Somehow
Sir Anthony had the habit of ingratiating himself in circles of the highest
historical interest and most questionable mores. Upon his return from France, he and his more famous brother, Francis, gathered a group of hired '"good pens" to do piece work -- a number known to have served as agents in his friend Sir Francis
Walsingham's (who died in April 1590) network of informers -- but they seem to have put much more of their energies toward gaining preferment under the Earl of Essex. Anthony became secretary to Essex, for a number of years, until the Earl pleaded with
the Queen to save him from the man (blackmail is rumored to have been involved).
A number of mysteries surrounding the Earl’s infamous rebellion and the
Shakespeare Authorship Question seem to reveal Sir Anthony playing roles officially of little importance but regularly having leveraged himself into a
participant of some power and influence.
My researches inform me that I likely will have reason to mention him in
future work in this regard.
The
following explains the close family relationship between the Bacons and the
Cecils and something of Sir Anthony’s role in the international relations of
the time. I have yet to find further
information on his paintings, which were extant in 1749.
Every bit
as fascinating is the respect which Nicholas Bacon’s daughters received for
being fluent both in Greek and Latin.
Not only were these very rare accomplishments for noble (much less bourgeois) women of the
time, but almost no English men
of the time, regardless of rank or education, were well-versed in classical Greek. An even slightly more common knowledge of the
language had to wait until the middle of the 18th century.
Anthony
Bacon, Esq; whose papers have been also of great service to me in this work,
and of which there are several volumes in the Lambeth library, besides that in
my possession, was son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Knight, Lord Keeper of the Great
Seal of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by his second wife, Anne, one
of the daughters of Sir Anthony Cook, a Lady eminent for her skill in the Latin
and Greek languages; as was likewise her sister Mildred, the second wife of the
Lord Treasurer Burghley. He was elder
brother of the whole blood to Sir Francis Bacon, Lord High Chancellor, to whom
he was thought equal in parts, though inferior in the acquisitions of learning
and knowledge. He travelled early into foreign countries; for he was at Paris the beginning of the year 1580, and at Geneva in 1581, where he was acquainted
with the celebrated Theodore Beza, who speaks of him in very high terms of
admiration, in a letter to the Lord Treasurer in December that year. It appears
likewise, from his papers, that he was at Bourdeaux, and Montauban, and in
other parts of France in the years 1584 and 1586. Upon his return to England,
about January 1589-90 he held a correspondence by letters in different
countries; by which he received the earliest accounts of what passed there. And
tho’ the Lord Treasurer was his uncle, and Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State,
his cousin-german, yet he attached himself chiefly to Robert Devereux, Earl of
Essex, who, by his means, carried on a correspondence with the King of Scots,
of which there are sufficient evidences among Mr. Bacon's manuscripts in my
hands.
*
He was
extremely well skilled in all the polite arts, and particularly in that of
Painting; several excellent performances of his in the Flemish style, being
still preserved at his seat at Gorhambury, near St Albans in Hertfordshire; an
estate, which had been settled upon him by his father, and descended upon his
death without issue, to his brother, Sir Francis Bacon.
- Historical inaccuracies in the film Anonymous: #3 When Edward de Vere and Vavasour had their affair, Anne, the Countess of Oxford, was in no position to arrive home to find them together. Where the two conceived their illegitimate son. Etc.
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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