Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon

648 Pages·1998·98.566 MB·English

by  Lisa Jardine, Alan Stewart

HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE
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HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE
The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon
LISA JARDINE AND ALAN STEWART
HILL AND WANG
IfQl
A division ofFarrar, Straus and Giroux
NewYork
—
Hill andWang
A division ofFarrar,Straus and Giroux
19 Union Square West,NewYork 10003
Copyright © 1998 by LisaJardine andAlan Stewart
Preface copyright © 1999 by LisaJardine andAlan Stewart
All rights reserved
Distributed in Canadaby Douglas & Mclntyre Ltd.
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
First publishedin 1998 byVictor Gollancz,GreatBritain,as
Hostage to Fortune: TheTroubledLife ofFrancis Bacon 1561—1626
FirstAmerican edition publishedin 1999 by Hill andWang
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jardine,Lisa.
Hostage to fortune : the—troubledlife ofFrancis Bacon / Lisa
Jardine andAlan Stewart. 1stAmerican ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) andindex.
ISBN 0-8090-5539-2 (alk.paper)
—
1.Bacon,Francis, 1561-1626. 2. GreatBritain History
— —
Elizabeth, 1558-1603 Biography. 3. GreatBritain History—James
— — —
I. 1603—1625 Biography. 4.Philosophers GreatBritain Biography.
— — —
5.Statesmen GreatBritain Biography. 6.Scientists Great
—
Britain Biography. I.Stewart,Alan, 1967- . II.Title.
DA358.B3J37 1999
942.06'1'092—dc21
[B] 98-53482
BR BR
DA358
-B3
J37
1999
Contents
Acknowledgements 5
A Note on Dating 6
Preface to the American Edition 7
Introduction: A Life ofVirtue and Mischief 11
PART
I
THE BOLD BIRTH OF OPPORTUNITY:
1561-1588
1 Much Hoped Imps 23
2 A Protestant Abroad 39
3 Neither Well Left nor Well Friended 67
4 Strange Bedfellows: Consorting with Catholics 94
PART
II
THE COURTSHIP OF FAVOUR: 1588-1603
5 Design Dissembled: Brotherly Love 121
6 A Tired Sea-sick Suitor: The Trials ofPreferment 146
7 Getting Nowhere: The Armour ofPatience Pressed 178
8 Losing Ground: Matter ofCharge and Accusation 209
9 Flying with Waxen Wings: The Final Fall ofEssex 233
PART
III
A PRECARIOUS POWER: 1603-1621
10 Dawn ofthe Deserving World 265
11 No Stage-friends: Making Connections 299
12 Being Politic: The King's Business 332
13 Exchanging Favours: Somerset to Villiers 355
4 Contents
14 Much Ado, and a Great Deal ofWorld 388
15 A New Course ofThriving: Lord Chancellor Bacon 416
16 Franciscan Martyr: Bribery, Buggery and the Fall of
Francis Bacon 444
PART IV
INVENTING POSTERITY: 1621-1626
17 Leisure without Loitering: Bacon's Quinquennium 473
18 Debt, Drugs and Bodysnatching: Bacon's Legacy 502
Notes 525
Bibliography 594
Index 619
Acknowledgements
This book started life as a twinkle in the eye ofSean Magee ofVictor Gol-
lancz. We are immensely grateful to him for realising that the world
needed a modern biography of Francis Bacon, and for giving us the
chance to write it. The finished article would be a far less elegant and pol-
ished affair without the wonderful copy-editing of Gillian Bromley. To
Sean and Gillian, thank you.
Two eminent Bacon scholars, Graham Rees and William Sessions, read
the manuscript in its entirety, and gave us invaluable advice (some ofwhich
we heeded). Their contribution went way beyond the call of duty. For
further advice, references and ideas, our thanks go to Warren Boutcher,
Patricia Brewerton, Mordechai Feingold, Anthony Grafton, Paul Hammer,
Cynthia Herrup,Lorna Hutson,James Knowles,Michele Le Doeuff,Julian
Martin,Andrew Penman,Bill Sherman,Jane and Colin Stewart,and David
Wootton. We would also like to thank the editorial board ofthe Oxford
Francis Bacon Project for their support.
We are grateful to the librarians, archivists and staff of the following
libraries: the British Library (the North Library and Manuscripts Reading
Room), Gray's Inn Library, the Institute ofHistorical Research, Lambeth
Palace Library, the Public Record Office, the University of London Li-
brary and the Warburg Institute, all in London; Cambridge University Li-
brary; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Edinburgh University Library; the
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC; and the Henry E. Hunting-
ton Library, San Marino, California— especially Alan Jutzi and Mary
Robertson. For permission to quote from their unpublished papers at, re-
spectively, Longleat and Hatfield House, we thank the Marquess ofBath
and the Marquess ofSalisbury. We owe our pictures to Hugo Cox.
This book was made possible by the support ofour colleagues, and the
leave policies of our departments at Birkbeck College and Queen Mary
and Westfield College, University ofLondon. We are particularly grateful
to the Birkbeck College Research Fund for financing Alan Stewart's visit
to US libraries in September 1996.
A
Note on Dating
For most (but not all) purposes, the early modern English year began on
25 March. Throughout the book, we have 'modernised' dates so that the
year begins on the previous 1 January. For example, Francis Bacon was
born on22January 1560bycontemporaryreckoning (with 1561 beginning
on 25 March, two months later); in our text, Bacon was born on 22
January 1561.
