| Cryptographic Shakespeare |
| Cryptographic Shakespeare |
Alfred Dodd's Chronology
Chronology Related to Francis Bacon's Life
[Thanks to Alfred Dodd and Lawrence Gerald.]
: "The world's a bubble and the life of man less than a span" -- Francis Bacon
: A.D.303 St. Alban martyred. First Christian Martyr in England.
: 1250 Roger Bacon, the English monk with the astonishingly modern mind wrote "A man is crazy who writes a secret in any
other way than one which will conceal it from the vulgar." He listed seven different ways of writing secretly. To him is attributed the
so-called Voynich Manuscript, parts of which have still not been deciphered.
: 1261-1321 Dante. One of the first intellectual rebels against the Holy Church. Wrote in cipher. Bacon adopted all of Dante's
methods of secret writing: numbers, anagrams, printing errors, special typesetting, hieroglyphics, allegorical pictures, emblematic
head and tailpieces, watermarks, etc. ( He was a secret ethical teacher.)
: 1453 Capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Said to be the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe, which ends with the death
of Elizabeth 1603 in England. (150 years)
: 1455 May -- The Wars of the Roses began in an open battle at St. Alban's
: 1456 Gutenberg -- printing with movable type (Germany)
: 1485 The final battle of the Wars of the Roses. Won by a Lancastrian who had been in exile in Brittany, Henry of Richmond.
Bottle of Bosworth Field. Richard III was killed. Henry of Richmond became Henry VII, the first of the Tudors, father of Henry VIII.
: 1492 Christopher Columbus sailing west to open up a new route to the east (since the Turks had blocked the trade routes in
1453) discovers the "new world"
: 1498 Erasmus (of Rotterdam) to Oxford. Friend of Sir Thomas More.
: 1510 Actual birth date of Edmund Spenser (but see 1553).
: 1516 Queen Mary born, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
: 1543-1607 Dates for Sir Edward Dyer, candidate for authorship of Shake-speare plays.
: 1532/33 Queen Elizabeth born, daughter of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester born, fifth son of John
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.
: 1533 Montaigne (birth date)
: 1536 Ann Boleyn is beheaded. Her husband, Henry VIII, marries Jane Seymour and Princess Elizabeth is declared illegitimate.
: 1548 Princess Elizabeth's alleged intrigue with Admiral Seymour becomes the subject of a public inquiry and results in
Seymour's execution.
: 1549 Sir Roger Ascham, the famous scholar, becomes tutor to Princess Elizabeth.
: 1550-1604 Dates for Edward De Vere 17th Earl of Oxford, candidate for Shakespeare authorship. Robert Dudley marries Amy
Robsart.
: 1552-1618 Dates for Sir Walter Raleigh, another candidate for authorship
: 1553-4 Death of young King Edward VI, son of Henry VIII.
: Queen Mary (Henry's eldest daughter) ascends the Throne. The Duke of Northumberland is beheaded for declaring Lady Jane
Grey Queen of England. She was married to Northumberland's son, Guilford Dudley. Lady Jane Grey and her husband are
afterwards beheaded.
: Robert Dudley aided his father, the Duke of Northumberland, in the attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Young
Robert was imprisoned and sentenced to death for this. His sentence was not carried out.
: Princess Elizabeth is committed to the Tower under suspicion of treason, allegedly plotting to secure the Throne to the
Protestant Succession. Elizabeth Tudor met and fell in love with Robert Dudley in the Tower.
: (July) King Philip of Spain lands in England and is married to Queen Mary.
: Birth of woman later to become Countess of Southampton. (Lord Southampton's mother.) Was she the dark lady of the sonnets?
(Fuller)
: Falsified "Birth Date" of Edmund Spenser. This was done to allow him to be a credible "mask" for the Shepherds Calendar,
published in 1579. It was the work of a youth, and Spenser was actually nearly 70 at that time!
: 1554 Act of Parliament established the right of the daughters of Henry VIII to become queens should events work out that way.
: 1553-1558 Reign of Mary, daughter of Henry VIII ("Bloody Mary"). She was married to King Phillip of Spain. Protestants were
persecuted in England during her reign.
: 1557 Elizabeth and Dudley secretly married (the first time) in the Tower.
: 1558 Death of Queen Mary. On November 17 -- Elizabeth accedes to the throne. 25 years old. Empty treasury. The nation about
equally divided between Catholic and Protestant, and therefore her legitimacy was doubted by about 1/2 of her subjects.
