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It is odd, is it not, that the portrait of Queen Elizabeth which Charlotte Grimston dates to 1570, and the portrait of Robert Devereux (1594), both by Nicholas Hilliard, were painted a quarter of a century apart, yet both sitters are wearing garments made from the same fabric.

Hi everyone, I've just made a great discovery ! 😊 I was looking for a specific Frontispiece for a project I am working on for the 400th anniversary of the First Folio, and among the images of many frontispieces, one of them immediatly caught my attention. https://books.google.fr/books?id=juygAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false I immediatly noticed that Pallas Athena was pointing to the Title of the Book, and I noticed in acrostic : CAPIT (Latin root for "The Head") and BACON. Then I noticed the 6 rings in the furniture behind Pallas with 3 rings in the Light and 3 rings in the Dark. 33 = BACON Then I realised that on the left it was Chronos/Time "Time reveals the hidden truth" Beside Pallas we have Apollo with his Harp. Could all this be just a coincidence ? I decided to explore quicky the book and here is what I found ... Apollo with his Harp appears on Emblem ... 177 ! 😁 177 = WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The Emblems 33 (BACON) and 67 (FRANCIS) are also very interesting ! 🙂 The Emblem 67 is used a second time as Emblem ... 154 (Sonnets?) Strangely, on Planche 77 (Minerva-simple cipher) the two emblems are not numbered. The Janus-like figure of Emblem 147 is said to be FAMA/RUMOR. The Emblem 148 is ... FORTUNA. and who is the Will/Wheel of FORTUNE ? WILLIAM TUDOR = 148 (Simple cipher) I also love Emblem 53 (SWAN-POET-SOW simple cipher) ARION 🙂 By the way, Emblem 180 gives us a good representation of the Dolphin's Head we discussed about in another thread few days ago. 😉 And to conclude, this quick analysis, here is the Planche 33 ... CERES and ... PEGASUS ! 😊

Regarding the identity of the sitter in the portrait of a nobleman by Hilliard c. 1594 which is in the Gorhambury collection, evidence that it is of Robert Devereux has come to light. The history of Gorhambury / by Charlotte Grimston. [London : Privately printed, 1821] https://hdl.handle.net/2027/yale.39002034558461 The author provides a catalogue of paintings at Gorhambury House. Among the extensive art collection are the two portraits of Sir Francis Bacon by Van Somer, the portrait of Elizabeth wearing the pelican broach and a portrait by Hilliard of Robert Devereux. No mention of a portrait of Anthony Bacon. Grimston is also unequivocal that the terra cotta bust of a young boy in the library is of Francis, not Anthony as some suggest.

This was a fun thread last April: 🙂

Hi A. Phoenix. Thanks to your brilliant reconstruction of the events surrounding Lord Bacon's 'death' and the fact that there is no evidence that his body was buried in St Michael's, I'm coming round to the distinct possibility that to escape further persecution from Charles and Buckingham, he arranged his own disappearance.

You couldn't pick a more symbolic day, Easter Sunday, to stage your own death. Thanks for pointing this out, A.P.

As with her religion, Elizabeth's emotional and sexual history is hard to disentangle from diplomacy and artifice. Was she really a virgin? Many of her subjects doubted it. Nor was the gossip confined to the alehouse and the lower orders. In an utterly scandalous letter, perhaps written in 1584, Mary, queen of Scots, enjoying the enforced hospitality of the earl and countess of Shrewsbury at Sheffield, chose to make mischief by sharing with Elizabeth what she had heard from the countess, Elizabeth Talbot: how someone to whom Elizabeth had promised herself in matrimony often slept with her (possibly Leicester); that she would never marry Anjou, since she would never forgo her freedom to make love with her favourites, including Sir Christopher Hatton. Mary, of course, believed none of this but thought that Elizabeth ought to be told. It is perhaps more intriguing still that Elizabeth's godson, Sir John Harington, chose to present her with an epigram ‘Of King David’, which drew a moral from David's adultery with Bathsheba. This is not evidence that Elizabeth was a nymphomaniac but an indication of what some people were prepared to believe. However, was it significant that when she faced death in the autumn of 1562, she settled the unusually generous legacy of £500 on the groom of the privy chamber, John Tamworth, keeper of the privy purse, who perhaps knew more than others what might have been going on, and named Dudley as protector of the realm? The only evidence for this comes from the often unreliable de Quadra, who affirmed that ‘nothing improper had ever passed between them’ (Hume, 1.263). odnb_the_question_of_marriage_and_succession.pdf

Hi Eric, Think you're spot on about the symbolism and reason for Elizabeth giving the Bacon's this portrait. The pelican is also associated with Freemasonry. 'The pelican feeding her young with her blood is a prominent symbol of the Eighteenth or Rose Croix Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and was adopted as such from the fact that the pelican, in ancient Christian art, was considered as an emblem of the Savior.' Masonic Encyclopedia

