“For the face, I grant, I might well blush to offer, but the mind I shall never be ashamed to present.”
—Queen Elizabeth I.

See the Video

I

Doubtless the pleasure is as great of being cheated, as to cheat. From Anthony Bacon’s voluminous correspondence, edited by Birch, much valuable information as to the political outline of the Reign of Elizabeth has been gained. He is a man of sound practical ability, subtle, given to pleasure, notwithstanding infirm health, and of undeniable diplomatic skill. Sumptuous in his mode of living and extravagant, and eminently acute; but with a peculiar astuteness (to apply no harsher phrase) of character. A man worthy in every way to be brother to Francis Bacon: keen, prudent in counsel, and keeping a still tongue. One of those hangers about Courts, who by sheer dint of brain contrive to gain no small influence in affairs, unfelt and unseen, and with no further reputation than that of being a gossip or an idler with the unobservant.
During Anthony’s long residence abroad, news has been brought to his pious mother that he is becoming changed in religion, is straying dangerously near the Popish fold; and every maternal feeling in the strong-minded Lady’s bosom is roused at this danger to her eldest son. But little comes of it. His religious feelings are not very deep or likely to run to extremes, and he has at last returned, and his mother is ready to kill the fatted calf for the prodigal son, as of old, and forget all his follies and his (to her) harsh exile, in his present ill health.
Some of the correspondence of Anthony Bacon offers admirable glimpses of the relationship of mother and sons, with an occasional reference to Francis’ sufficient to give them an interest to us. Anthony had gone on his travels as far back as 1579, the year before his brother’s return, and was consequently not present at his father’s death; and soon after his departure commenced correspondence with Sir Francis Walsingham, the Secretary of State. Upon Anthony Bacon’s sail to France, Essex instructs him, being his Agent: “Mr. Bacon, in my letters to Mr. Edmondes, I have required him to help you with some acquaintance in Paris, by whom you may learn more, and be able to yield better advertisements than a nearer seeing without such help can do. Besides, I would wish you to make use of your acquaintance and conversation in the places where you live, which you shall easily do if you choose such company as do know much, and have advertisements from many parts. And, also, if you can enter into a cause of traffique with them, giving the news of these parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland, for payment of those of all parts of France and of the frontiers. For the manner of writing your advertisements, I will leave you to yourself, only advertising you, that at the first you strive rather to write all than to be scant, for upon newer directions you may every day cut off when I have made you know what I think superfluous. Also strive to know res gesta magis quam consilia; not but that I think the latter of greater use, but that I think the former falls better into your course, and will be to be gotten, where, if you show yourself so curious of the other, you shall be paid with smoke.”

II

About the middle of August 1580, Anthony returned to Bruges from Paris, from whence he removed to Geneva, where he took up his abode with the learned divine Beza, who was sufficiently impressed either by his manners, character, or wealth, or his mother’s known piety and literary reputation, to dedicate to Lady Ann Bacon his Meditations. From Geneva Anthony went in March 1582, to Lyons, and from there, having received a licence from the Queen to remain abroad three years longer, to Montpellier. In 1583, a letter from one of his correspondents, a Mr. Faunt, addressed to him at Marseilles, alludes to Francis Bacon as being sometimes a courtier; and another letter from the same correspondent in August of the same year mentions that Francis was now seen in his utter barrister’s habit abroad in the city, and ‘therefore must needs do well’.
January 14, 1581, Anthony Bacon writes from overseas to his uncle Burghley, that all the letters he has received from England mention the honourable and fatherly dealing of Burghley towards him, for which he offers his devoted service; is grateful for his assistance in prosecuting his right to Pinner Park. 2 Then on February 13, Anthony tells his uncle that it is three weeks since he wrote about his right to Pinner Park; sends letters of advice and direction to his brother Francis and to Mr. Alderman Martin, and others; money transactions and commends the bearer, Mr. Blanshard, for his well-grounded knowledge in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 3

III

A letter from Henri de Navarre to Scorbiac
September 23, 1586 4

The merit of those to whom he [Anthony Bacon] belongs is great. We owe many obligations to the Queen, his Sovereign; he is also himself strongly to be recommended. He will know how to repay us in kind for mercy shown to him, and we ourselves are told by God to have care for the strangers in our midst, to safeguard their rights, and to see they win justice, and furthermore in the situation in which we find ourselves at present it is as well to show leniency, nor is it reasonable to use all the formalities and harshness of French justice towards them. I am assured of your prudence, good judgement, and fairness in these matters and that you will bring reason to bear upon them. It is not my intention to say more on the subject.

