Thanks to Alfred Dodd &
Doris Davis for preparation of Text
A.D.303 St. Albans martyred.
The first Christian Martyr in England.
1250 Roger Bacon, the English monk with the astonishingly modern mind wrote "A man is crazy who writes a secret in any other way than one which will conceal it from the vulgar." He listed seven different ways of writing secretly. To him is attributed the so-called Voynich Manuscript, parts of which have still not been deciphered.
1261-1321 Dante. One of the first intellectual rebels against the Holy Church. Wrote in cipher.
Bacon adopted all of Dante's methods of secret writing: numbers, anagrams, printing errors, special type setting, hieroglyphics, allegorical pictures, emblematic head and tailpiece, watermarks, etc. ( He was a secret ethical teacher.)
1453 Capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Said to be the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe,
which ends with the death of Elizabeth 1603 in England. (150 years)
1455 May
-- The Wars of the Roses began in an open battle at
St. Albans
1456 Guttenberg
-- printing with movable type (Germany) {
Alan Green discusses Guttenberg's presses briefly}
1485 The final battle of the Wars of the Roses. Won by a Lancastrian who had been in exile in Brittany, Henry of Richmond. Bottle of Bosworth Field. Richard III was killed. Henry of Richmond became Henry VII, the first of the Tudors, father of Henry VIII.
1492 Christopher Columbus
sailing west to open up a new route to the east (since the Turks had blocked the trade routes in
1453) discovers the "new world"
1498 Erasmus (of Rotterdam) to Oxford. Friend of Sir Thomas More.
1510 Actual birth date of Edmund Spenser (but see 1553).
1516 Queen Mary born, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
1543-1607 Dates for Sir Edward
candidate for authorship of Shake-speare plays.
1532/33 Queen Elizabeth born, daughter of Henry VIII and
Ann Boleyn. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester born, fifth son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland
1536 Ann Boleyn is beheaded. Her husband, Henry VIII, marries Jane Seymour and Princess Elizabeth
is declared illegitimate.
1549 Sir Roger Ascham, the famous scholar, becomes tutor to Princess Elizabeth. {
tutor of Greek and Latin – John Dee could transcribe Greek also. As an aside, other things that comes up is the Roger taught E-1 Cicero, and Dee also featured Cicero (as recalled) – so people were likely getting their views through the lens of Cicero it seemed.}
1550-1604 Dates for Edward De Vere 17th Earl of Oxford,
candidate for Shakespeare authorship. Robert Dudley marries Amy Robsart.
1552-1618 Dates for Sir Walter Raleigh,
another candidate for authorship
1557 Elizabeth and Dudley
secretly married (the first time) in the Tower.
1558 Death of Queen Mary. On November 17 -- Elizabeth accedes to the throne. 25 years old.
Empty treasury. The nation
about equally divided between Catholic and Protestant, and therefore her legitimacy was doubted by about 1/2 of her subjects.
King Philip of Spain, husband of late Queen Mary had his Spanish watchdog
in the Court. The Spanish policy was to subjugate England by fair means of foul;
to make England a vassal state in the Imperial Empire. Protestants divided into 2 distinct parties,
Puritans and Church of England.
Prudent policy of Elizabeth: She made the Bible
the authority; interpretation left to conscience. Her personal views remained locked with the sanctity of her own breast, a policy which kept her enemies from openly declaring war. She saved the country from internecine strife (as in France and Germany)
and made England a Protestant power.
One of Elizabeth's first acts after her Accession, is to appoint
Robert Dudley Master of the Horse, an honourable and valuable post which gave him a Lodging at the Court
and personal attendance on the Queen.
[…]
Eliz thus proclaims herself The Virgin Queen. She is "
married to the State" Her father's policy also was hers: "
Trust NO ONE." Letter of Count De Feria (Philip's watchdog): regarding behaviour of Elizabeth toward Dudley: "
Her Majesty visits him in his Chamber day and night." (18th April)
[…]
Letter of Ambassador De Quadra (another of Philip's watchdogs) to Philip of Spain: "I have heard from a person who is in the habit of giving me veracious news
that Lord Robert had sent to poison his wife. . .All the Queen has done. . .in the matter of her marriage. .
is to keep Lord Robert's enemies and the country engaged with words until this wicked deed of killing his wife is consummated. I am told some extraordinary things about this intimacy." (November)
27 Dec, De Quadra: "She pretends to me that she would like to be a nun, and live in a cell, and tell her beads from morning till night. . .
a true daughter of a wicked mother."
