Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was born in 1561 at York House in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He was a precocious child, entering Trinity College, Cambridge, at twelve. He studied law at Gray's Inn, served briefly in the English embassy in France, and spent decades seeking advancement in the courts of Elizabeth I and James I, often frustrated by rivals and patrons who failed to reward his talents. He was knighted in 1603, became Attorney General in 1613, Lord Chancellor in 1618, and Baron Verulam and then Viscount St. Alban. In 1621, he was charged with accepting bribes; he confessed, though insisting the gifts never influenced his judgments, and was imprisoned briefly before retiring in disgrace to his estate. There he dedicated his final years to philosophy. His great project was the 'Instauratio Magna', a grand renovation of human learning.