The above courtesy letter on behalf of Navarre to Anthony Bacon was against the charges of buggery. Anthony was lucky enough to barely nudge the guillotine out of his path, when King James marries Anne of Denmark; Edmund Spencer publishes his Faerie Queen, and in January 1584, Anthony is at Bordeaux, where he becomes acquainted with the great Montaigne, and remains for some months sick of an ague, his house the head-quarters of the Protestants, which causes a remonstrance to be drawn up against him by two or three priests, a proceeding which in these days goes far to peril his life. In this they declare that his pen is the director of all their commotions, and that his personal presence is their countenance and support. Some of the Parliament on this promptly suggests his recall, but fortunately Anthony has a friend at Court. Later in the year he goes to Bearne, possibly to escape the enmity of the Catholics, being already racked enough by his continued maladies. Here he in some way injures his foot, and is again compelled to stay longer than he purposed, which led to his acquaintance with Lambert Danaeus, who dedicated to him several of his works. From Bearne he probably removed to Montauban, where we find him in the beginning of 1585, writing for five hundred pounds being sorely pressed and continuing ill.
From Montauban Anthony writes also in April to his old master Whitgift, now Archbishop of Canterbury, who in May answers him cordially in return. At the same time, probably in April, and taking advantage of the same friendly messenger, he wrote for his steward, Hugh Mantell, to be sent to him; but his correspondent, Mr. Demer, sends word back in July, that Lady Bacon will not send him, and that she had importuned her Majesty to send a person to recall her son from abroad. In September, probably on some application of Lady Ann, we find Walsingham writing to Anthony that his friends wish him home, not only on private but on public grounds, as a man, by his knowledge and long residence abroad, made very sufficient to serve both her Majesty and his country. On November 10, 1586, Walsingham writes again, this time by the Queen’s command that he return to England with as much expedition as he could; but even this fails to bring the truant back, so resolutely is he bent on remaining abroad; and probably by some little diplomatic ingenuity he was able to move the Queen to grant him a little longer stay.
During this year, however, the year of the Babington conspiracy, with Francis Bacon returning member for Taunton, with the descent of Spain imminent and threatening, and all the island moved and throbbing with commotion, with prophecies and preaching of dangers of invasion and fire, of conspiracy and murder, of battle and sudden death, there happens a little romantic episode to our otherwise politic invalid Anthony Bacon. A designing mamma, Charlotta Arbaleste, wife of Philip de Morlay, one of the most considerable men of the Protestant cause, had determined that Anthony should marry her daughter. Whether Anthony was bent on bachelorship, was insensible to the young lady’s charms, or seeing through the innocent plot, made fun irreverently (as young men will) of the matron, is uncertain; but it appears that he did unduly censure her scandalous excess in head attire, which if he certainly couched his language as strongly was in the highest degree reprehensible. Probably he was a double culprit, slighted the daughter and insulted the mamma; possibly the slight was an insult in itself. But whether one or both causes conjoined, a rupture of his friendship with the family ensued. In consequence whereof, being deprived of his immediate means of support (how is not shown), and being moreover hindered of some considerable sum of money advanced in England, from the Sieur de Morlay, he was compelled to apply to the Bishop of Cahors for a loan of a thousand crowns. The Bishop, a nephew of the Marshal de Briou, lent the money, but coupled it with a favour: the release of two priests then imprisoned in London, or an application to Burghley on their behalf. This intercession Anthony attempted, and wrote by his servant, Mr. Thomas Lawson, on their behalf; but Burghley, in place of releasing the priests, claps Lawson into prison, at the instance of Bacon’s enraged mother. Neither the imprisonment of his envoy nor the anger of Lady Bacon will lure the truant home.
The month of August finds Anthony still abroad, and his friend Captain Allen, afterwards Sir Francis Allen, calling on Burghley on his behalf. The irate Lord Treasurer demands why his nephew does not return, and remarks that he spends like a Prince, being but an esquire, though he will condemn him on neither head till he hears him speak. His Lordship is pleased to express that Anthony had virtues and metal in him; and ends the conversation by granting, what was most probably the cause of Allen’s visit, a letter to Lady Ann in favour of Lawson. Armed with this, and with another from Francis Bacon to back it, Captain Allen calls at Gorhambury, to plead for the unhappy prisoner mewed up for no offence but that of being servant to a gentleman whose mother is enraged at his long absence. He is treated with every courtesy, and it needs very little fancy to picture the dashing young soldier, rapier at his side, with slashed doublet and ruff, calling on the precise and Puritanic, and high-minded widow, in her lone and desolate mansion at Gorhambury.