1560-1580 Growing patriotism, nationalism in England.
English language also growing up: coining of new words. Band of writers full of passionate utterance.
Full orchestra of poets, wits, philosophers and learned men.
Early in 1560 Amy Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley, who had hitherto lived in the country, was removed to Cumnor Place, Berkshire, the house of Anthony Forster, a creature of her husband's She had a terminal illness --
or so it was given out.
Aug 13 -- See Calendar of State Papers (Report to Lord Burleigh as to the open assertions of Mother Anne Dowe of Brentwood, concerning the condition of the Queen. She said
that the Queen was with child by Robert Dudley. She was sent to prison.)
Sept 8 -- Amy Robsart found lying dead with neck broken at the foot of a staircase. It is generally believed that Dudley or Elizabeth was accessory to the crime. It has also been said that she committed suicide to pave the way for his marriage. However, Froude believed that Dudley was innocent of any direct participation in the crime, but that she was murdered by persons who hoped to profit by his elevation to the Throne. Froude: "What followed is full of obscurity. De Quadra's letters for the next six weeks
that followed the murder are lost. There remain only at Simancas abstracts of their contents which tell the story
most imperfectly. That the Queen would attempt to marry Dudley now that she was free,
was the immediate and universal expectation."
Sept 11 -- Letter of De Quadra, "I met the Secretary Cecil whom I know to be in disgrace. Lord Robert, I was made aware, was endeavouring to depose him of his place . . . He said . . . he perceived the most manifest ruin impending over the Queen through her intimacy with Lord Robert. [Dudley] "had made himself Master of the business of the State and of the person of the Queen, to the extreme injury of the realm, with the intention of marrying her; she herself was shutting herself up in her palace to the peril of her health and her life. . .He was therefore determined to retire in the country although he supposed they would send him to the Tower (
Cecil).
{
441 years later 9/11}
[…]
It is
openly reported (See Dic. Nat. Biog.) that the Queen was secretly betrothed to Dudley, and that they were married at Lord Pembroke's House sometime in late September. Cecil, either in appearance or reality, consented to be reconciled to them.
Sept 12 -- Queen Eliz and Dudley
wed secretly.
November. The Queen's "looks" are quite consistent
with a pregnant woman.
31 December - Throckmorton (English Ambassador to French Court) concerned with the bruits and rumors. His letter to Cecil suggests that he was aware that the Queen was married secretly. . . .He was asked point blank by the Spanish Ambassador (at the French Court) if the Queen was not secretly married to Lord Robert. The bruits of her doings, be very strange in all courts and countries." The secret marriage was an accomplished fact,
a State Secret.
December -- a secret despatch of the Spanish Envoy advises that the Queen
is expecting a child by Dudley." (Escurial Papers.)
1561 Dictionary of National Biography XVI p. 114 "It is herein recorded that on Jan. 21 1560/1 Queen Elizabeth was secretly married to Robert Dudley in the House of Lord Pembroke before a number of witnesses."
This is one day off from the date Francis Bacon is assumed to have been born. Marriage also took place on Sept. 12 (see above).
Jan. 22 -- De Quadra writes to Philip of Spain: "If she marry Lord Robert without his Majesty's sanction, your Majesty has but to give a hint to her subjects and she will lose her Throne. . . Without your Majesty's sanction she will do nothing in public; And it may be when she sees she has nothing to hope for from your Majesty, she will make a worse plunge to satisfy her appetite. She is infatuated to a degree which would be a notable fault in any woman, much more in one of her exalted rank." In the same letter De Quadra says that Dudley assured him that if the King of Spain would only countenance the marriage, they would restore the Roman Catholic religion. "
Some say she is a Mother already, but this I do not believe."
Jan. 22 -- - Aquarius with Aquarius rising) Son Francis Bacon born to Sir Nicholas Bacon and Lady Anne, according to outer records. May have been named after Francois, the little French King who had recently died, leaving his young widow,
little Mary Queen of Scots, to her strange destiny.
