Complete Works of Francis Bacon (PDF)

Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 in London, as the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1509-79) and Ann Cooke (1528-1601). James Spedding, a nineteenth-century biographer of Bacon says about Bacon’s mother that she was the second daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, an accomplished lady and sister-in-law to the secretary of state, Sir William Cecil. Furthermore Spedding notes: “We know that his mother was a learned, eloquent, and religious woman, full of affection and puritanical fervour, deeply interested in the condition of the Church, and perfectly believing that the cause of the Nonconformists was the whole cause of Christ” (2/3). His mother’s religiousness must have influenced Bacon, as Spedding writes: “He could not have been bred under such a mother without imbibing some portion of her zeal in the cause of the reformed religion” (5). Though Spedding is sometimes somewhat romantic in his biography of Bacon, the style of his work having the characteristics of a novel, yet also modern sources confirm Bacon’s mother’s Puritan orientation.


Bacon’s father’s loyalty to the Queen and the Protestant cause
Bacon’s father, Sir Nicholas Bacon (1509-79), dwelt in higher circles, having the position of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Elisabeth I. With Ann Cooke, Nicholas’ second wife, he had two sons: Anthony (1558-1601) and Francis.
Bacon’s father has influenced Bacon’s life in several ways. For most of his life, Bacon’s father had served the Queen and Francis Bacon had been brought up with this loyalty to the monarchy. Bacon would also stay faithful to the Queen during his whole life. This also has religious implications. For in those days religion and politics cannot be separated. Being on the side of the Queen, implied fighting for the Protestant cause. Thus it was most natural for Bacon to be committed to the cause of the reformed religion. Brian Vickers says that Bacon’s father “had not only served the Queen for most of his life, but was actively involved in several educational reforms […].Obviously, this must have influenced Bacon. There is at least a close connection between Bacon’s own works and his father’s reformatory efforts

 Francis Bacon, The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon [etc.], ed. James Spedding, vol. 1  (London: Longman, Green, and Roberts [etc.], 1861) 1.


4 These reforms included: “a scheme worked out in the late 1530s to found a fifth Inn of Court to provide for the systematic training of statesmen and diplomats, including proficiency in foreign languages, knowledge of the Greek and Latin classes on politics and statecraft, and practical experience as apprentices to English ambassadors abroad,” (Francis Bacon, The Essays or Councels Civil and Moral, ed. Brian Vickers (Oxford [etc.]: Oxford U.P., 1999) xii).