22 January: Sir Francis Bacon

Sir Francis Bacon, born 22 January 1561, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author, who has been called the father of scientific method. Here are ten facts about him.

1. He was born in London to a distinguished family. His father was Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal for Queen Elizabeth I; his mother, Anne, was the daughter of the noted humanist Anthony Cooke. Her sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I.
2. Bacon was educated at home, possibly because of ill health, but went to Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of twelve. His personal tutor was Dr John Whitgift, future Archbishop of Canterbury. He also travelled abroad as a teenager with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris. His travels took him to Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain. He continued his education, studying language, statecraft, and civil law. He was put to work, as well, delivering diplomatic letters for Walsingham, Burghley, and Leicester, and even Queen Elizabeth I.
3. Bacon returned to England when his father died suddenly in 1579. His father's sudden death meant he'd not got around to buying an estate for Francis, so Francis only received a fraction of his inheritance. He had to get a job in law now to support himself but still got into debt and had to borrow Money. His mother supplemented his income.
4. Financial problems dogged him for many years, as he was often passed over for prestigious court positions such as Attorney General, Solicitor General or Master of the Rolls. His friend Lord Essex, having tried unsuccessfully to get him a well-paid job, gave him a property at Twickenham, which Bacon sold. To make matters worse, the Attourney General position went to Sir Edward Coke, who not only got the job Bacon wanted but the woman he wanted as well. Bacon proposed marriage to a rich widow, Lady Elizabeth Hatton, but she turned him down and married Coke instead. In 1598 Bacon was arrested for debt.
5. The situation improved for a while under James I, but in 1621, Bacon's nemesis, Coke, accused him of corruption and accepting bribes. Bacon tried to argue that he'd only received gifts, and those gifts hadn't influenced his judgement - he cited cases where he had disadvantaged the people who'd given him gifts. Nevertheless, Sir Francis Bacon was sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London; fined £40,000; and declared incapable of holding future office or sitting in Parliament. Even though King James I stepped in to reduce the fine and Bacon was only in prison for a few days, it meant his career in public life was over. He retired to his home at Gorhambury in Hertfordshire, where he continued to write.
6. When he was 45, he married a girl of thirteen, Alice Barnham, an Alderman's daughter, who Bacon had described as "a handsome maiden to my liking" when she was only eleven. This was during the time when Bacon was doing well financially and was able to shower Alice with gifts. When Francis Bacon was made temporary Regent of England, a document was drawn up making Lady Bacon first lady in the land, taking precedence over all other Baronesses. It's not clear whether it was ever enacted, but it would have pleased Alice and her ambitious mother. However, when Bacon was forced out of public life and was no longer able to keep Alice in the style to which she had become accustomed, the marriage broke down. By 1625, they had separated. Bacon accused Alice of having an affair with John Underhill, a gentleman-in-waiting at York House, Strand, Bacon's London property. Bacon wrote her out of his will. When he died, she married Underhill.
7. He became a Member of Parliament in 1581 at the age of 20. In the course of his parliamentary career, he held seats in Bossiney, Cornwall, Melcombe in Dorset, Taunton, Liverpool, Middlesex and Cambridge University.
8. Conspiracy theorists have long held the idea that it was Sir Francis Bacon who was the real author of Shakespeare's plays. Proponents of the Baconian hypothesis of Shakespearean authorship maintain that Shakespeare was only a front to conceal the fact that Bacon had written the plays. Writing plays for the public stage was not something someone seeking high office at the time would want to admit to. Baconians allege that there are coded references in Shakespeare's work to the real author. Opponents of the theory say that Shakespeare's plays do not display the knowledge of science Bacon would have had, and also Occam's razor, the principle that in general, the simplest explanation, in this case that Shakespeare did write the plays, is usually the true one.
9. It has also been claimed that Bacon was connected to the Freemasons and also the Rosicrucians, who believed in a secret brotherhood of alchemists and sages who were preparing to transform the arts, sciences, religion, and political and intellectual landscape of Europe. Bacon allegedly held banquets which included both Rosicrucians and Freemasons as guests.
10. Bacon's devotion to empirical scientific method was literally the death of him in the end. On a journey on a snowy spring day in 1626, he was suddenly inspired by the idea that snow could be used to preserve meat. Bacon stopped the coach, got out and bought a fowl from a woman to use for his experiment. He stuffed the bird with Snow. As a result he caught pneumonia and died. Or did he? There's a conspiracy theory regarding his death, too. It alleges that Bacon faked his own death to escape another debt, and that, with the help of the Freemasons and Rosicrucians and their secret networks, he went to Europe and lived many more years, writing under various pseudonyms.

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Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

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