Francis Bacon is born either at "
York House" (i.e. the home of Sir Nicholas Bacon) "
or York Place" (i.e. Whitehall, the Queen's Palace), according to the statement of Francis Bacon's Chaplain and Secretary, Dr. Rawley, who took this method of telling the world that Francis Bacon
was a Royal Tudor; and that there was a mystery regarding his birth and parentage.
25 Januarie Baptizatus fuit Mr. Franciscos Bacon. He was registered at St. Martin's Church, London, and was described as "Mr. Franciscus Bacon."
Why should the word "Mr." be used in the registering of an infant's baptism? No other infant had such a distinction.
He was born to the Queen and Leicester, an adulterine bastard, morganatic marriage. (
Morganatic means marriage of a king or queen to one of lesser rank with no possibility of their children being heirs to throne.) But if birth had been made public
the Catholic reaction would have been severe, even the Protestants would have declared for Mary of Scotland!)
February -- De Quadra write to Philip that he had seen Elizabeth. He heard her confession. She was no angel, she had not resolved to marry Lord Robert or anyone. She promised to do nothing without Philip's sanction. "As there is danger, I would not leave her without hope. If we let this woman become desperate, she may do something which may fatally injure us, although she destroys herself at the same time."
1561-1621 Dates for Countess of Pembroke,
another candidate for authorship of Shake-speare works.
1561-1642 Dates for William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby,
another candidate for authorship.
1563 Roger
Ascham began to write his book,
The Schoolmaster, on the education of young noblemen. His theory was that young children were "sooner allured by love than driven by beatings to attain learning." The Queen
had requested that he write the book. He was her former schoolmaster, the most learned scholar in England. It was intended as a curriculum for the training of someone in particular.
Francis would have been about five years old when the book was finished, 1566.
1564 April 26 -- William Shakspere baptized at Stratford. Son of John Shakspere and Mary Arden,
illiterate parents.
The child Francis Bacon is taken to Court and the Queen calls him her "Little Lord Keeper."
Sir Nicholas Bacon is commanded to build a new home for himself at Gorhambury. The Queen
visits this home repeatedly in the following years while young Francis is growing up.
Robert Dudley
is created the Earl of Leicester and
is the recipient of large grants of money and high offices.
Melville, the Scotch Ambassador, reports that Elizabeth "took me to her Bed chamber, and opened a little desk where there were divers little pictures wrapped in paper, their names written with her own hand. Upon the first she took up was written, "My Lord's Picture."
This was Leicester's portrait."
1565-78 Queen pays numerous public and secret visits to Gorhambury (to keep an eye on Francis ?) "You have made your house too little for your Lordship," the Queen says to Nicholas Bacon. "Your Majesty hath made me too big for my house," he replies. (
He later added a new wing for her benefit)
When Francis was about 5 years old the Queen asked him his age. He answered with much discretion, being but a Boy, that he was two years younger than Her Majesty's happy Reign:
with which answer the Queen was much taken."
1566 August -- Leicester told the French Ambassador that he had "known her [the Queen] from her eighth year better than any man on earth. He added that he was as much in favour as ever, and was convinced the Queen would choose no other than himself, but was uncertain whether the Queen wished to marry him or not (i.e. publicly).
Roger Ascham's book
The Schoolmaster finished. The dated preface (30 Oct, 1566)
was kept in hiding with other manuscripts for 200 years, and was published by James Bennet in 1761. In it, Ascham compares the Queen's life with David's life. "Most Noble Princess . . . Thinking of David's life, his former miseries, his later felicities, of God's dealing with him to bring happiness to his present time, and safety to his Posterity, I have had for many like causes, many like thoughts one of the Life and State of your Majesty.
"God said to David . . . 'Thine own seed shall sit in thy seat,' which is the greatest comfort that can come to a great Prince . . . And in the end he had the joyful blessing from Nathan, which all true English hearts daily do pray that God will send the same to your Majesty, 'I will set up thy seed after thee.'
"Yet when God had shown him the greatest favour . . . God suffered him to fall into the deepest pit of wickedness, to commit the cruellest murder, the shame fullest adultery.". . .
"He did not stumble by ignorance, nor slide by weakness, nor only fall by wilfulness, but went to it advisedly . . . to bring mischief to pass . . . Yet God had not taken from David His Grace.