IV

Upon Walsingham’s death in April 1590, at his house in Seething Lane, so poor, it is said, that his friends were obliged to bury him late at night in St. Paul’s Cathedral in the most private manner being apprehensive that his corpse might be arrested for debt; in confirmation of which fact, no certificate of his funeral appears to have been entered at the Heralds’ College, as was usual when any person of consequence was entered suitable to his rank. 5 ‘There is no tomb or any other monument.’ 6 So Walsingham dies, and Cecil was responsible for the swift and secret pounce on the late Secretary’s London home, where many important and revealing papers were seized. Vital papers go missing; files disturbed or emptied. There are no other candidates for the organizer of the raid, with Burghley in a superior position ahead of Sir Thomas Heneage, Thomas Walsingham, the Earl of Worcester, or even Sir Christopher Hatton, conceivably anxious to eliminate any hint of political indiscretions. No Secretary was appointed to fill Walsingham’s place and Burghley was at the age of seventy. 7 “We shall never understand the conditions or the character of [Robert] Cecil’s work unless we constantly remember that conspiracies and intrigues threatened not merely the Sovereign’s life or his own tenure of power, but the unseen foundations of society itself. The thrust and parry of the assassin’s dagger or the Courtier’s tongue are as vital an element in the politics of that century as the thrust and parry of Parliamentary debate in another.” 8
Spies were defecting to serve Essex to whom Burghley loses key officers such as William Waad, Thomas Phelippes, and Anthony Bacon. Essex sets up a secret service of his own, under the direction of Anthony Bacon, [Robert] Cecil’s first cousin; and Thomas Phelippes, the decipherer, apparently carried on for a time extensive investigations on his own account. Thomas Phelippes, whose name, little known to the casual reader, is familiar to every student of the period. Half the dark secrets of the time lay buried within the compass of that strange man’s knowledge. He worked for Walsingham, for Burghley, for Cecil; an invaluable auxiliary, deciphering, perhaps counterfeiting, the crabbed allusive script in which men stowed their plots. But the secret of his own life has never been read, and we feel him only as an obscure, yet powerful presence, not as we feel the touch of human flesh and blood. If Phelippes was the brain of the great system of espionage over which Cecil presided, Richard Topcliffe, the gaoler of the Gate-House Prison, was its hand. “You cannot believe,’ Topcliffe writes to Cecil in regard to the Catholics, ‘that disloyalty we simple Commissioners do see by their fury expressed, being put to trial. And that is our grief, and mine especially, that we are often taken to be cruel. But God is the witness of all.” 9
The Walsinghams appeared innocent and devoted to Elizabeth gaining her trust and favours while doing all they could for King James of Scotland. Duplicity was to bring manors and new wealth to the Walsinghams, rewards to Ingram Frizer, the alleged assassin of Marlowe, 10 and high office to Sidney (Governor of Flushing) as soon as James came to England’s throne in 1603. One or two of the Privy Council, of which one was Cecil, also played this double game.
Burghley & Son already knew that Anthony Bacon and Essex were in contact with Agents in Scotland, and that Agents in Scotland had had contacts with the Duke of Parma. It is probably fact that Cecil in the year 1593 had Marlowe assassinated since Cecil would be the man to nudge the Queen’s response by controlling the movement of documents. On August 1, 1593, a letter from Agent Thomas Drury arrives to Anthony Bacon stating that the Queen requests and gives an order that Cholmeley’s ‘Atheism’ be prosecuted to the full and also hints that he can offer more information on the Queen’s actions since Anthony is now Essex’s director of intelligence; Essex was made Privy Councillor, one of her formal circle of advisers. Marlowe’s Tamburlaine staged with audiences rising to 2.000 and on September 30, Faustus is first performed by the Lord Admiral’s Men at The Rose Theatre. The Jew of Malta also performed at The Rose, boosting its performances with the Lopez execution on June 7. 11
In February 1592, Anthony Bacon returned to London. In October we find proof in a letter written by Standen, his Catholic correspondent abroad, that Essex and Anthony Bacon are friends and that Essex has already heaped favours upon Anthony. Standen’s letter is in answer to one from Anthony, and thus alludes to the subject: “To return to the noble Earl you are so worthily esteemed of, Essex. It seems that, for the remedy of all, God hath reserved unto him the means, not only to serve his Prince and to do good unto his country, but also to bind unto him all the Catholics of Christendom; I mean if he would by your advice enter substantially into the matter of toleration for the Catholics at home, which, for the reasons I have in my former alleged, is so needful. All such priests as should deal in matters of state, I would have them punished without mercy. Such as simply, and without any ill intentions, went about catechizing and ministering of the sacraments should not any way be vexed.”
Here then, if Essex is driven into complicity with the Catholics, here is its beginning. Here we see the cloud no bigger than a man’s hand that is to breed the thunderstorm, as the Gunpowder Plot. A recent author affirms the Essex plot to have been a Popish plot. If it were so, Anthony Bacon was the first mover in Catholic matters; and we have that active-witted but slow-footed man to thank for the first move. But the fact is, no more erroneous supposition could be put forth. Catholics, of course, engaged in it. They were ill-treated and persecuted. They were harassed in purse and person. It was natural that they should rebel. A Catholic of that day might probably have been secured in aid of any dangerous enterprise. Catholic countries encouraged every disaffection and rebellion in their co-religionists, that could weaken the Protestant cause, (or England, the stay of that cause) throughout Europe. It was in the course of the year of 1594 that the mother of the great Lord Bacon wrote bitterly to her son Anthony “though I pity your brother, yet so long as he pities not himself, but keepeth that bloody Perez, yea, as a coach-companion and bed-companion, a proud, profane, costly fellow, whose being about him I verily fear the Lord God doth mislike, and doth less bless your brother in credit, and otherwise in his health, surely I am utterly discouraged, and make conscience further to undo myself to maintain such wretches as he is, that never loved your brother but for his own credit, living upon him.” 12 This dark portrait, even from the pencil of maternal anxiety, is not overcharged with shade. A few words, which could not have been uttered by Lady Bacon except as a prophetess, we may add in reference to the meeting of the famous Englishman and the notorious Spaniard.

