Imagination and Leadership in Elizabethan England

Abstract

On October 4, 1596, Francis Bacon sat down to write what would become a lengthy letter of advice to the Earl of Essex, then one of the most powerful courtiers in Elizabethan England. Such correspondence between the two men was not in itself unusual. Bacon had served as an informal advisor and petitioner to Essex for at least five years.1 What was unusual about this particular letter, however, was both the nature of Bacon’s advice and the frankness with which it was delivered. Only three months earlier, during a combined Anglo-Dutch operation, Essex had secured great fame and popular acclaim by leading the successful sack of the Spanish port city of Cadiz. The expedition, however, was not without its failures—the English had not been able to capture intact the West Indies merchant fleet that lay in the harbor (the Spanish burned it instead), and the capture of the city itself failed to yield treasure proportionate to both the Queen’s investment and, more importantly, her expectations. Essex had also clashed with other commanders over his demands (ultimately unfulfilled) to garrison the city as a base for further operations, a plan that ran counter to the quick-strike strategy initially envisioned at the expedition’s outset.2 Not surprisingly then, upon their return, Essex and his military and court rivals clashed repeatedly over apportioning responsibility for the expedition’s glories and its failures, pursuing political gain not only in the closed rooms of the court but also through more widely distributed manuscripts, engravings, and public gifts.3KeywordsHuman MindEarly Modern PeriodEarly ModernInformal AdvisorInherent ConnectionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.