"So out of this foul matter is gathered the fairest example, and best lesson for Prince and private man . . . As in a fair glass your Majesty shall see and acknowledge, by God's dealing with David, even very many like dealings of God with your Majesty. And in the end have as David had . . . Prosperity and surest felicity for you, yours and your posterity." Dodd observes: This letter was written to a virgin Queen with no prospect of posterity openly in sight.
What had the sin of David to do with an immaculate Virgin Queen?
1569 A passage from the Duke of Norfolk's Confession incidentally tells of a child in the Queen's Private Apartments: "When the Court was at Guildford, I went unaware into the Queen's Privy Chamber, and found Her Majesty sitting on the threshold of the door
listening with one ear to a little child who was singing and playing on the lute to her, and with the other to Leicester who was kneeling by her side. Leicester rose and the Queen continued listening to the child." (Strickland, p. 265.)
Francis would have been about 9 years old at the time the Duke is referring to.
1571 A statute is passed by Parliament
at the behest of the Queen which makes it a penal offense to speak of any successor to the crown
save her "natural issue" (she rejects the term "legal" heirs. This is an indication that she was not closing the doors to the possible succession of Francis or Essex.)
With the passage of this act P. Woodward states in Tudor Problems, that "... after many years of intimacy,
the interests of their own preservation warranted that they should part company. Elizabeth's statement to her Council in 1571 that she was 'free to marry' points to a mutual understanding that they should go their respective ways." (She had chosen to release herself.)
Shortly afterwards, Leicester, who had apparently taken the Queen at her word, secretly gave a formal pledge to Lady Sheffield and secretly married her two days before the birth of a son, who had the greatest difficulty in proving his legitimacy. This son became Leicester's heir.
Queen gives Manor of Marks Hall near Braintree in Essex to Walter Hereford, Essex' reputed foster father.
1573 The Queen visits Sir Nicholas Bacon's new home in Gorhambury, which was completed in 1568 (she had visited it on completion, and in the previous year, 1572) and is royally entertained by Sir Nicholas. In March 1572/3 the Queen once more visited Gorhambury. The following month,
Francis Bacon was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge.
April -- (10 June, Du Maurier) Francis enters Trinity college, Cambridge.
12 years old. Studies all the sciences then taught.
While in Cambridge, Francis
was said to be dissatisfied with the methods of education then practiced, was devising a means for improving them. Acquired a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French.
The Queen sends Lord Hereford (now first Earl of Essex) to Ireland to recover a barony there. She loans Walter Hereford 10,000. He (elder Essex) writes to Burleigh offering him the responsibility for the "direction, education and marriage of eldest son, Robert." Thus becoming a ward, Essex will get to be at court.
1575 Francis leaves Cambridge (before his birthday) where he had
acquired a reputation for precocious learning. An outbreak
of the plague may have something to do with his returning home. But he did not return. Must have been a happy time until September 1576
Eliz apparently unaware of the Secret Marriage with Lady Sheffield gave Leicester 50,000 pounds and he responded by giving her a magnificent entertainment at Kenilworth Castle.
Then, he privately married one of the queen's cousins -- Lettice, the widow of Walter, Earl of Essex. He was afterwards pressed into a more formal ceremony in the presence of her father, Sir Francis Knollys. When the Queen heard of the marriage,
a year later "she was for putting him in the Tower." Eventually he was ordered to remain a prisoner at Greenwich Castle, and his wife was forbidden to attend Court.
1576-1612 Dates for Roger Manners 5th Earl of Rutland,
another "Shake-speare" candidate
21 November Francis and Anthony Bacon were admitted at Gray's Inn. But Francis appears to have spent a good deal of his time at the Court until September, when
Francis was sent abroad, "
Direct from Her Majesty's Royal Hand," as a result of a Bolt from the Blue: Inciting Incident -- (According to Cipher)
The Queen reveals to Francis that he is her son. Makes him swear never to write or speak, or print secrets under his own name. Knowledge that he is unacknowledged "Prince of Wales" catapults him into a premature adulthood.
September 11 -- Sent to Paris by Queen. Arrives at Calais. Travels with the ambassador, Sir Amyas Paulet, to Paris, on the great ship Dreadnought .
