Anthony Bacon (1558–1601)
Encyclopedia
Anthony Bacon was a member of the powerful English
Bacon family who was also a spy
during the Elizabethan era
.
by Elizabeth I of England
. His mother, Anne
, was the daughter of noted humanist
Anthony Cooke
. His mother's sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
, making Burghley Anthony Bacon's uncle. Anthony Bacon's more famous younger brother, Francis Bacon
, was born three years after him, in 1561.
Anthony and his brother spent their early years at York House
in the Strand, London
. Their mother (who was one of the most educated women of her day, speaking French
, Latin
, Greek
, Spanish
, Hebrew
and Italian
) oversaw their early education. In April 1573, the Bacon brothers enrolled in Trinity College, Cambridge
, where they lived in the household of the Master of Trinity College, John Whitgift
. The boys' father died in February 1579 after having been one of the most powerful men in England for the past twenty years.
in 1580. While there, he served as an intelligencer
reporting to English spymaster
Sir Francis Walsingham
. He initially settled in Montauban-de-Picardie
. In 1586, he was charged with sodomy
for having sex with his page
Isaac Burgades and had to leave Montauban because of the scandal. He lived in France until 1592; during this time, he became acquainted with Henry IV of France
.
. Together, they established a scrivenery
employing scriveners who acted as secretaries, writers, translators, copyists and cryptographers, dealing with correspondence, translations, copying, ciphers, essays, books, plays, entertainments and masques.
In 1593, Bacon paid for his friend Antonio Pérez
to come to England. Pérez may have been the model for the character of Don Adriana de Armado in Shakespeare
's Love's Labour's Lost
. In 1593 Bacon was also elected member of Parliament
for Wallingford, Berkshire
.
In April 1594, Bacon established his own residence in Bishopsgate
.
and moved into Essex House
. During this time, Essex House was the center of the so-called "Shakespeare circle", a literary circle that involved the Earl of Essex, Sir Thomas Walsingham
, Philip Sidney
, and Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
. Sir Henry Cuffe
and Sir Henry Wotton
were also among the Earl of Essex's supporters at this time. In 1597 Bacon was MP for Oxford
.
In 1601, Essex was accused, and then convicted, of high treason
, with Bacon's brother Francis playing a role in Essex's prosecution. Anthony Bacon died shortly thereafter, at the home of Essex's widow Frances Walsingham
. He is buried at St Olave Hart Street
.
, who in turn bequeathed it to the Lambeth Palace
library, where it currently remains.
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
Bacon family who was also a spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
during the Elizabethan era
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
.
Early years, 1558-1580
Anthony Bacon was born in 1558, the same year that his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great SealLord Keeper of the Great Seal
The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with physical custody of the Great Seal of England. This evolved into one of the Great Officers of State....
by Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. His mother, Anne
Anne Bacon
Anne Bacon was an English gentlewoman and scholar. She made a lasting contribution to English religious literature with her translation from Latin of John Jewel's Apologie of the Anglican Church...
, was the daughter of noted humanist
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
Anthony Cooke
Anthony Cooke
Sir Anthony Cooke was an eminent English humanist, scholar and tutor to Edward VI, England's first ruler to be raised as a Protestant.-Background:...
. His mother's sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, making Burghley Anthony Bacon's uncle. Anthony Bacon's more famous younger brother, Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
, was born three years after him, in 1561.
Anthony and his brother spent their early years at York House
York House, Strand
York House in the Strand in London was one of a string of mansions which once stood along the route from the City of London to the royal court at Westminster. It was built as the London home of the Bishops of Norwich not later than 1237, and around 300 years later it was acquired by King Henry VIII...
in the Strand, London
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
. Their mother (who was one of the most educated women of her day, speaking French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
) oversaw their early education. In April 1573, the Bacon brothers enrolled in Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, where they lived in the household of the Master of Trinity College, John Whitgift
John Whitgift
John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...
. The boys' father died in February 1579 after having been one of the most powerful men in England for the past twenty years.
Years in France, 1580-1592
Bacon traveled to FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1580. While there, he served as an intelligencer
Intelligencer
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an intelligencer is "One who conveys intelligence or information", "One employed to obtain secret information, an informer, a spy, a secret agent", or "A bringer of news; a messenger; an informant; a newsmonger"...
reporting to English spymaster
Spymaster
A spymaster is a ring leader of a spy ring, run by a secret service.-Historical spymasters:*Dai Li *Francis Walsingham *James Jesus Angleton *Joseph Peters...
Sir Francis Walsingham
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...
. He initially settled in Montauban-de-Picardie
Montauban-de-Picardie
Montauban-de-Picardie is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The commune is situated on the D64 road, some northeast of Amiens.-First World War:...
