(Frontispiece to the 1640 edition of Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning)

In this illustration Francis Bacon is shown attired in his Lord Chancellor’s robes, hatted and seated at his writing desk. The portrait is derived from an original, done from life, which was engraved by Simon Pass in the first half of 1618 after Bacon had been created Lord Chancellor (4 January 1618) and before he was created Baron Verulam (12 July 1618). This original was printed in Holland’s Baziliologia (1618), the same plate being reused later for the frontispiece of Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum (1626/7), with suitable changes.

All three versions of the portrait depict a medallion suspended from his neck on a ribbon. On the original, however, and the subsequent 1626 version, the medallion is obscured by a small sheet of paper which Bacon holds in his hand. On this 1640 version the medallion is plainly visible, revealing what it is. What it is, is somewhat extraordinary, for it depicts St. George slaying the dragon. Such a badge was and still is the preserve of England’s premier Order of Chivalry, the Most Noble Order of the Garter. When worn suspended from the Order’s elaborate gold and enamel collar, the badge (similarly of enamelled gold) is known as the George. This is used in ceremonial. For normal wear a simpler medallion of plain gold is used, known as the Lesser George, suspended on a ribband of Garter blue.

It would appear that the intention of this portrait of Bacon is to depict him as a Garter Knight wearing the Lesser George. However, there is no record of him having ever been invested as such. All investments as a Knight of the Order of the Garter are by personal invitation of the reigning Sovereign. However, there are always two persons who are Garter Knights by right of birth, and these are the Sovereign and the Prince of Wales. There is, therefore, an implication in this picture that Francis Bacon was a Prince of Wales, although concealed and unacknowledged publicly. There is other evidence to suggest that this was in fact true, that he was indeed the natural born son of Queen Elizabeth I, who had him fostered from birth by her Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and his wife, Lady Anne. If true, such a fact would help explain some otherwise strange or inexplicable things, including the extraordinary behaviour of the Queen towards Francis Bacon during her reign, and why in 1571 she had the Law of Succession altered to give her power to name any natural (as distinct to the original ‘legal’) heir of her body as heir to the throne of England.*

Such is the historical implication of the picture, and Bacon always considered the compiling of a true history of England to be an important matter. From the allegorical point of view, which is also important in Bacon’s method, St. George is the human equivalent of the Greek god Apollo or Hebraic-Christian archangel Michael. They are renowned as slayers of the dragon of ignorance and vice, which they bring about by means of their spears of light. Like Pallas Athena, Apollo’s feminine counterpart, they are each a Spear-Shaker or Shake-speare. In his life-time Bacon was known to his King and contemporaries as Apollo. He was also the President of the Society of the Rosie Cross, whose emblem was a red cross on a white field and a rose, the same as that of St. George, the patron saint of England.

© Peter Dawkins, FBRT, 1999

*For further details see: Peter Dawkins, Dedication to the Light (FBRT, 1984).