V

At that moment the public life of Francis Bacon was faintly dawning. The future Minister of State and Chancellor of England had just entered the House of Commons, and was whining for promotion at the gate of the royal favourite. The mean subservience of his nature was to be afterwards developed in its repulsive fullness. His scheming ambition saw itself far away from the ermine of justice, doomed to be spotted by his corruption. He had not then betrayed, and brought to the scaffold, and slandered his benefactor. The power and honours, of which he was to be stripped, were yet to be won. His glory and his shame alike were latent. He was beginning hazardously a career of brilliant and dismal vicissitudes, to finish it with a halo of immortal glory blazing round his name.

But such a career along a strange parallelism of circumstances, although with a gloomier conclusion, Antonio Perez had already run. The unscrupulous confidant and reckless tool of a crafty and vindictive tyrant, he had wielded vast personal authority, and guided the movements of an immense empire. Antonio Perez, Secretary of State, said one of his contemporaries, is a pupil of Ruy Gómez. He is very discreet and amiable, and possesses much authority and learning. By his agreeable manners, he goes on tampering and disguising much of the disgust which people would feel at the King’s slowness and sordid parsimony. Through his hands have passed all the affairs of Italy, and also those of Flanders, ever since this country has been governed by Don Juan, who promotes his interests greatly, as do, still more, the Archbishop of Toledo and the Marquis de Los Valez. He is so clever and capable that he must become the King’s principal Minister. He is thin, of delicate health, rather extravagant, and fond of his advantages and pleasures. He is tenacious of being thought much of, and of people offering him presents. In the late winter of 1594, Perez writes to Anthony Bacon: “Your brother invited me to dinner. He has wounded me in writing his pen being the most rabid and biting of teeth. As if he himself were above blame some kind of chaste vestal virgin. You can tell immediately what this imagined modesty of his is all about. For I am just the same. Those who claim to love modesty are in fact the most bold of men, and submit to forces, and enjoy the excuse of being taken by force, like the Roman matron in Tacitus who consented to be raped by her lover. But alas, if you do not read these letters before dinner, the provocation behind his viciousness towards me will not be clear to you.”
The ‘bloody Perez’ was the natural son of Gonzalo Pérez, who was for a long time Secretary of State to Charles V., and Philip II. Of his mother nothing is known. The conjectures of scandal are heightened and perplexed by the fact that he was ennobled when a child, and that, amidst all the denunciations of his overbearing behaviour and insufferable arrogance, he is never reproached with the baseness of his maternal lineage. Legitimated in infancy by an imperial diploma, Perez was literally a Courtier and politician from his cradle. To gratify, by one dreadful blow, a cruel King and a guilty passion, he murdered his friend Escovedo. 13 The depth of his misery soon rivalled and exceeded the eminence of his prosperity. Hurled from his offices and dignities, deprived of the very title of nobility, condemned by the civil, and excommunicated by the ecclesiastical tribunals, cast into prison, loaded with irons, put to the torture, hunted like a wild beast out of his own country and many a nook of refuge in other lands, Perez, who had been the most powerful personage in the Spanish monarchy, was, when we first meet him in the company of Bacon, an exile in penury.
Perez died an impoverished outcast, leaving to posterity a name which befits, if it cannot adorn, a tale, and may well point a moral. Being of a quick understanding, an insinuating character, and a devotedness which knew neither bounds nor scruples, full of expedients, a nervous and elegant writer, and expeditious in business, he had gained the favour of Philip II., who had gradually given him almost his entire confidence. He was, with C’ayas, one of the two Secretaries of the Council of State, and was charged principally with the despacho univtrtal. [the counter-sign and the conduct of the diplomatic correspondence and the royal commands.] Philip imparted to him his most secret designs, initiated him into his private thoughts and it was Perez who, in deciphering the despatches, separated the points to be communicated to the Council of State. 14