In France
Francis mingled with the most exalted statesmen and wits of the period, acquired knowledge of foreign courts and politics. For the next three years he visited Blois, Poictiers, Tours, also Italy and Spain.
His muse is Pallas Athena.
He was known to be a poet in France. Ronsard's group, Pleiade.
Lord Hereford (first Earl of Essex) returns from Ireland unexpectedly and apparently makes things awkward by his demands and his actions. He is peremptorily ordered back to Ireland in July.
September, Lord Hereford dies suddenly in Ireland;
it is said through poison, and that the Earl of Leicester had something to do with his death. (Was he threatening blackmail?)
Bacon conceives his "Theater Project."
Robert Devereux, fledgling Earl of Essex, age 10, lives
with the Cecils at Theobalds. The first time he met the Queen, she leaned forward to give him a kiss. He, already fiercely independent, and not finding this aging, red-haired woman very appealing, turned his head aside and refused her kiss.
The Queen was not amused.
W.S. at 13 apprenticed to a butcher.
1577 Garden of Eloquence by Sir Henry Peacham (
One of Bacon's circle.)
Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex,
the Queen's alleged son, is sent to Trinity College, Cambridge in January.
1576-1623 The English Language was made (developed) from almost barbaric crudeness to the highest pitch which any language has realized. Practically everything worth knowing was made available in English. These editions were not produced for profit. How was the cost provided?
1578 John Lyly
-- Anatomy of Wit appeared in England.
Bears curious resemblance to Francis' experience in France. Young man has a fling at love. Returns sadder but wiser.
Francis toured independently
Eliz.
refuses to allow him to wed Marguerite de Valois.
Learns how cipher is used in diplomacy, secret service.
Negotiation of treaty.
Francis has portrait painted by the Queen's artist, Hillyard, who writes on the portrait: "Could I but paint his mind." Francis was 18 years old. (Was he in France or England when portrait was painted? (Dodd suggests he may have returned to England with dispatches.) (Note: the same artist also painted the Queen in a strikingly similar style. He also painted a portrait of Essex.
There were no other youths painted by Hilyard for the Queen.
Earl of Leicester secretly marries young Robert's foster-mother, Lady (Hereford) Essex.
1579 Francis' dream:
that Bacon's house was plastered over with black mortar
Recalled from France upon death of father, Feb 20. Arrives in England
March 20.
Nicholas'
will leaves him penniless, which is remarkable, since all other children were well provided for. (Could this be a mute indication that his expectations lay elsewhere?)
Begins career in law, which he studies "
against the bent of his genius." He writes to Lord and Lady Burleigh pointing out how incongruous it is for a person in his position to be employed in studying the common law. He says: "
I do not understand how anyone well off or friended should be put to the study of the common law instead of studies of greater delight." Had Francis been the real son of a lawyer, it would have been impossible for him to feel it beneath him to study common law. As a Prince, though concealed, hoping he would be publicly called to the Succession of the English Throne, he would naturally feel such drudgery to be a little beneath him. To ease his discontent, Burleigh procures him a dispensation from his compulsory attendance of "keeping Commons."
This meant that he declined to take his meals with the law students, barristers. Even six years later (1586) an order was again specially made, permitting him to take his meals at the Reader's or Master's table, although not entitled by seniority. He passed over the heads of barristers and ancients, care having to be taken to reserve their rights to pension in view of his supercession.
Resides at Gray's Inn.
Celestial visitation -- a clairaudient experience. "The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of a King is to find it out." "A flame of fire which fills all the room and obscures our eyes with its celestial glory -- heavenly voice. Follow the example of God. Put away popular applause.
Compose a history of thy times and fold it into enigmatical writings and cunning mixtures of the theatre mingled as the colors in a painters shell and it will in due course of time be found."
His plan: 1) catalogue and systematize "all the world's knowledge." (in English Language) 2) appear as model son to the Queen. Aid and support the administration of her realm. Give good advice. Enhance her image. Stay hidden behind the scenes. 3)
Commit the true story to several ciphers. Live a secret (double) concealed life.
The "A"-"A" device first appears.
Mother resides at Gorhambury,
St. Albans.
The Shepherd's Calendar - "Spenser" (the first appearance of the Cipher, signed E.K., for "England's King."