: King Phillip of Spain, husband of late Queen Mary had his Spanish watchdog in the Court. The Spanish policy was to subjugate
England by fair means of foul; to make England a vassal state in the Imperial Empire. Protestants divided into 2 distinct parties,
Puritans and Church of England.
: Prudent policy of Elizabeth: She made the Bible the authority; interpretation left to conscience. Her personal views remained
locked with the sanctity of her own breast, a policy which kept her enemies from openly declaring war. She saved the country from
internecine strife (as in France and Germany) and made England a Protestant power.
: One of Elizabeth's first acts after her Accession, is to appoint Robert Dudley Master of the Horse, an honourable and valuable
post which gave him a Lodging at the Court and personal attendance on the Queen.
: 1559 6 Feb -- The Speaker, Sir T. Gargrave, with the Privy Council and some thirty members of the House of Commons,
demanded an audience . . . and they requested her in the name of the nation to take to herself a husband. . .
: "She replied four days later that she intended to spend her own life for the good of her people, and that if she married she
would choose a husband who would be as careful of them as herself. . .Children were uncertain blessings and might grow up
ungracious: For her it would be enough 'that a Marble Stone should declare that a Queen reigned such a time, Lived and Died a
Virgin'." Froude, England VOL. VI p. 159. She let it be known that England was her open husband, and that she was married to the
State metaphorically equally as much as the Pope to his Church.
: Eliz thus proclaims herself The Virgin Queen. She is "married to the State" Her father's policy also was hers: "Trust NO ONE."
Letter of Count De Feria (Philip's watchdog): regarding behaviour of Elizabeth toward Dudley: "Her Majesty visits him in his
Chamber day and night." (18th April)
: Second letter of Count De Feria: "Sometimes she appears as if she wants to marry him (Arch Duke Ferdinand), and speaks like a
woman who will only accept a great Prince; and then they say she is in love with Lord Robert and never lets him leave her."
: 10th May Letter of Schafanoya, Venetian Ambassador: "My Lord Robert is in very great favour and very intimate with Her
Majesty." "De Quadra accompanied Elizabeth and her lover (Robert Dudley) in a Water Party down the Thames when they behaved
with discreditable freedom." (Dictionary of National Biography XVI, p. 114)
: The Venetian Envoy Surian afterwards wrote, "The love which Her Majesty bears for Milord Robert is so great that she will
eventually take him as her husband or none at all." (Dispatch, Giac Surian, Paris.)
: Letter of Ambassador De Quadra (another of Philip's watchdogs) to Philip of Spain: "I have heard from a person who is in the
habit of giving me veracious news that Lord Robert had sent to poison his wife. . .All the Queen has done. . .in the matter of her
marriage. . . is to keep Lord Robert's enemies and the country engaged with words until this wicked deed of killing his wife is
consummated. I am told some extraordinary things about this intimacy." (November)
: 27 Dec, De Quadra: "She pretends to me that she would like to be a nun, and live in a cell, and tell her beads from morning till
night. . .a true daughter of a wicked mother."
: 1560-1580 Growing patriotism, nationalism in England.
: English language also growing up: coining of new words. Band of writers full of passionate utterance. Full orchestra of poets,
wits, philosophers and learned men.
: 1560-61 7 March 1560: Letter of De Quadra: "I have just been with the Queen. She has treated me like a dog. The youth (Dudley)
must have been complaining to her of a message I sent him three days ago. . . Lord Robert is the worst young fellow I ever
encountered. He is heartless, spiritless, treacherous and false. There is not a man in England who does not cry out upon him as the
Queen's ruin."
: 15 March Letter of De Quadra: "Lord Robert says that if he lives a year, he will be in another position from that which he now
holds. Every day he presumes more and more. It is not said he means to divorce his wife."
: Early in 1560 Amy Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley, who had hitherto lived in the country, was removed to Cumnor Place,
Berkshire, the house of Anthony Forster, a creature of her husband's She had a terminal illness -- or so it was given out.
: Aug 13 -- See Calendar of State Papers (Report to Lord Burleigh as to the open assertions of Mother Anne Dowe of Brentwood,
concerning the condition of the Queen. She said that the Queen was with child by Robert Dudley. She was sent to prison.)
: Sept 8 (?) -- Amy R. found lying dead with neck broken at the foot of a staircase. It is generally believed that Dudley or Eliz was
accessory to the crime. It has also been said that she committed suicide to pave the way for his marriage. However, Froude believed
that Dudley was innocent of any direct participation in the crime, but that she was murdered by persons who hoped to profit by his
elevation to the Throne. Froude: "What followed is full of obscurity. De Quadra's letters for the next six weeks that followed the
murder are lost. There remain only at Simancas abstracts of their contents which tell the story most imperfectly. That the Queen
would attempt to marry Dudley now that she was free, was the immediate and universal expectation."