VI

Leaving Perez, we see a certain implication of admiring confidence that comes from Agent Standen who informs Anthony Bacon that in his writ to Burghley his complaint was on the English government, being altogether too slow in working for his release, and of some plot, giving no source, contemplating in kidnapping Anthony and that he’s under surveillance. Should he dare to sail for home, an attempt would be made to intercept his boat at sea. Apparently it was planned that Anthony should be held hostage to force the release from English captivity of Don Pedro de Valdés sometime Captain of the Andalusia squadron of the Armada. However Anthony escaped to his freedom to England, upon his arrival Lady Bacon is vexed and wroth with him for staying so long in foreign parts, and thereby exposing himself to the lures of Romish priests, and perhaps Romish fellows also. Next, she is displeased with her other son, Francis, on sundry accounts. His balance sheet at the year’s end was never in his favour; his servants cheat him; he pays scant attention to maternal advice. His physic, his diet, his hours of sleeping, waking, and going abroad were not in accordance with her notions. Lady Bacon held that early to bed and early to rise tended to health, wealth, and wisdom, whereas Francis out watched the Bear, and liked to have the world well aired before he broke his fast in a morning. He wished to raise his rents: she told him that old tenants, even if they aid too little, but were honest folk, were better than new tenants, who would probably bolt at quarter-day, or at least work out his land if they paid him at all. 15

VII

As the short notes that follow scarcely ever have any date beyond the day of the week or the hour, it is impossible, excepting where the contents refer to some known event, to place them with any degree of certainty. We may however imagine, that, on the hunting morning when Essex wrote to his royal mistress the very remarkably expressed note which follows, and the full meaning of which every reader must interpret for himself, that, during the process of making ‘his horse tame, while he himself was mad’ he was very likely to meet with such an accident as would give rise to the note to Anthony Bacon:

Madam,
The delights of this place cannot make me unmindful of one in whose sweet company I have joyed as much as the happiest man doth in his highest contentment; and it my horse could run as fast as my thoughts do fly, I would as often make mine eyes rich in beholding the treasure of my love, as my desires do triumph when I seem to myself in a strong imagination to conquer your resisting will. Noble and Dear Lady, though I be absent, let me in your favour be second unto none; and when I am at home, if I have no right to dwell chief in so excellent a place, yet I will usurp upon all the world. And so making myself as humble to do you service, as in my love I am ambitious, I wish your Majesty all your happy desires. Croydon, this Tuesday, going to be mad and make my horse tame. Of all men the most devoted to your service. 16
There were in Elizabeth’s Court two names of power, and almost of faction, the Essexian and the Cecilian, with their adherents, both well enough enjoying the present, and yet both looking to the future, and therefore both holding correspondence with some of the principal in Scotland, and had received advertisements and instructions, either from them, or immediately from the King. But lest they might detect one another, this was mysteriously carried out by several instruments and conducts, and on the Essexian side, in truth with infinite hazard; for Robert Cecil, who as Secretary of State did dispose the public addresses, had prompter and safer conveyance; whereupon we cannot but relate a memorable passage on either party, as the stories following shall declare. Essex had accommodated Anthony Bacon in a partition of his house, and had assigned him a noble entertainment. Henry Wotton does not take long to note this: “This [Anthony Bacon] was a gentleman of impotent feet, but a nimble head, and through his hand ran all the intelligences with Scotland who being of a provident nature (contrary to his brother, Sir Francis Bacon) and well knowing the advantage of a dangerous secret, would many times cunningly let fall some words, as if he could much amend his fortunes under the Cecilians to whom he was near of alliance, and in blood also, and who had made (as he was not unwilling should be believed) some great proffers to win him away; which once or twice he pressed so far, and with such tokens and signs of apparent discontent to Lord Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton, (who was of the party, and stood himself in much umbrage with the Queen) that he flies presently to my Lord of Essex (with whom he was commonly primæ admissionis, by his bed-side in the morning) and tells him, that unless that gentleman were presently satisfied with some round sum, all would be vented. This took the Earl at that time ill provided as indeed oftentimes his coffers were low whereupon he was fain suddenly to give him [Anthony Bacon] the Essex house, which the good old Lady Walsingham did afterwards disengage out of her own store with £2.500: and before he had distilled £1.500 at another time by the same skill. So as we may rate this one secret, as it was finely carried, at £4.000 in present money, besides at the least a £1.000 of annual pension to a private and bed-rid gentleman: what would he have gotten if he could have gone about his own business?”
Wotton also offers a story from the other side: “There was another accident of the same nature on the Cecilian side, much more pleasant but less chargeable, for it cost nothing but wit. The Queen having for a good while not heard anything from Scotland, and being thirsty of news, it fell out that her Majesty going to take the air towards the heath, (the Court being then at Greenwich) and Master Secretary [Robert] Cecil then attending her, a post came crossing by, and blew his horn; the Queen out of curiosity asked him from whence the dispatch came; and being answered from Scotland, she stops the coach, and calleth for the packet. The Secretary, though he knew there were in it some letters from his correspondents, which to discover were as so many serpents; yet made more show of diligence, than of doubt to obey; and asks some that flood by in great haste for a knife to cut up the packet (for otherwise perhaps he might have awaked a little apprehension) but in the meantime approaching with the packet in his hand, at a pretty distance from the Queen, he telleth her, it looked and smelled ill favouredly, coming out of a filthy budget, and that it should be fit first to open and air it, because he knew she was averse from ill scents. And so being dismissed home, he got leisure by this seasonable shift, to fever what he would not have seen.”

VIII

Anthony Bacon’s participation in the spy network under Cecil and Essex, being that they both had two different networks running by 1596, is very peculiar. Whilst he wrote his letters during the period he was Secretary to Essex, he was in constant need to ‘acquaint’ the correspondence he was receiving, with persons such as his mother, Lady Bacon, to the Lord Keeper Egerton, and others, as shall be shown from a few extracts of different occasions taken out of Thomas Birch’s Memoirs of the Reign of Elizabeth (1754).
Francis Bacon was in pursuit of his own designs whilst his brother was in secret intelligence; Francis lavishing praises upon the very uncle and cousin whom Essex was depreciating all he could, and representing to be maliciously bent against their relative, yet the truth is more malicious, for Essex was also in secret correspondence with Cecil toward Scotland, and King James. And as soon as the Solicitor-General’s place became really vacant, by Sir Thomas Egerton’s removal to the Rolls, and Coke’s succeeding him as Attorney-General, Cecilwrote to the former in terms of the greatest kindness concerning his cousin, Francis Bacon, notwithstanding the rude manner in which he had been treated by Essex, and expressing his great desire to have him preferred. Moreover, in the letter Essex himself wrote to Francis the very next day, he tells him, that in urging his suit to the Queen, sheobserved to him, that none thought Bacon fit for the place but himself and Burghley.It was well for those who had Essex for a friendat Court, but seems to have been an ungenerous foe. 17
Many biographers of Francis Bacon state that the Bacon brothers were very willing to relieve themselves of their mother’s presence or interference in their life, but Anthony Bacon involves his mother in his services or shares letters of intelligence with her that were being received; it can possibly be interpreted that being too busy, he either needed her assistance to translate Italian into English and the other way around, since the Lord Keeper Egerton did not know Italian, as Anthony stated in one of his letters; or that he was very close to his mother at this time, and was reporting to her constantly. Yet this would not explain why he sent Cecil’s letter to her and urged her to send it back sealed and not to tell anyone. He was also reporting to her what went on inside the Court of Elizabeth. If Cecil knew of Anthony’s actions at the time, or any other person was aware of this, is unknown; and most importantly if Essex was aware of this, we do not know, for his blind trust to Anthony may be seen in many letters written where he states: “This is only for your own eyes; I exclude all men but Mr. Anthony Bacon, who in all these things is to me as the hand, with which I write this.”
In Anthony Bacon’s letters, there also can be seen a constant interrelation with Cecil, being on good terms with him, and requesting suits and favours for friends of his that were returning from abroad to England, and also there is a letter where he requests Cecil to see into a suit of Edward Bacon, a half brother; Cecil’s response is courteous, however negative. The following extracts have been taken from Birch’s Bacon Papers:

Mr. Anthony Bacon’s letter to his mother (December 31, 1596): He acquainted her with the gracious usage and speech, which his brother Francis received during the Christmas holidays, from her Majesty, who he hoped at the last would vouchsafe to exemplify her good words by some Princely real effects: that Secretary Cecil had of late professed very seriously an absolute amnesty and oblivion of all misconceits passed, with earnest protestation that to the Queen, to his father, or of himself, he would be glad and ready to do Mr. Bacon any kind office, if the latter would make proof of him. “This,” says Anthony, “is somuch the more comfortable unto me, that mine own conscience doth witness, that it is only God’s working, and no ways mine own seeking by any base means or insinuation.”

July 19, 1596: Lord Henry Howard having received Sir Robert Cecil’s letter to him, after midnight, carried it the next morning to Anthony Bacon and left it with that gentleman, who the same day sent it enclosed in a letter to his mother, desiring her, after perusing it, to return it to him sealed, without mentioning the sight of it to any person whatsoever. Anthony took all occasions of cultivating the friendship of the Lord Keeper Egerton, especially by acquainting him with the intelligence of any importance received by him. He desires the Lord Keeper to reserve the papers to him, and to return them to him sealed; which his Lordship did the next day with a letter.

August 5, 1596: Anthony Bacon sent his mother a memorative note (as he styled it) of the advantages, which accrued to her Majesty by the taking of Cadiz; promising the week following a particular relation of the whole action, which had been seconded with the possessing of Ferrol; for which special goodness and blessing of God, and the continuance thereof, prayer and thanksgiving were appointed.

August 11, 1596: Anthony Bacon informed his mother of Essex’s honourable, happy, and safe return. And to Lady Bacon’s response: “The Lady Bacon in her answer from Gorhambury of the 12th of August remarked that with respect to the Duke’s suit for Calais, to speak her own opinion, who, though unskillful on such subjects, had yet observed somewhat, she doubted, that it would spend and spoil the English soldiers, whom God had spared and bring the plague into England, as New Haven had done the first great plague in her husband’s time.”

August 26, 1596: Sir Charles in his letter gives a strong testimony in favour of Anthony Bacon’s servant, Edward Yates, who had lived a year with Sir Charles in France, and returned some time before to England and was now recommended, as honest, well in language, and practiced in the French Court and camp, by Anthony in a letter to Cecil, to be admitted into the service of his Lordship who was going Ambassador to France to which that Earl readily consented.

August 30, 1596: Anthony Bacon on acquainting his mother in a letter that on the Sunday preceding, the Queen had bestowed two white staves, having made the Lord North Treasurer and Sir William Knollys Comptroller of the household.

September 7, 1596: Anthony Bacon sent his mother, in a letter, an account of the Duke’s visit to him on Sunday the 5th, and his departure on the 7th. He adds, that on the day before the Earl of Essex feasted in Essex House the Lord Admiral, Secretary Cecil and diverse of the nobility; and before dinner was done was sent for by the Queen.

October 2, 1596: Anthony Bacon wrote a letter to his mother, informing her of the landing of the Spaniards in Ireland, and that this had been foretold often and long enough before to have been prevented, if any advertisements, how timely and true, so ever, had been current, unless they carried the stamp of the golden sheath.

No. XXXIX. A. Bacon to — 18
May 30, 1601

Sir,
I perceive by your letters, many strange reports are spread of a confession my L. of Essex should make before his death, wherein his honour hath, as you say, been much touched, and your desire is to receive some satisfaction concerning the same.

And surely, I confess, you cannot give me a more pleasing subject to write of, than the discovery of that truth, by which any unworthy aspersion of dishonour may be removed from his memorial, whose life was so dear unto me, and of whose noble virtues I had so great experience.