Other Verses #FrancisBacon #Shakespeare #Rosicrucians #Freemasonry #KingJames #Buckingham Paper: https://www.academia.edu/51468107/Did_Francis_Bacon_die_in_1626_Or_did_he_Feign_his_Death_with_the_Help_of_his_Rosicrucian_Freemasonry_Brotherhood Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTnZDpMy8uM&t=217s

Thomas Randolph #FrancisBacon #Shakespeare #Rosicrucians #Freemasonry #KingJames #Buckingham Paper: https://www.academia.edu/51468107/Did_Francis_Bacon_die_in_1626_Or_did_he_Feign_his_Death_with_the_Help_of_his_Rosicrucian_Freemasonry_Brotherhood Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTnZDpMy8uM&t=217s

George Herbert's Verse #FrancisBacon #Shakespeare #Rosicrucians #Freemasonry #KingJames #Buckingham Paper: https://www.academia.edu/51468107/Did_Francis_Bacon_die_in_1626_Or_did_he_Feign_his_Death_with_the_Help_of_his_Rosicrucian_Freemasonry_Brotherhood Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTnZDpMy8uM&t=217s

Resurrection Sunday #FrancisBacon #Shakespeare #Rosicrucians #Freemasonry #KingJames #Buckingham Paper: https://www.academia.edu/51468107/Did_Francis_Bacon_die_in_1626_Or_did_he_Feign_his_Death_with_the_Help_of_his_Rosicrucian_Freemasonry_Brotherhood Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTnZDpMy8uM&t=217s

Symbolism of the Secret Marriage In the Pregnancy Portrait of Queen Elizabeth two rings hang on a black cord from her neck. The one ring appears to be made of rubies with black stones and the other gold with black stones. These two rings symbolically represent the secret marriage between Queen Elizabeth and Lord Robert Dudley the mother and father of the person who commissioned the painting which looks back to another painting of himself when only a child, a little after she had given birth to him. #ElizabethI #VirginQueen #RobertDudley #FrancisBacon #RobertDevereux #PregnancyPortrait #HamptonCourt #RoyStrong #FrancisCarr Paper https://www.academia.edu/45006558/The_Pregnancy_Portrait_of_Queen_Elizabeth_I_and_The_Secret_Royal_Birth_of_Francis_Bacon_Concealed_Author_of_the_Shakespeare_Works Part 1 https://youtu.be/AFSxRYGxgjk Part 2 https://youtu.be/HWpuy13KHiA

Royal Offspring Several of her Privy Council present certainly knew this to be untrue, not least, Cecil and Sir Nicholas Bacon, who had personally witnessed her marriage to Dudley at the home of the Earl of Pembroke, and was now with his goodly wife Lady Anne Bacon secretly raising their royal offspring. Yet in her very next breadth she transparently betrayed herself by crudely ordering that £500 a year hush money be paid to Dudley’s Groom of the Chamber to make sure he kept quiet for the rest of his days. #ElizabethI #VirginQueen #RobertDudley #FrancisBacon #RobertDevereux #PregnancyPortrait #HamptonCourt #RoyStrong #FrancisCarr Paper https://www.academia.edu/45006558/The_Pregnancy_Portrait_of_Queen_Elizabeth_I_and_The_Secret_Royal_Birth_of_Francis_Bacon_Concealed_Author_of_the_Shakespeare_Works Part 1 https://youtu.be/AFSxRYGxgjk Part 2 https://youtu.be/HWpuy13KHiA

Elizabeth & Dissimulation Her near fatal small-pox attack in 1562 acutely focussed attention on the question of her marriage status and the critical question of succession. On 10 October Elizabeth was taken ill at Hampton Court Palace (where the Pregnancy Portrait now hangs) and within a week she had deteriorated to the point it was feared she would die. As she lay dying, as everybody then believed, with more than a dozen members of her Privy Council gathered around her, on recovering consciousness the first thing Elizabeth did was instruct her council to make Lord Robert Dudley Protector of the kingdom with a title and income of £20,000. Even though she was not out of danger and conceivably still staring at the possibility of death the consummate master of dissimulation conformed to type and blatantly lied through her teeth protesting ‘she loved and had always loved Lord Robert dearly, [but] as God was her witness, nothing improper had ever passed between them.’ #ElizabethI #VirginQueen #RobertDudley #FrancisBacon #RobertDevereux #PregnancyPortrait #HamptonCourt #RoyStrong #FrancisCarr Paper https://www.academia.edu/45006558/The_Pregnancy_Portrait_of_Queen_Elizabeth_I_and_The_Secret_Royal_Birth_of_Francis_Bacon_Concealed_Author_of_the_Shakespeare_Works Part 1 https://youtu.be/AFSxRYGxgjk Part 2 https://youtu.be/HWpuy13KHiA

Found this very well-executed watercolour painting by John Buckler from 1815 of Old Gorhambury House.