Leicester marries Lettice Knollys in secret. Queen
not pleased when she finds out.
1579-89 Nine early books, none of them under Francis' name,
including Treatise: Anatomy of Melancholy. (Burton.)
1579-80 Abundant proof, according to Dodd,
that Francis had begun the establishment of secret societies, and that Anthony was his agent.
1580 Anthony leaves for France.
Francis Bacon writes Four Letters to Lord Burleigh, Secretary of State, and Lady Burleigh, in which he presses them to recommend his "suit" to the Queen, while thanking them for, apparently,
a promised monetary allowance, and other promises for the future. The first letter was dated 11 July, 1580
15 October he writes his uncle, Lord Burleigh, to "
present his more than humble thanks to the Queen for her princely liberality."
18 October. "This last one seems to be one carefully written for submission to the Queen with a view to appease her anger which his importunity had aroused." says P. Woodward. [
Dodd believes that the First Canto (of sonnets) had been sent to the Queen, and this letter was sent afterwards for fear she resented the Sonnets which she would understand only too well.] He is undoubtedly
pressing for recognition as the Queen's Son and Heir in the Succession. That is the "suit" which historians are at a loss to explain. The 1580 letters are signed "B.Fra.",
which signature is often used in Initial Capitals of his concealed works. The "suit" to Burghley, via Lady Burghley, his aunt was denied. It was pursued 18 months.
The letters which passed between Prof. Gabriel Harvey and "Immerito," which refer to "Immerito" as "a certain worshipful gentleman," and to "Right Worshipful and Thrice-Venerable Masters,"
indicate the establishment of Modern Freemasonry. Francis Bacon's correspondence
indicates he was the Chief of a very busy group of literary workers at Gray's Inn and Twickenham Lodge, works being published anonymously and openly by the Secret Literary Society, the Rosicrosse.
Plas Mawr, Conway built. A fine Tudor building. Eliz and Leicester stayed there often. The bedrooms of the Queen and Leicester are in close proximity, and can both be approached by a private door, with access to the Queen's Sitting Room.. these two bedrooms are entirely apart from the rest of the building, being absolutely a wing on its own. (Booklet and photo-cards to be obtained from C.G. Dyall, Curator, The Royal Academy of Art, Plas Mawr, Conway, N. Wales.
1580-81-82?
When he attained 21, it was decided to send him for a year's travel abroad, according to the practice of the period for Princes and Noblemen's sons. There are records which show that Lord Burleigh was interested in the best routes he had to travel.
Evidence that F.B. was on continent: To observe. He was in Italy, Spain, Germany, Denmark. Sir Thomas Bodley paid the bill. He also wrote notes on the State of Christendom: Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Florence, Venice, Mantua, Genoa, Savoy. (
These papers discovered and published after his death)
1581 Essex receives M.A. degree at age 14. Leaves Cambridge.
1582 Made outer barrister at Gray's Inn. Resides at the Inns of Court as a gentleman pensioner of the Queen. He had no money of his own. "From the age of twenty, except for his allowance from the Queen, he had nothing to live on.
The Bacon family had no responsibility and he was entirely a Pensioner on the Queen's Bounty." (Woodward.)
Nov 28 -- W.S.(William Shaxpur) marries Anne Hathaway, an illiterate (7 years older)
under disreputable circumstances.
1583 William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby visited Navarre, where Love's Labors Lost took place. (
Those who support his candidacy as author of Shakespeare plays cite this fact. But do they know that the names of several characters in Love's Labours Lost also appear on Anthony Bacon's passport now in the British Museum?)
Robert, Earl of Essex, resides at Langley, Pembrokeshire, and returns to Court under pressure by the Earl of Leicester.
Queen
had her own group of players.
May 26 -- W.Shaksper
daughter Susanna born.
Brotherhoods had been established, at least by this date.
The Birth of Merlin masque by Francis.
1584 Tempus Partus Maximus Francis writes a short Latin Tractate, "
The Most Masculine Birth of Time," which is a covert hint that he has created a Masculine Brotherhood, the Modern Order of Freemasonry. Greatest (Masculine) Birth of Time, is a forerunner of Advancement of Learning
Leycester's Commonwealth, appears, printed in Antwerp. Copies filtered into England. A very circumstantial account is given of the lascivious nature of Leicester. His amours with various women are narrated at length, his characteristics being "dissimulation, hypocrisy, adultery, falsehood and what not."