After his L. condemnation, upon his suit to the Lords, there was sent to him one Ashton, that was preacher in his house, a man base, fearful, and mercenary; but such a one as by a formal shew of zeal, had gotten a good opinion of that noble Lord, who that way, being himself most religious, might easily be deceived. How the man was prepared, I touch not; but how he dealt, the substance of which was his own confession to a worthy person, as he well knoweth, I will fully relate unto you. At his coming to my L. he found his L. exceeding cheerful, and prepared with great contentation for his end, with whom he began to deal to this effect.

IX

In 1601 a remarkable anecdote first published in Osborn’s Traditional Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed by M. Maurier’s Memoirs, where it is given on the authority of Sir Dudley Carleton the English Ambassador in Holland at the time, who related it to Prince Maurice, offers the solution of some doubts regarding Essex’s famous ring. The disputed story of the ring, which Essex held as the token which should ensure his safety has foundation. It was undoubtedly believed to be authentic in the family of the Countess of Nottingham, by whom the ring was said to be detained. Her reported confession of the fact, on her death-bed, to Queen Elizabeth is so far supported by the fact that she died some few weeks before the Queen, who only survived Essex two years. Hume, Birch, Horace Walpole, and many other writers less authentic, unite in giving credit to the story. 19
According to this story, the Countess of Nottingham, who was a relation, but no friend of Essex, being on her death-bed, entreated to see the Queen; declaring that she had something to confess to her before she could die in peace. On her Majesty’s arrival, the Countess produced a ring, which she said Essex had sent to her after his condemnation, with an earnest request that she would deliver it to the Queen, as the token by which he implored her mercy; but which, in obedience to her husband, to whom she had communicated the circumstance, she had hitherto withheld; for which she entreated the Queen’s forgiveness. On sight of the ring, Elizabeth instantly recognised it as one which she had herself presented to her unhappy favourite on his departure for Cadiz, with the tender promise, that of whatsoever crimes his enemies might have accused him, or whatsoever offences he might actually have committed against her, on his returning to her that pledge, she would either pardon him, or admit him at least to justify himself in her presence. Transported at once with grief and rage, on learning the barbarous infidelity of which the Earl had been the victim and herself the dupe, the Queen shook in her bed the dying Countess, and vehemently exclaiming, that God might forgive her, but she never could, and flung out of the chamber. Returning to her palace, she surrendered herself without resistance to the despair, which seized her heart on this fatal and too late disclosure. Hence her refusal of medicine and almost of food; hence her obstinate silence interrupted only by sighs, groans, and broken hints of a deep sorrow which she cared not to reveal; hence the days and nights passed by her seated on the floor, sleepless, her eyes fixed and her finger pressed upon her mouth; hence, in short, all those heart-rending symptoms of incurable and mortal anguish which conducted her, in the space of twenty days, to the lamentable termination of a long life of power, prosperity and glory. We also give Nichols’ 20 version of this story:

“The following curious story of the Countess of Nottingham was frequently told by Lady Elizabeth Spelman, great-grand-daughter of Sir Robert Carey, brother of Lady Nottingham, and afterwards Earl of Monmoth, whose curious Memoirs of himself were published a few years ago by Lord Corke:

“When Catharine Countess of Nottingham was dying (as she did, according to his Lordship’s own account, about a fortnight before Queen Elizabeth) she sent to her Majesty to desire that she might see her, in order to reveal something to her Majesty, without the discovery of which she could not die in peace. Upon the Queen’s coming, Lady Nottingham told her, that, while the Earl of Essex lay under sentence of death, he was desirous of asking her Majesty’s mercy in the manner prescribed by herself: during the height of his favour, the Queen having given him a ring, which being sent to her as a token of his distress, might entitle him to her protection. But the Earl, jealous of those about him, and not caring to trust any of them with it, as he was looking out of his window one morning, saw a boy, with whose appearance he was pleased; and, engaging him by money and promises, directed him to carry the ring (which he took from his finger and threw down) to Lady Scrope, a sister of the Earl of Nottingham, and a friend of his Lordship’s, who attended upon the Queen; and to beg of her that she would present it to her Majesty.

“The boy, by mistake, carried it to Lady Nottingham, who showed it to her husband the Admiral, an enemy of Lord Essex, in order to take his advice. The Admiral forbade her to carry it, or return any answer to the message; but insisted upon her keeping the ring. The Countess of Nottingham having made this discovery, begged the Queen’s forgiveness; but her Majesty answered, ‘God may forgive you, but I never can,’ and left the room with great emotion. Her mind was so struck with this story, that she never went into bed, nor took any sustenance from that instant; for Camden is of opinion, that her chief reason for suffering the Earl to be executed was his supposed obstinacy in not applying to her for mercy.”