P.S. I forgot to mention the Pelican jewel on Q.E.I's right sleeve. Francis Bacon Research Trust https://www.facebook.com/Francis.Bacon.Research.Trust/posts/pfbid0FiALn78cJYrXR8XfX4hjXcNo5XmjHSyWf6ojLWZPexAMGSuEjcy9i3urUCtDX1L5l Queen Elizabeth's jewel is the Pelican, emblem of motherly love. It is not the phoenix. The phoenix rises from a fiery pyre and has its head stretching upwards. The pelican is feeding her young from her own breast and has her head bowed down. http://www.elizabethfiles.com/the-elizabeth-i.../3940/ This could explain why Elizabeth insisted on giving this particular portrait of herself to Lord and Lady Bacon. Perhaps by displaying the symbol of the pelican so prominently she was secretly declaring her love and sacrifice for her two young children. The portrait probably dates from the 1570s.

Imagine Johnny Depp turning up at the Oscars dressed like this...! Whichever "brother" of Francis Bacon this is a painting of, they had not only amazing tailors, but a very sophisticated fashion designer to boot.

Do you think this was done by the original artist? Sometimes those dates are added later, I think I heard. This image his beard is more red like Dudley's. Yea, a sword. I can almost make out some letters in his outfit. We may never know what Anthony Bacon looked like if this is not him.

Bridgeman Images have this uncropped image of the painting which shows the date in top right corner.

78 is a number that pops up often. Day 78 is the last Day of Sonnet 33 which is indeed a Sonnet about Bacon's "mother(s)" as March 19 ends. 😉 http://www.light-of-truth.com/pyramid-GMT.php#Day078 Sonnet 78 begins the second half of the Sonnets on Day 183 right after Day 182.

Hi Light-of-Truth "Golden Lads" by Daphne du Maurier has the cropped portrait of Anthony/Essex on its cover. Inside is a black and white reproduction of the same image, but with the attribution: "Anthony Bacon (?) attributed to Nicholas Hilliard". So it seems that even with her team of researchers, she couldn't definitively identify the portrait as being of Anthony.

So sad, that this is all that remains especially when you consider the excellent condition of many other houses of the period.

Anthony wore a cloak, even if it was not a garment. 😉

Yann, how very intriguing!!

Hi Rob, Following your idea, I found something that is intriguing ... ANNE COOKE = 78 simple cipher. I decided to take a look at the 78th page of the First Folio, and here is what I noticed ... https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/book/SLNSW_F1/78/index.html%3fzoom=1275.html We have "Mum" and "Anne" in the same passage. Strangely, in OpensourceShakespeare we have not "I went to her in greene" but " I went to her in white" ! https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/search/search-results.php And in the first Quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor (1602) ... "No neither, for I came to her in red as you bad me, and I cried mum, and hee cried budget, so well as ever you heard, and I have married him." Notice that here, Anne is not mentionned. https://www.bl.uk/Treasures/SiqDiscovery/UI/record.aspx?Source=text&LHCopy=39&LHPage=50&RHCopy=39&RHPage=51 https://www.bl.uk/Treasures/SiqDiscovery/UI/PageMax.aspx?strResize=yes&strCopy=39&page=51

Bacon did not live an easy life by any stretch of the imagine. That he did not become a full blown schizophrenic living as three different people (Tudor, Bacon, Shakespeare) with two moms (Elizabeth, Anne) is a testimonial to the amazing strength of his mind. And he did in style, top notch acting. Bacon was Shakespeare and the best Actor that has ever lived. LOL

Hi Rob, There is no doubt that Francis loved Lady Anne dearly even though she was an incredibly formidable force to be reckoned with by all accounts. She had been tutor to King Edward and Lady in Waiting to Elizabeth so was a trusted courtier. An extraordinary classics scholar and translator and a devout and learned scholar of the scriptures her erudition was widely admired. Much of Francis's early learning would have been aided and encouraged by Lady Anne and there exist many letters between her and Anthony and Francis. There is a letter to Francis's friend Michael Hicks just after she died asking him to come to 'the mournful occasion' of her funeral (Spedding's Letters and Life, iv. 216-18). When Francis drew up his own last will, its second clause ran: 'For my burial, I desire it may be in St. Michael's Church, near St. Albans — there my mother was buried' (ibid. vii. 539). Painting c. 1600 by Isaac Oliver

So the only image of Anthony that we know may be of Dudley? UGH I guess that would make Anthony the best spy to ever live...

Crazy to think that not even an artist's sketch of him has survived...