy, Sir Edward Coke, who had
instigated these accusations, was one of those appointed to prepare the charges
against the chancellor. To the lords, who sent a committee to enquire whether a
confession was really his, he replied, "My lords, it is my act, my hand, and my
heart; I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." He was
sentenced to a fine of £40,000 and committed to the Tower of London at the
king's pleasure; the imprisonment lasted only a few days and the fine was
remitted by the king. More seriously, parliament declared Bacon incapable of
holding future office or sitting in parliament. He narrowly escaped undergoing
degradation, which would have stripped him of his titles of nobility.
Subsequently, the disgraced viscount devoted himself to study and writing.
There seems little doubt that Bacon had accepted gifts from litigants, but this
was an accepted custom of the time and not necessarily evidence of deeply
corrupt behaviour.[50] While acknowledging that his conduct had been lax, he
countered that he had never allowed gifts to influence his judgement and,
indeed, he had on occasion given a verdict against those who had paid him. He
even had an interview with King James in which he assured:
The law of nature teaches me to speak in my own defence: With respect to this
charge of bribery I am as innocent as any man born on St. Innocents Day. I
never had a bribe or reward in my eye or thought when pronouncing judgment
or order... I am ready to make an oblation of myself to the King
— 17 April 1621
He also wrote the following to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham:
My mind is calm, for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I have clean hands
and a clean heart, and I hope a clean house for friends or servants; but Job
himself, or whoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against
him as hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul, especially in a time
when greatness is the mark and accusation is the game.
As the conduct of accepting gifts was ubiquitous and common practice, and the
Commons was zealously inquiring into judicial corruption and malfeasance, it
has been suggested that Bacon served as a scapegoat to divert attention from
Buckingham's own ill practice and alleged corruption.
The true reason for his acknowledgement of guilt is the subject of debate, but
some authors speculate that it may have been prompted by his sickness, or by a
view that through his fame and the greatness of his office he would be spared
harsh punishment. He may even have been blackmailed, with a threat to charge
him with sodomy, into confession.

The British jurist Basil Montagu wrote in Bacon's defense, concerning the
episode of his public disgrace:
Bacon has been accused of servility, of dissimulation, of various base motives,
and their filthy brood of base actions, all unworthy of his high birth, and
incompatible with his great wisdom, and the estimation in which he was held by
the noblest spirits of the age. It is true that there were men in his own time, and
will be men in all times, who are better pleased to count spots in the sun than to
rejoice in its glorious brightness. Such men have openly libelled him, like
Dewes and Weldon, whose falsehoods were detected as soon as uttered, or have
fastened upon certain ceremonious compliments and dedications, the fashion of
his day, as a sample of his servility, passing over his noble letters to the Queen,
his lofty contempt for the Lord Keeper Puckering, his open dealing with Sir
Robert Cecil, and with others, who, powerful when he was nothing, might have
blighted his opening fortunes for ever, forgetting his advocacy of the rights of
the people in the face of the court, and the true and honest counsels, always
given by him, in times of great difficulty, both to Elizabeth and her successor.
When was a "base sycophant" loved and honoured by piety such as that of
Herbert, Tennison, and Rawley, by noble spirits like Hobbes, Ben Jonson, and
Selden, or followed to the grave, and beyond it, with devoted affection such as
that of Sir Thomas Meautys.

Personal life
Religious beliefs
Bacon was a devout Anglican. He believed that philosophy and the natural
world must be studied inductively, but argued that we can only study arguments
for the existence of God. Information about God's attributes (such as nature,
action, and purposes) can only come from special revelation. Bacon also held
that knowledge was cumulative, that study encompassed more than a simple
preservation of the past. "Knowledge is the rich storehouse for the glory of the
Creator and the relief of man's estate," he wrote. In his Essays, he affirms that "a
little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy
bringeth men's minds about to religion."
Bacon's idea of idols of the mind may have self-consciously represented an
attempt to Christianize science at the same time as developing a new, reliable
scientific method; Bacon gave worship of Neptune as an example of the idola
tribus fallacy, hinting at the religious dimensions of his critique of the idols.
Bacon was against the splintering within Christianity, believing that it would
ultimately lead to the creation of atheism as a dominant worldview, as indicated
with his quote that "The causes of atheism are: divisions in religion, if they be
many; for any one main division, addeth zeal to both sides; but many divisions
introduce atheism. Another is, scandal of priests; when it is come to that which
St. Bernard saith "One cannot now say the priest is as the people, for the truth is
that the people are not so bad as the priest". A third is, custom of profane
scoffing in holy matters; which doth by little and little deface the reverence of
religion. And lastly, learned times, specially with peace and prosperity; for
troubles and adversities do more bow men's minds to religion."

