Francis Bacon was a politician and a statesman for most of his life. He received an education designed to train him for an active life and he sat in the House of Commons for the first time at the tender age of 20. He considered himself first a “bonus civis” - which amounted to being “a good and true servant to the Queen ” -and only after a “bonus vir, that is an honest man” (M, 132, 190-1). Up to the time of his unexpected fall in 1621, Bacon was actively involved in high politics at the court of James, and he never abandoned hope of a political comeback. A month after his impeachment he was already planning to offer instruction in politics (XIV, 285), and his History of Henry VII, written in 1621 and published in March 1622, was partly intended to show his abilities as a counselor. At the same time he planned to ask the king to employ him again “publicly upon the stage” and, in 1624, he declared himself ready to travel to the Continent to negotiate a league with France (XIV, 349, 443-4).