: Sept 11 -- Letter of De Quadra, "I met the Secretary Cecil whom I know to be in disgrace. Lord Robert, I was made aware, was
endeavouring to depose him of his place . . . He said . . . he perceived the most manifest ruin impending over the Queen through her
intimacy with Lord Robert. [Dudley] "had made himself Master of the business of the State and of the person of the Queen, to the
extreme injury of the realm, with the intention of marrying her; she herself was shutting herself up in her palace to the peril of her
health and her life. . .He was therefore determined to retire in the country although he supposed they would send him to the Tower
(Cecil).
: "He implored me for the love of God to remonstrate with the Queen, to persuade her not utterly to throw herself away as she
was doing . . . Lord Robert, he twice said, would be better in paradise than here . . .
: "He told me the queen cared nothing for foreign Princes. . . Last of all he said they were thinking of destroying Lord Robert's
wife. They had given out that she was ill: but she was not ill at all; she was very well, and was taking care not to be poisoned: God,
he trusted, would never permit such a crime to be accomplished, or allow so wicked a conspiracy to prosper.
: "The day after this conversation, the Queen herself told me that Lord Robert's wife was dead or nearly so, and begged me to say
nothing about it. Assuredly it was a matter full of shame and infamy, but for all that I do not feel sure that she will immediately
marry him, or that she will marry him at all. She wants resolution to take any decided step; and, as Cecil says, she wishes to act like
her father (i.e. to be the sole head of the State without any sharing of power with a husband-consort).
: It is openly reported (See Dic. Nat. Biog.) that the Queen was secretly betrothed to Dudley, and that they were married at Lord
Pembroke's House sometime in late September. Cecil, either in appearance or reality, consented to be reconciled to them.
: Sept 12 -- Queen Eliz and Dudley wed secretly.
: November. The Queen's "looks" are quite consistent with a pregnant woman.
: 31 December - Throckmorton (English Ambassador to French Court) concerned with the bruits and rumors. His letter to Cecil
suggests that he was aware that the Queen was married secretly. . . .He was asked point blank by the Spanish Ambassador (at the
French Court) if the Queen was not secretly married to Lord Robert. The bruits of her doings, be very strange in all courts and
countries." The secret marriage was an accomplished fact, a State Secret.
: December -- a secret despatch of the Spanish Envoy advises that the Queen is expecting a child by Dudley." (Escurial Papers.)
: 1561 Dictionary of National Biography XVI p. 114 "It is herein recorded that on Jan. 21 1560/1 Queen Elizabeth was secretly
married to Robert Dudley in the House of Lord Pembroke before a number of witnesses." This is one day off from the date Francis
Bacon is assumed to have been born. Marriage also took place on Sept. 12 (see above).
: Jan. 22 -- De Quadra writes to Philip of Spain: "If she marry Lord Robert without his (your?) Majesty's sanction, your Majesty
has but to give a hint to her subjects and she will lose her Throne. . . Without your Majesty's sanction she will do nothing in public;
And it may be when she sees she has nothing to hope for from your Majesty, she will make a worse plunge to satisfy her appetite.
She is infatuated to a degree which would be a notable fault in any woman, much more in one of her exalted rank." In the same letter
De Quadra says that Dudley assured him that if the King of Spain would only countenance the marriage, they would restore the
Roman Catholic religion. "Some say she is a Mother already, but this I do not believe."
: Mme D. von Kunow discovered a letter from Dudley in the Spanish archives, begging Philip to use his influence to secure his
public acknowledgement as Prince Consort."
: Jan 22 -- The Queen was in residence at York Place and had no public engagements or interviews.
: Jan. 22 -- (or February 1 by Jean O. Fuller accounting -- Aquarius with Aquarius rising) Son Francis Bacon born to Sir Nicholas
Bacon and Lady Anne, according to outer records. May have been named after Francois, the little French King who had recently
died, leaving his young widow, little Mary Queen of Scots, to her strange destiny.
: Francis Bacon is born either at "York House" (i.e. the home of Sir Nicholas Bacon) "or York Place" (i.e. Whitehall, the Queen's
Palace), according to the statement of Francis Bacon's Chaplain and Secretary, Dr. Rawley, who took this method of telling the world
that Francis Bacon was a Royal Tudor; and that there was a mystery regarding his birth and parentage.