Leicester formed an Association of the nobility and gentry of England,
sworn to defend Elizabeth's person against the Catholic Party's new policy ... the assassination of the Queen. Dudley was
the leading Protestant Puritan at E's Court, and the greatest businessman of his time, a man of great energy and ability. He owned mines, mills, and great forests. He could export woolens and held the monopoly of all sweet wines. He was always ready to contribute large sums of money to advance the fortunes of England. He believed that England could defeat Spain, He was the patron of the Drama, he gave Oxford University its first printing press, and was its chancellor.
Yet he was reputed to be "brainless."
Francis is elected M.P. for Melcome in Dorsetshire, also for the pocket borough of Catton, belonging to Lord Burleigh.
A penniless student at twenty-four could only have got into Parliament through powerful influence.
Essex now living at court. At age 14 has obtained his M.A. degree.
Essex
has a very serious altercation with the Queen respecting Sir Walter Raleigh (35), Captain of the Guard, accusing her of being under his control and influence. (Makes one think that Essex must have known his identity, and was jealous of anyone coming between them.)
1585 Francis writes to Walshingham his enigmatical letter to "put him in remembrance" of his "poor suit," which is really a request to the Queen, through her Ministers,
whether she intends formally to recognize him as her Heir and Successor to the Throne. Note:
Leicester is out of favor with the Queen at this time, and Francis wonders whether this endangered his prospects of Recognition.
Francis addresses a long letter of caution to the Queen with reference to the attempts to poison her. t begins with a curious note, which is a virtual statement that he is one of the Queen's natural children... "
Care, one of the Natural and True-bred Children of Unfeigned Affection, awaked with these late wicked and barbarous attempts, would needs exercise my pen to your Sacred Majesty."
Queen commissions F to write The Art of Poetry, which would give her opportunity to publish her own verses. Leicester takes Essex (his "stepson" with him on an expedition to Holland. He took part in battle Zutphen. Upon his return, Essex was constantly at court
and on best terms with the Queen. She showed him considerable fondness.
W.S. children Hamnet and Judith born. (Twins?)
1586-87 Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots for treason.
Bacon M.P. for Taunton
Leicester had command of the English operations in the Low Countries.
Leicester resigned his post of master of Horse, and
Robert Essex was given the post at 1500 pounds per annum.
Essex is in constant residence at the Court. He would then be twenty and the Queen fifty-four. Their relationship
appears to be that of Mother and Son. Bagot wrote this year: "When she is alone, there is nobody near her but my Lord of Essex, and at night my Lord is at cards of some game or other with her."
Bacon made a bencher, one of the inner members who acts as governor to the Inn
W.S. flees on foot to London to escape prosecution for stealing deer and rabbits. (Left with a travelling company of players?) Finds employment in Burbage's stable.
Factotum.
Hamlet, an anonymous play then on stage (but see 1581)
Love's Labours Lost -- shows court life of Navarre (
ethical brotherhood)
1587 Assists in presenting at Gray's Inn Revels an anonymous play
The Tragedy of Arthur, a reminiscence of King John, containing many extracts found in his notebook, the Promus (With The Promus alone might a brief be made for the plaintiff)
Can speculate that his Order of the Knights of the Helmet was forming with the University wits around this time?
Shake-speare a mature poet by this time (Sweet)
1588 The Spanish Armada appears in the English Channel, 20th July. The Earl of Leicester is made Lord Lieutenant of England and Ireland. He is
invested with greater power than any Sovereign had even ventured to bestow upon any subject.
Defeat of the Spanish Armada -- in roaring tempest. Beached on Goodwin Sands.
Leicester dies suddenly on the 4th September. Queen Elizabeth
immediately seized all his estates (on the plea of money lent), and put them up for auction. The Queen and Leicester
acted as though she honestly regarded herself as his lawful wife by a private marriage, which she could not openly admit for State reasons. That she loved him, and him alone, to the very end, is beyond dispute. And many years after his death, when opening a private drawer in the presence of an intimate, she said, holding a piece of paper in her hand, "
His last letter."
