Bess, the Bard and Bacon

There are those who believe that Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of William Shakespeares play. 

Was Queen Elizabeth the mother to the greatest poet the world has known?  Theories speculate that Sir Francis Bacon was the Queen's son by the Earl of Leicester, the great love of her life.  Here are some compelling arguments to the theory:

1. It is accepted that Elizabeth and Leicester were lovers. Immediately on her accession to the throne, she made Leicester Master of the Horse, an important position then, and gave him a bedroom next to hers at Whitehall. They had both been prisoners in the Tower of London in 1554 and 1555. In "Francis Bacon: Last of the Tudors" by D.von Kunow,( page.11) the Tower chronicle mentions, recording a marriage ceremony between Elizabeth and Leicester conducted by a visiting monk.

2. Francis Bacon bore a great resemblance to the Earl of Leicester, but almost no resemblance to Sir Nicholas Bacon, his father.

3. When Nicholas Bacon died, Francis was left out of his will - he left all his money to his first son. Did he assume that Queen Elizabeth would take care of him?

4. Why did Francis attend Trinity College founded by Bess' father Henry VIII rther than Nicolas Bacon's alma mater, Corpus Christi, in Cambridge?

5. Bacon was given Twickenham Park, a  beautiful villa with 87 acres of parkland, opposite the Queen's Palace at Richmond. It was at this house that most of his great works were written

6. His rival Edward Coke often referred to him as "the Queen's bastard."

7. For five years, from 1580 to 1585, Bacon continually petitioned the Queen and others, regarding his "suit." Could this be recognition as the Queen's son? In 1592 he wrote to his uncle Lord Burleigh (William Cecil) :

"My matter is an endless question. Her Majesty has, by set speech, more than once assured me of her intention to call me to her service; which I could not understand out of the place I had been named to. I do confess, primus amour, the first love will not easily be cast off."

In another letter to Burleigh he wrote:

"I have been like a piece of stuff betoken in a shop." Coming from a commoner, this would be regarded as gross impertinence. Another complaint was made about the Queen in a letter to Anthony Bacon: " I receive so little thence, where I deserve the best."

These bits may be little more than frivolous Elizabethan gossip, but it does add fuel to the Baconian theories....

Thanks to 'Bacon's Royal Patronage' for this intriguing information.