: 25 Januarie Baptizatus fuit Mr. Franciscos Bacon. He was registered at St. Martin's Church, London, and was described as "Mr.
Franciscus Bacon." Why should the word "Mr." be used in the registering of an infant's baptism? No other infant had such a
distinction.
: [Be aware that, when in the following a reference is made to cipher or cipher story it is to either the "word cipher," invented by
Orville Owen, or to the "biliteral cipher," claimed to have been found by Elizabeth Wells Gallup. Both of these attempts have been
demolished by the Friedman's book,The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined. This is not to say that the facts outlined by Alfred Dodd,
when referring to these systems, are necessarily false and they may be established by other valid historical means.]
: Cipher story reveals he was born to the Queen and Leicester, an adulterine bastard, morganatic marriage. (Morganatic means
marriage of a king or queen to one of lesser rank with no possibility of their children being heirs to throne.) But if birth had been
made public the Catholic reaction would have been severe, even the Protestants would have declared for Mary of Scotland!)
: February -- De Quadra write to Philip that he had seen Elizabeth. He heard her confession. She was no angel, she had not
resolved to marry Lord Robert or anyone. She promised to do nothing without Philip's sanction. "As there is danger, I would not
leave her without hope. If we let this woman become desperate, she may do something which may fatally injure us, although she
destroy herself at the same time."
: 1561-1621 Dates for Countess of Pembroke, another candidate for authorship of Shake-speare works.
: 1561-1642 Dates for William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, another candidate for authorship.
: 1562 When the Queen was ill and in fear of her life, she asked her Council to make Lord Robert Dudley Protector of the
Kingdom with a grant of 20,000 per annum.
: 1563 Roger Ascham began to write his book, The Schoolmaster, on the education of young noblemen. His theory was that young
children were "sooner allured by love than driven by beatings to attain learning." The Queen had requested that he write the book.
He was her former schoolmaster, the most learned scholar in England. It was intended as a curriculum for the training of someone in
particular. Francis would have been about five years old when the book was finished, 1566.
: 1564 April 26 -- William Shakspere baptized at Stratford. Son of John Shakspere and Mary Arden, illiterate parents.
: The child Francis Bacon is taken to Court and the Queen calls him her "Little Lord Keeper."
: Sir Nicholas Bacon is commanded to build a new home for himself at Gorhambury. The Queen visits this home repeatedly in
the following years while young Francis is growing up.
: Robert Dudley is created the Earl of Leicester and is the recipient of large grants of money and high offices.
: Melville, the Scotch Ambassador, reports that Elizabeth "took me to her Bedchamber, and opened a little desk where there were
divers little pictures wrapped in paper, their names written with her own hand. Upon the first she took up was written, "My Lord's
Picture." This was Leicester's portrait."
: 1565-78 Queen pays numerous public and secret visits to Gorhambury (to keep an eye on Francis ?) "You have made your
house too little for your Lordship," the Queen says to Nicholas Bacon. "Your Majesty hath made me too big for my house," he
replies. (He later added a new wing for her benefit)
: When Francis was about 5 years old the Queen asked him his age. He answered with much discretion, being but a Boy, that he
was two years younger than Her Majesty's happy Reign: with which answer the Queen was much taken."
: 1566 August -- Leicester told the French Ambassador that he had "known her [the Queen] from her eighth year better than any
man on earth. He added that he was as much in favour as ever, and was convinced the Queen would choose no other than himself,
but was uncertain whether the Queen wished to marry him or not (i.e. publicly).
: Roger Ascham's book The Schoolmaster finished. The dated preface (30 Oct, 1566) was kept in hiding with other manuscripts for
200 years, and was published by James Bennet in 1761. In it, Ascham compares the Queen's life with David's life. "Most Noble
Princess . . . Thinking of David's life, his former miseries, his later felicities, of God's dealing with him to bring happiness to his
present time, and safety to his Posterity, I have had for many like causes, many like thoughts one of the Life and State of your
Majesty.
: "God said to David . . . 'Thine own seed shall sit in thy seat,' which is the greatest comfort that can come to a great Prince . . . And
in the end he had the joyful blessing from Nathan, which all true English hearts daily do pray that God will send the same to your
Majesty, 'I will set up thy seed after thee.'
: "Yet when God had shown him the greatest favour . . . God suffered him to fall into the deepest pit of wickedness, to commit the
cruellest murder, the shamefullest adultery.". . .