By his will he left Leicester House, also a George and Garter, to the Earl of Essex in the hope he would wear it shortly. The Earl of Essex is appointed a Knight of the Garter, and was made General of Horse.
After Leicester's death, (and even before, see 1587)
Essex acts as though he knew the secret of his birth.
Essex and Queen
have many temper flare-ups. He never knew where to draw the line between private and public relationship with the queen. Robert the "son" destroyed Essex the "subject".
She tried to tame him like a wild horse. Pattern is established
of his insubordination, her anger, then later forgiveness. Pattern often repeats.
Francis Bacon is elected M.P. for Liverpool,
and is sworn Queen's Counsel Extraordinary. In Parliament, Writes Advertisement
Touching the Controversies of the Church. Is given reversion of clerkship in Star Chamber yielding no immediate salary (he would have to wait until 1609 for it!)
Shakspere "a servitor" in the company of Burbage is mentioned in a bill of complaint against John Lambert of Stratford.
1589 February 4: The New Parliament meets and
Francis takes a prominent part in its deliberations, serving on the most important committees, arranging between the Commons and the Queen the terms on which double subsidies were to be granted.
Henry III, king of France
assassinated by Clement.
1590 Francis publishes works on shorthand. P. Woodward believes
that Francis Bacon was putting shorthand into practice, and had many assistants working for him.
Essex receives a handsome revenue of sweet wines. (
a monopoly)
October - Henry IV of France writes to Robert Essex personally, asking him to use his influence with the Queen for English assistance against Spain,
as though he had some private Knowledge, of his actual position at Court ...
Essex secretly married to Sir Philip Sidney's widow. When the marriage came to the Queen's knowledge "
her anger knew no bounds against Essex, not merely because he took a wife without asking her consent, but for marrying, as she said, below his degree." (Devereux.) His wife was the daughter of Sir Francis Walshigham, quite his equal in every respect
unless the Queen regarded him as a Tudor Prince of the Blood Royal. It was not jealousy, but anger for marrying below his degree.
1591 Queen
objects to Essex going to assist Henry IV.
He goes anyway. Queen orders his return. He refuses. She vows to make him an example (insubordination) Later she forgave him, allows him to be present at siege of Rouen, but must remain out of harm's way.
Essex challenges Villiers, Governor of Rouen to a mortal duel. The Queen got the Council to write to him that, owing to his position,
he had not right to engage in it."
Queen
appoints Bacon to be confidential advisor to the Earl of Essex, along with Anthony. The thrust of Francis' advice is always, "Win the Queen. Win the Queen."
Shake-speare had no peer in dramatic writing by this date (Sweet)
1591-96 Complaints (Colin Clout) and Faerie Queene (E. Spenser)
1592-96 Essex
at the pinnacle of his popular reputation and fortunes. The Queen became envious
and jealous of his popularity. (Woodward, p. 13)
1592 Francis Bacon writes a letter to Lord Burleigh, Secretary of State,
which is a veiled renunciation of his claims as the eldest of the Tudors to the English Throne. He is getting older: "I wax somewhat ancient. One and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour glass. . . I ever bear in mind -- in some middle place that I could discharge -- to serve Her Majesty. . . I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate Civil ends,
for I have taken all knowledge to be my province. . . This Philanthropia is so fixed my mind as it cannot be removed. If your Lordship shall find, nor or at any time, that I do seek or affect any place . . . nearer to your Lordship . . . say, then, that I am a most dishonest man. . ."
The writer thus lets it be known he no longer wants to rule over a Material Kingdom.
He is
pressed with debts (through printing anonymous publications) and disappointed at the rejection of his "poor suit." (which he had begun in 1580!) He says he will become "a sorry Bookmaker" and throw up the legal profession.
He appears quite resigned to live the life of a commoner, instead of a Prince.
Turning Point: This is the year that F.B.
relinquishes his "suit" claim to the throne in favor of Essex. (Letter to Burleigh, which in effect, clears the way for Essex to succeed Eliz. -- if he plays his cards right.) Believes it is best for the kingdom: "Chose Essex as fittest instrument to do good to the state." He no longer seeks to rule over an earthly kingdom, but over a universal one. "To thine own self be true." This is the vow / resignation which allowed him to occupy the chair of Apollo.
Residing at Gray's Inn with intervals at Gorhambury and Twickenham.