Architectural projects
Bacon built Verulam House in St Albans to his own designs.[60] It has been
suggested that this building was derivative of Sir Rowland Hill's building at
Soulton Hall.

Marriage to Alice Barnham:

When he was 36, Bacon courted Elizabeth Hatton, a young widow of 20.
Reportedly, she broke off their relationship upon accepting marriage to a
wealthier man, Bacon's rival, Sir Edward Coke. Years later, Bacon still wrote of
his regret that the marriage to Hatton had not taken place.
At the age of 45, Bacon married Alice Barnham, the 13-year-old daughter of a
well-connected London alderman and MP. Bacon wrote two sonnets
proclaiming his love for Alice. The first was written during his courtship and the
second on his wedding day, 10 May 1606. When Bacon was appointed lord
chancellor, "by special Warrant of the King", Lady Bacon was given precedence
over all other Court ladies. Bacon's personal secretary and chaplain, William
Rawley, wrote in his biography of Bacon that his marriage was one of "much
conjugal love and respect", mentioning a robe of honour that he gave to Alice
and which "she wore unto her dying day, being twenty years and more after his
death".
However, an increasing number of reports circulated about friction in the
marriage, with speculation that this may have been due to Alice's making do
with less money than she had once been accustomed to. It was said that she was
strongly interested in fame and fortune, and when household finances dwindled,
she complained bitterly. Bunten wrote in her Life of Alice Barnham that, upon
their descent into debt, she went on trips to ask for financial favours and
assistance from their circle of friends. Bacon disinherited her upon discovering
her secret romantic relationship with Sir John Underhill, rewriting his will
(which had generously planned to leave her lands, goods, and income) and
revoking her entirely as a beneficiary.

Sexuality:
Several authors believe that, despite his marriage,[c] Bacon was primarily
attracted to men. Forker, for example, has explored the "historically
documentable sexual preferences" of both Francis Bacon and King James I and
concluded they were both oriented to "masculine love", a contemporary term
that "seems to have been used exclusively to refer to the sexual preference of
men for members of their own gender." Bacon's sexuality has been disputed by
others, who point to lack of consistent evidence and consider the sources to be
more open to interpretation.
The Jacobean antiquary and Bacon's fellow parliament member Sir Simonds
D'Ewes implied there had been a question of bringing Bacon to trial for
buggery, with which his brother Anthony Bacon had also been charged.(Bacon's
brother "apparently also was homosexual", according to literature and sexuality
scholar Joseph Cady.) In his Autobiography and Correspondence diary entry for
3 May 1621, the date of Bacon's censure by Parliament, D'Ewes describes
Bacon's love for his Welsh serving-men, in particular his servant Mr. Henry
Godrick or Goodrick, a "very effeminate-faced youth" whom he calls "his
catamite and bedfellow". Bacon's own mother complained to Anthony on
Bacon's affection for another servant of his, named Percy, whom she wrote
Bacon kept as "a coach companion and bed companion."
In his Brief Lives sketches (likely composed during 1665–1690 and published
as a book in 1813), the antiquary John Aubrey wrote that Bacon was a pederast
"whose Ganimeds and Favourites tooke Bribes". While pederast strictly denoted
"boy-lover" in earlier times, Cady wrote that Aubrey deployed the term
discreetly in the original Greek to signify "male homosexual". The figure of
Ganymede, he continued, was another of many common ways of referring
obliquely to homosexuality.
In New Atlantis, Bacon described his utopian island as being "the chastest
nation under heaven", with "no touch" of "masculine love". Cady argued that
Bacon's reference to male homosexuality in the New Atlantis deliberately gave
the appearance of coming from "outside the phenomenon" due to prevalent
opposition. It contrasted deliberately with "veiled" praise of the topic elsewhere
in Bacon's work, he asserted. Cady offered several examples, including that
Bacon discussed only male beauty in his short essay "Of Beauty". He also noted
that Bacon ended his monologue The Masculine Birth of Time with an older
man asking a younger one (from his "inmost heart") to "give yourself to me so
that I may restore you to yourself" and "secure [you] an increase beyond all
hopes and prayers of ordinary marriages".