: "He did not stumble by ignorance, nor slide by weakness, nor only fall by wilfulness, but went to it advisedly . . . to bring
mischief to pass . . . Yet God had not taken from David His Grace.
: "So out of this foul matter is gathered the fairest example, and best lesson for Prince and private man . . . As in a fair glass your
Majesty shall see and acknowledge, by God's dealing with David, even very many like dealings of God with your Majesty. And in
the end have as David had . . . Prosperity and surest felicity for you, yours and your posterity." Dodd observes: This letter was
written to a virgin Queen with no prospect of posterity openly in sight. What had the sin of David to do with an immaculate Virgin
Queen?
: 1567 November 10 -- Robert Essex born. Outwardly, the son of Lettice Knollys, queen's cousin, married to Walter Hereford, Earl
of Essex. There is no record of Robert's birth at Herefordshire to his reputed mother, Lettice Knollys, daughter of Sir Francis Knollys,
whose wife was first cousin to the Queen, and Chief Lady of the Bed-Chamber. Lettice Knollys was the wife of Lord Hereford, who
was in poor circumstances. (Cipher reveals he was son of Queen Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.) In the Essex
genealogical register of the 16th century Robert is not entered as the eldest son until after the Earldom of Essex had been conferred
on his reputed father, Lord Hereford. Then, and not till then, "was he put forward as the legitimate son of the Essex couple." (D. von
Kunow, p. 17) Sir Henry Wotton records that "the Earl (of Essex) had but a poor conceit of him and preferred his second son, Walter."
: 1568 Persecution of Protestants in the Netherlands: Holy Office condemned every man, woman and child in the Netherlands to
the scaffold.
: 1569 A passage from the Duke of Norfolk's Confession incidentally tells of a child in the Queen's Private Apartments: "When the
Court was at Guildford, I went unaware into the Queen's Privy Chamber, and found Her Majesty sitting on the threshold of the door
listening with one ear to a little child who was singing and playing on the lute to her, and with the other to Leicester who was
kneeling by her side. Leicester rose and the Queen continued listening to the child." (Strickland, p. 265.) Francis would have been
about 9 years old at the time the Duke is referring to.
: 1570 A Norfolk gentleman named Marsham is condemned to lose his ears for saying "My Lord of Leicester hath two children by
the Queen."
: 1571 A statute is passed by Parliament at the behest of the Queen which makes it a penal offense to speak of any successor to
the crown save her "natural issue" (she rejects the term "legal" heirs. This is an indication that she was not closing the doors to the
possible succession of Francis or Essex.)
: With the passage of this act P. Woodward states in Tudor Problems, that "... after many years of intimacy, the interests of their
own preservation warranted that they should part company. Elizabeth's statement to her Council in 1571 that she was 'free to marry'
points to a mutual understanding that they should go their respective ways." (She had chosen to release herself.)
: Shortly afterwards, Leicester, who had apparently taken the Queen at her word, secretly gave a formal pledge to Lady Sheffield
and secretly married her two days before the birth of a son, who had the greatest difficulty in proving his legitimacy. This son
became Leicester's heir.
: Queen gives Manor of Marks Hall near Braintree in Essex to Walter Hereford, Essex' reputed foster father.
: 1572 St. Bartholomew's massacre -- Catherine de Medici had Protestants (her daughter's wedding guests) murdered by Catholics.
: Elizabeth creates Lord Hereford Earl of Essex and Knight of the Garter.
: 1573 The Queen visits Sir Nicholas Bacon's new home in Gorhambury, which was completed in 1568 (she had visited it on
completion, and in the previous year, 1572) and is royally entertained by Sir Nicholas. In March 1572/3 the Queen once more visited
Gorhambury. The following month, Francis Bacon was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge.
: April -- (10 June, Du Maurier) Francis enters Trinity college, Cambridge. 12 years old. Studies all the sciences then taught.
: While in Cambridge, Francis was said to be dissatisfied with the methods of education then practiced, was devising a means for
improving them. Acquired a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French.
: The Queen sends Lord Hereford (now first Earl of Essex) to Ireland to recover a barony there. She loans Walter Hereford 10,000.
He (elder Essex) writes to Burleigh offering him the responsibility for the "direction, education and marriage of eldest son, Robert."
Thus becoming a ward, Essex will get to be at court.
: 1574 30 March -- Queen and Lord Hereford correspondence. Something going on under the surface. She refers to "previous
letters, the contents whereof, assure yourself, our eyes and the fire only have been privy." She creates him a knight of the garter then
sends him to Ireland (as though anxious to get him out of the way).
