Francis Bacon and policy-making in Ireland under Elizabeth and James

This paper explores the impact that Francis Bacon (1561-1626) had on Irish affairs during the final years of the reign of Elizabeth and the reign of James I. Bacon advised Robert Devereux, earl of Essex; Robert Cecil, secretary of state; James, king of Great Britain and Ireland; and George Villiers, earl of Buckingham on politics, religion and colonisation during a traumatic and transformative period in Anglo-Irish relations. Bacon was involved in judicial proceedings against Essex after his return from Ireland in 1600/01 and against Irish parliamentary dissidents in 1613/14. He later participated in making Irish policy as lord chancellor in Buckingham's regime. Successively adviser, actor and influencer in an increasingly absolutist political system, Bacon was a moderately inclined imperialist in Irish policy. As a metropolitan intellectual dealing with Ireland, his type was represented in contemporary literature by Spenser's character Eudoxus.