BBC History - The Life & Times Of The Stuarts 2016_

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Bacon pursued a lifelong political

career. He first sat in Parliament in

1581 and remained an MP until he

was elevated to the Lords in 1618. He

spoke often in the Commons and had

a particularly important role drafting

legislation for the prospective Union

of England and Scotland after

James’s accession in 1603. In 1607,

Bacon was appointed solicitor-

general, and in 1613 he was made

attorney-general. Finally, in 1618, he

became lord chancellor, succeeding

his former patron Lord Ellesmere.

Bacon acted as an informal advisor

to a number of powerful nobles, but his

political ambitions always centred on

his monarchs – Elizabeth I and James

I, for whom he drafted various public

declarations. He never advanced as far

as he hoped during the reign of

Elizabeth, with whom he had a difficult

relationship, but James’s accession

did ultimately – if briefly – lead to the

high political office he always sought.

Bacon’s work as an historian is probably

now the least well-known aspect of his

life, but it was something that he took

extremely seriously. Renaissance

authors constantly had before them the

model of the great historians of the

ancient world, above all Livy and Tacitus,

and the urge to imitate and extend their

work into the modern world was strong.

Bacon planned several histories in the

course of his life, including an account of

the Tudor dynasty and a “just and

Complete History” of the two recently-

joined nations of England and Scotland.

But the one he eventually wrote was a

History of the Reign of King Henry VII –

the founder of the Tudor line and the

great-great-grandfather of James I.

Bacon left quite an impression on

English literature. He made his greatest

impact with his Essays, the first book

with that title in English. Bacon’s

essays often distill the fruits of his

reading and experience – whether in

politics, philosophy or, in one notable

case, gardening – into concise,

suggestive and quotable prose.

Developing a myth from Plato and a

literary device from Thomas More’s

earlier Utopia, Bacon also wrote a

scientific utopia, the New Atlantis

(1626), in which he set forth his vision

of the discoveries and inventions that

his ‘Great Instauration’ (see

opposite) might bring about.

But his most ambitious

book is the Advancement of

Learning (1605), a great

encyclopedia, not of what

was known, but of what was

not sufficiently well known

• and of its possibilities for
  improvement. It’s addressed
  to James I, but Bacon was
  unlucky in his timing: the
  book appeared in the febrile
  atmosphere following the
  discovery of the Gunpowder
  Plot, so didn’t quite make
  the immediate impression
  he had hoped for.

Bacon the polymath

published volumes of both

philosophy and history

“A wise man will make

more opportunities than

he finds,” the prolific

Bacon once noted

Bacon’s written words drew

heavily from both his reading

and his wide life experience

THE WRITER

THE HISTORIAN

THE POLITICIAN

Overshadowed by his other

achievements, he was one of the

first historians of the Tudor age

Bacon was prominent in political

circles, even if his ambitions

were never quite realised

His biography of Henry VII

was the only history that

was actually published