: 1575 Francis leaves Cambridge (before his birthday) where he had acquired a reputation for precocious learning. An outbreak of
the plague may have something to do with his returning home. But he did not return. Must have been a happy time until September
1576
: Eliz apparently unaware of the Secret Marriage with Lady Sheffield gave Leicester 50,000 pounds and he responded by giving
her a magnificent entertainment at Kenilworth Castle.
: Then, he privately married one of the queen's cousins -- Lettice, the widow of Walter, Earl of Essex. He was afterwards pressed
into a more formal ceremony in the presence of her father, Sir Francis Knollys. When the Queen heard of the marriage, a year later
"she was for putting him in the Tower." Eventually he was ordered to remain a prisoner at Greenwich Castle, and his wife was
forbidden to attend Court.
: 1576-1612 Dates for Roger Manners 5th Earl of Rutland, another "Shake-speare" candidate.
: 1576 Historie of Errors -- play performed before the Queen (by Laneham)
: 21 November Francis and Anthony Bacon were admitted at Gray's Inn. But Francis appears to have spent a good deal of his time
at the Court until September, when Francis was sent abroad, "Direct from Her Majesty's Royal Hand," as a result of a Bolt from the
Blue: Inciting Incident -- (According to Cipher) The Queen reveals to Francis that he is her son. Makes him swear never to write or
speak, or print secrets under his own name. Knowledge that he is unacknowledged "Prince of Wales" catapults him into a
premature adulthood.
: September 11 -- Sent to Paris by Queen. Arrives at Calais. Travels with the ambassador, Sir Amyas Paulet, to Paris, on the great
ship Dreadnought .
: In France Francis mingled with the most exalted statesmen and wits of the period, acquired knowledge of foreign courts and
politics. For the next three years he visited Blois, Poictiers, Tours, also Italy and Spain.
: His muse is Pallas Athena. (10th muse) He was known to be a poet in France. Ronsard's group, Pleiade.
: Lord Hereford (first Earl of Essex) returns from Ireland unexpectedly and apparently makes things awkward by his demands
and his actions. He is peremptorily ordered back to Ireland in July.
: September, Lord Hereford dies suddenly in Ireland; it is said through poison, and that the Earl of Leicester had something to do
with his death. (Was he threatening blackmail?)
: Bacon conceives his "Theater Project."
: Robert Devereaux, fledgling Earl of Essex, age 10, lives with the Cecils at Theobalds. The first time he met the Queen, she
leaned forward to give him a kiss. He, already fiercely independent, and not finding this aging, red-haired woman very appealing,
turned his head aside and refused her kiss. The Queen was not amused.
: W.Shaksper attended Grammar School for a short time, it is supposed.
: W.S. at 13 apprenticed to a butcher.
: 1577 Garden of Eloquence by Sir Henry Peacham (One of Bacon's circle.)
: Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, the Queen's alleged son, is sent to Trinity College, Cambridge in January.
: 1576-1623 The English Language was made (developed) from almost barbaric crudeness to the highest pitch which any
language has realized. Practically everything worth knowing was made available in English. These editions were not produced for
profit. How was the cost provided?
: 1578 John Lyly -- Anatomy of Wit appeared in England. Bears curious resemblance to Francis' experience in France. Young man
has a fling at love. Returns sadder but wiser.
: Francis toured independently
: Eliz. refuses to allow him to wed Marguerite de Valois.
: Learns how cipher is used in diplomacy, secret service.
: Negotiation of treaty.
: Francis has portrait painted by the Queen's artist, Hillyard, who writes on the portrait: "Could I but paint his mind." Francis was
18 years old. (Was he in France or England when portrait was painted? (Dodd suggests he may have returned to England with
dispatches.) (Note: the same artist also painted the Queen in a strikingly similar style. He also painted a portrait of Essex. There
were no other youths painted by Hilyard for the Queen.
: Earl of Leicester secretly marries young Robert's foster-mother, Lady (Hereford) Essex.
: 1579 Francis' dream: that Bacon's house was plastered over with black mortar
: Recalled from France upon death of father, Feb 20. Arrives in England March 20.
: Nicholas' will leaves him penniless, which is remarkable, since all other children were well provided for. (Could this be a mute
indication that his expectations lay elsewhere?)