. In 1586, he was charged with sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
for having sex with his page
Page (servant)
A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...
Isaac Burgades and had to leave Montauban because of the scandal. He lived in France until 1592; during this time, he became acquainted with Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
.
Living with his brother, 1592-1594
Bacon returned to England in February 1592. He initially stayed with his brother Francis in Francis' chambers at Gray's InnGray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
. Together, they established a scrivenery
Scrivener
A scrivener was traditionally a person who could read and write. This usually indicated secretarial and administrative duties such as dictation and keeping business, judicial, and history records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities...
employing scriveners who acted as secretaries, writers, translators, copyists and cryptographers, dealing with correspondence, translations, copying, ciphers, essays, books, plays, entertainments and masques.
In 1593, Bacon paid for his friend Antonio Pérez
Antonio Pérez
]Antonio Pérez was a Spanish statesman, secretary of king Philip II of Spain.- Early years :Antonio Perez was born in Madrid in 1540. In 1542 he was legalized as son of Gonzalo Pérez, Secretary of the Council of State of king Charles I of Spain . Most probably Antonio was indeed the son of...
to come to England. Pérez may have been the model for the character of Don Adriana de Armado in Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s, and first published in 1598.-Title:...
. In 1593 Bacon was also elected member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Wallingford, Berkshire
Wallingford (UK Parliament constituency)
Wallingford was a constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It was a parliamentary borough created in 1295, centred on the market town Wallingford in Berkshire . It used to return two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons; this was cut to one in 1832, and...
.
In April 1594, Bacon established his own residence in Bishopsgate
Bishopsgate
Bishopsgate is a road and ward in the northeast part of the City of London, extending north from Gracechurch Street to Norton Folgate. It is named after one of the original seven gates in London Wall...
.
In the household of the 2nd Earl of Essex, 1595-1601
The next year, he became "Secretary of State" of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of EssexRobert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...
and moved into Essex House
Essex House (London)
Essex House was a house in London, built around 1575 for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and originally called Leicester House.The property occupied the site where the Outer Temple, part of the London headquarters of the Knights Templar, had previously stood , and was immediately adjacent to the...
. During this time, Essex House was the center of the so-called "Shakespeare circle", a literary circle that involved the Earl of Essex, Sir Thomas Walsingham
Thomas Walsingham (literary patron)
Sir Thomas Walsingham was a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I and literary patron to such poets as Thomas Watson, Thomas Nashe, George Chapman and Christopher Marlowe. He was related to Elizabeth's spymaster Francis Walsingham and the employer of Marlowe's murderer Ingram Frizer...
, Philip Sidney
Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
, and Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke KG was an English peer of the Elizabethan era.-Life:He was the son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Anne Parr. His aunt was queen consort Catherine Parr, last wife of King Henry VIII. Herbert was responsible for the costly restoration of Cardiff Castle...
. Sir Henry Cuffe
Henry Cuffe
Sir Henry Cuffe was an English author and politician, executed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, for treason.-Family connections:...
and Sir Henry Wotton
Henry Wotton
Sir Henry Wotton was an English author and diplomat. He is often quoted as saying, "An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." -Life:The son of Thomas Wotton , brother of Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton, and grandnephew of the diplomat...
were also among the Earl of Essex's supporters at this time. In 1597 Bacon was MP for Oxford
Oxford (UK Parliament constituency)
Oxford was a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. It comprised the city of Oxford in the county of Oxfordshire, and elected two Members of Parliament from its creation in 1295 until 1881...
.
In 1601, Essex was accused, and then convicted, of high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
, with Bacon's brother Francis playing a role in Essex's prosecution. Anthony Bacon died shortly thereafter, at the home of Essex's widow Frances Walsingham
Frances Walsingham
Frances Walsingham, Countess of Essex and Countess of Clanricarde was an English noblewoman. The daughter of Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, she became the wife of Sir Philip Sidney at age 14. Her second husband was Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's...
. He is buried at St Olave Hart Street
St Olave Hart Street
St Olave Hart Street is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane near Fenchurch Street railway station....
.
Legacy
After Anthony's death, Francis Bacon collected his correspondence, bequeathing it to his literary executor William Rawley, who in turn bequeathed it to Thomas TenisonThomas Tenison
Thomas Tenison was an English church leader, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694 until his death. During his primacy, he crowned two British monarchs.-Life:...
, who in turn bequeathed it to the Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace
Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. It is located in Lambeth, on the south bank of the River Thames a short distance upstream of the Palace of Westminster on the opposite shore. It was acquired by the archbishopric around 1200...
library, where it currently remains.