A further complication arises when considering continental sources (as
we do in chapters 2-5). In the late sixteenth century, the continental
calendar was ten days 'ahead' ofthe English - so that 10June in London
was 20 June in Paris, and so on. Men like Anthony and Francis Bacon,
well used to dealing with both calendars, would specify which they were
using when dating their letters, which has allowed us to rationalise the
datingto theEnglish calendar. In the case ofafewdocuments, the endnotes
contain both the given date and our (assumed) English equivalent.
Preface to the American Edition
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is best known today for his trailblazing work
on scientific methodology -work that earned him the lasting title 'Father
ofModern Science'. He certainly deserves to be remembered as an intel-
lectual innovator. His wide-ranging writings cover almost every field of
inquiry, from how to plant a garden to how to succeed in business. His
greatest contribution was a systematic approach to the whole of knowl-
edge,based on his conviction that it was possible to devise a single deduc-
tive system covering the entire range ofempirical research in the natural
world. His New Organon would, he believed, fulfil the biblical prophecy
from the Book ofDaniel that 'Many shall pass to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased'. As he wrote himself: 'Surely it would be disgraceful if,
while the regions ofthe material globe, - that is, ofthe earth, ofthe sea,
and of the stars - have been in our times laid widely open and revealed,
the intellectual globe should remain shut up within the narrow limits of
the old discoveries'.
Scientists ever since have adopted Bacon as an emblem and figurehead
for their boldest aspirations. When the Royal Society (the 'Royal Society
ofLondon, for Improving ofNatural Knowledge', to give it its full title)
was founded in 1660, shortly after King Charles II returned to the throne,
Sir Francis Bacon became its patron saint. The author ofthe Society's first
History, Thomas Spratt, prefaced his 1667 work with a poem by Abraham
Cowley containing the following eulogy to their founding inspiration:
Bacon at last, a mighty Man arose
Whom a wise King and Nature chose
Lord Chancellor ofboth their Laws.
It is Sir Francis Bacon, Cowley goes on, who has rescued knowledge from
its long captivity at the hands ofignorance and error:
Bacon,like Moses,led us forth at last,
The barren Wilderness he past,
Did on the very Border stand
8 Preface to theAmerican Edition
Ofthe blest promis'd Land,
And from the Mountain Top ofhis Exalted Wit,
Saw it himself, and shewed us it.
Such was the impact of Bacon upon the seventeenth-century 'scientific
revolution' that modern scientists still regard Bacon as their intellectual
forebear.
When we set out to write the present biography, it was this extraordi-
nary reputation and enduring prominence whose detailed unfolding we
expected to recount. In telling Bacon's story at length for the first time in
very many years, we were able to take full advantage ofmodern electronic
resources and ofthe great leaps forward they allow in gaining access to and
processing archival material. We did, indeed, uncover new material and
rich veins ofpreviously unexplored areas ofBacon's activities, which con-
firmed that he led a rich and crowded life, packed with activity and im-
pinging, like his writings, on many areas ofinterest.
Bacon was the youngest son of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal (a
high official in Queen Elizabeth's government). He was educated at Trin-
ity College, Cambridge, and Gray's Inn, where he embarked on a lengthy
legal career. In time, he became Learned Counsel to both Elizabeth and
her successor,James I,then Solicitor-General,Attorney-General,and even-
tually Lord Chancellor, head ofthe Court ofChancery. An active parlia-
mentarian in the House of Commons from the age of nineteen, Bacon
eventually became a member ofJames's Privy Council, the King's inner-
most group of advisors, and was elevated to the House of Lords as Vis-
count St Albans. Only in his final five years, after he was accused of
corruption in his capacity as Lord Chancellor, did he retire from public life
to a secluded existence in the Hertfordshire countryside.
This thumbnail sketch of Bacon's career suggests a successful life,
crowned by the highest rewards. We also found, however, that many ofhis
ambitions were unrealised, and many opportunities were lost or botched.
Bacon lived his entire life in the glare ofpublic life; his every action was
accompanied by a barrage ofcomment from friends and adversaries. Teas-
ing out the truth from this kind ofcontemporary commentary turned out
to be difficult, but unexpectedly rewarding. We discovered that a number
ofoutrageous stories that circulated about the flamboyant Lord Chancellor
during his lifetime and shortly after his death-stories traditionallyjudged
to be apocryphal-were surprisingly accurate and illuminating. Bacon's
personal and political life became more colourful and enthralling the more
closely we were able to look at it.
For a man actively engaged in public life throughout his adult years,Ba-
con's written legacy is impressive. His major works cover a whole range of