: Begins career in law, which he studies "against the bent of his genius." He writes to Lord and Lady Burleigh pointing out how
incongruous it is for a person in his position to be employed in studying the common law. He says: "I do not understand how
anyone well off or friended should be put to the study of the common law instead of studies of greater delight." Had Francis been
the real son of a lawyer, it would have been impossible for him to feel it beneath him to study common law. As a Prince, though
concealed, hoping he would be publicly called to the Succession of the Endligh Throne, he would naturally feel such drudgery to be
a little beneath him. To ease his discontent, Burleigh procures him a dispensation from his compulsory attendance of "keeping
Commons." This meant that he declined to take his meals with the law students, barristers. Even six years later (1586) an order was
again specially made, permitting him to take is meals at the Reader's or Master's table, although not entitled by seniority. He passed
over the heads of barristers and ancients, care having to be taken to reserve their rights to pension in view of his supersession.
: Resides at Gray's Inn.
: Celestial visitation -- a clairaudient experience. "The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of a King is to find it out."
"A flame of fire which fills all the room and obscures our eyes with its celestial glory -- heavenly voice. Follow the example of God.
Put away popular applause. Compose a history of thy times and fold it into enigmatical writings and cunning mixtures of the
theatre mingled as the colors in a painters shell and it will in due course of time be found."
: His plan: 1) catalogue and systematize "all the world's knowledge." (in English Language. 2) appear as model son to the Queen.
Aid and support the administration of her realm. Give good advice. Enhance her image. Stay hidden behind the scenes. 3) Commit
the true story to several ciphers. Live a secret (double) concealed life.
: The "A"-"A" device first appears.
: Mother resides at Gorhambury, St. Albans.
: The Shepherd's Calendar - "Spenser" (the first appearance of the Cipher, signed E.K., for "England's King."
: Leicester marries Lettice Knollys in secret. Queen not pleased when she finds out.
: 1579-89 Nine early books, none of them under Francis' name, including Treatise: Anatomy of a Melancholy. (Burton.)
: 1579-80 Abundant proof, according to Dodd, that Francis had begun the establishment of secret societies, and that Anthony was
his agent.
: 1580
: Anthony goes abroad time?
: Francis Bacon writes Four Letters to Lord Burleigh, Secretary of State, and Lady Burleigh, in which he presses them to
recommend his "suit" to the Queen, while thanking them for, apparently, a promised monetary allowance, and other promises for
the future. The first letter was dated 11 July, 1580
: 15 October he writes his uncle, Lord Burleigh, to "present his more than humble thanks to the Queen for her princely liberality."
: 18 October. "This last one seems to be one carefully written for submission to the Queen with a view to appease her anger
which his importunity had aroused." says P. Woodward. [Dodd believes that the First Canto (of sonnets) had been sent to the
Queen, and this letter was sent afterwards for fear she resented the Sonnets which she would understand only too well.] He is
undoubtedly pressing for recognition as the Queen's Son and Heir in the Succession. That is the "suit" which historians are at a loss
to explain. The 1580 letters are signed "B.Fra.", which signature is often used in Initial Capitals of his concealed works. The "suit" to
Burghley, via Lady Burghley, his aunt was denied. It was pursued 18 months.
: The letters which passed between Prof. Gabriel Harvey and "Immerito," which refer to "Immerito" as "a certain worshipful
gentleman," and to "Right Worshipful and Thrice-Venerable Masters," indicate the establishment of Modern Freemasonry. Francis
Bacon's correspondence indicates he was the Chief of a very busy group of literary workers at Gray's Inn and Twickenham Lodge,
works being published anonymously and openly by the Secret Literary Society, the Rosicrosse.
: Plas Mawr, Conway built. A fine Tudor building. (Use this location in the film?) Eliz and Leicester stayed there often. The
bedrooms of the Queen and Leicester are in close proximity, and can both be approached by a private door, with access to the
Queen's Sitting Room.. these two bedrooms are entirely apart from the rest of the building, being absolutely a wing on its own.
(Booklet and photo-cards to be obtained from C.G. Dyall, Curator, The Royal Academy of Art, Plas Mawr, Conway, N. Wales.
: 1580-81-82? Cypher reveals: ("Ere I was 21") Queen finds out he wrote Hamlet, Prince of Denmark . (And then I was lost.) She
throws it into the fire.
: When he attained 21, it was decided to send him for a year's travel abroad, according to the practice of the period for Princes
and Noblemen's sons. There are records which show that Lord Burleigh was interested in the best routes he had to travel.
: Evidence that F.B. was on continent: To observe. He was in Italy, Spain, Germany, Denmark. Sir Thomas Bodley paid the bill.