Death:
On 9 April 1626, Bacon died of pneumonia at Highgate outside London,
specifically at Arundel House, a country residence of his friend the Earl of
Arundel,[d] though Arundel was then imprisoned in the Tower of London.An
influential account of the circumstances of his death was given by John
Aubrey's Brief Lives. Aubrey's vivid account, which portrays Bacon as a martyr
to experimental scientific method, has him journeying to High-gate through the
snow with the King's physician when he is suddenly inspired by the possibility
of using the snow to preserve meat:

They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They alighted out
of the coach and went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill,
and bought a fowl, and made the woman exenterate it.

After stuffing the fowl with snow, Bacon contracted a fatal case of pneumonia.
Some people, including Aubrey, consider these two contiguous, possibly
coincidental events as related and causative of his death:
The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could
not return to his Lodging ... but went to the Earle of Arundel's house at
Highgate, where they put him into ... a damp bed that had not been layn-in ...
which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 days as I remember Mr Hobbes told
me, he died of Suffocation.
Aubrey has been criticized for his evident credulousness in this and other
works; on the other hand, he knew Thomas Hobbes, Bacon's fellow-philosopher
and friend. Being unwittingly on his deathbed, the philosopher dictated his last
letter to the Earl:
My very good Lord,—I was likely to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the
elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of Mount
Vesuvius; for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the
conservation and in-duration of bodies. As for the experiment itself, it
succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between London and High-gate, I
was taken with such a fit of casting as I know not whether it were the Stone, or
some surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But when I came to
your Lordship's House, I was not able to go back, and therefore was forced to
take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is very careful and diligent
about me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon towards
him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed your Lordship's House was
happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am sure you
give me to it. I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other hand than
mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed with sickness that I
cannot steadily hold a pen.

Another account appears in a biography by William Rawley, Bacon's personal

secretary and chaplain:
He died on the ninth day of April in the year 1626, in the early morning of the
day then celebrated for our Savior's resurrection, in the sixty-sixth year of his
age, at the Earl of Arundel's house in Highgate, near London, to which place he
casually repaired about a week before; God so ordaining that he should die there
of a gentle fever, accidentally accompanied with a great cold, whereby the
defluxion of rheum fell so plentifully upon his breast, that he died by
suffocation.
He was buried in St Michael's Church in St Albans. At the news of his death,
over 30 great minds collected together their eulogies of him, which were then
later published in Latin. He left personal assets of about £7,000 and lands that
realised £6,000 when sold.His debts amounted to more than £23,000, equivalent
to more than £4m at current value.
Essays (Francis Bacon), History of the Reign of King Henry VII, New Atlantis,
Novum Organum, Salomon's House, and The Advancement of Learning
Front page of a 1779 copy of Bacon's Novum Organum, authored in 1620

Some of the more notable works by Bacon are:

Essays
1st edition with 10 essays (1597)
2nd edition with 38 essays (1612)
3rd/final edition with 58 essays (1625)
The Advancement and Proficience of Learning Divine and Human (1605)
Instauratio magna (The Great Instauration) (1620) – a multi-part work including
Distributio operis (Plan of the Work); Novum Organum (The New Organon);
Parasceve ad historiam naturalem (Preparatory for Natural History) and
Catalogus historiarum particularium (Catalogue of Particular Histories)[139]
De augmentis scientiarum (1623) – an enlargement of The Advancement of
Learning translated into Latin
New Atlantis (1626)