He also wrote notes on the State of Christendom: Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Florence, Venice, Mantua, Genoa, Savoy.
(These papers discovered and published after his death)
: 1581 Essex receives M.A. degree at age 14. Leaves Cambridge.
: 1582 Made utter barrister at Gray's Inn. Resides at the Inns of Court as a gentleman pensioner of the Queen. He had no money of
his own. "From the age of twenty, except for his allowance from the Queen, he had nothing to live on. The Bacon family had no
responsibility and he was entirely a Pensioner on the Queen's Bounty." (Woodward.)
: Nov 28 -- W.S.(William Shaxpur) marries Anne Hathaway, an illiterate (7 years older) under disreputable circumstances.
: 1583 William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby visited Navarre, where Love's Labors Lost took place. (Those who support his
candidacy as author of Shakespeare plays cite this fact. But do they know that the names of several characters in Love's Labours Lost
also appear on Anthony Bacon's passport now in the British Museum?)
: Robert, Earl of Essex, resides at Langley, Pembrokeshire, and returns to Court under pressure by the Earl of Leicester.
: Queen had her own group of players.
: May 26 -- W.Shaksper daughter Susanna born.
: Brotherhoods had been established, at least by this date.
: The Birth of Merlin masque by Francis.
: 1584 Tempus Partus Maximus Francis writes a short Latin Tractate, "The Most Masculine Birth of Time," which is a covert hint
that he has created a Masculine Brotherhood, the Modern Order of Freemasonry. Greatest (Masculine) Birth of Time, is a forerunner
of Advancement of Learning
: Leycester's Commonwealth, appears, printed in Antwerp. Copies filtered into England. A very circumstantial account is given
of the lascivious nature of Leicester. His amours with various women are narrated at length, his characteristics being "dissimulation,
hypocrisy, adultery, falsehood and what not."
: Leicester formed an Association of the nobility and gentry of England, sworn to defend Elizabeth's person against the Catholic
Party's new policy ... the assassination of the Queen. Dudley was the leading Protestant Puritan at E's Court, and the greatest
businessman of his time, a man of great energy and ability. He owned mines, mills, and great forests. He could export woolens and
held the monopoly of all sweet wines. He was always ready to contribute large sums of money to advance the fortunes of England.
He believed that England could defeat Spain, He was the patron of the Drama, he gave Oxford University its first printing press, and
was its chancellor.Yet he was reputed to be "brainless."
: Francis is elected M.P. for Melcome in Dorsetshire, also for the pocket borough of Catton, belonging to Lord Burleigh. A
penniless student at twenty-four could only have got into Parliament through powerful influence.
: Essex now living at court. At age 14 has obtained his M.A. degree.
: Essex has a very serious altercation with the Queen respecting Sir Walter Raleigh (35), Captain of the Guard, accusing her of
being under his control and influence. (Makes one think that Essex must have known his identity, and was jealous of anyone coming
between them.)
: 1585 In 1585 Francis writes to Walshingham his enigmatical letter to "put him in remembrance" of his "poor suit," which is really
a request to the Queen, through her Ministers, whether she intends formally to recognize him as her Heir and Successor to the
Throne. Note: Leicester is out of favor with the Queen at this time, and Francis wonders whether this endangered his prospects of
Recognition.
: Francis addresses a long letter of caution to the Queen with reference to the attempts to poison her. It begins with a curious
note, which is a virtual statement that he is one of the Queen's natural children... "Care, one of the Natural and True-bred Children of
Unfeigned Affection, awaked with these late wicked and barbarous attempts, would needs exercise my pen to your Sacred Majesty."
: Queen commissions F to write The Art of Poetry, which would give her opportunity to publish her own verses. Leicester takes
Essex (his "stepson" with him on an expedition to Holland. He took part in battle Zutphen. Upon his return, Essex was constantly at
court and on best terms with the Queen. She showed him considerable fondness.
: W.S. children Hamnet and Judith born. (Twins?)
: 1585-1588 Period in which sonnets written? Butler
: 1586-89 Period in which sonnets written? Hotson
: 1586-87 Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots for treason.
: Bacon M.P. for Taunton
: Leicester had command of the English operations in the Low Countries.
: Leicester resigned his post of master of Horse, and Robert Essex was given the post at 1500 pounds per annum. Essex is in
constant residence at the Court. He would then be twenty and the Queen fifty-four. Their relationship appears to be that of Mother
and Son. Bagot wrote this year: "When she is alone, there is nobody near her but my Lord of Essex, and at night my Lord is at cards
of some game or other with her."
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