What makes a marriage? Reflections of Francis Bacon.

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What makes a marriage? Reflections of Francis Bacon.

Published: 09 Apr. 2026, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Shin Bok-ryong

The author is a former emeritus professor of history at Konkuk University.

Watching an elderly woman dozing on the floor of a crowded hospital ward as she tends to her ailing husband, one cannot help but wonder what marriage truly is. Even after decades of life, the answer remains elusive. At such moments, the words of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) come to mind, a figure familiar for the phrase “scientia est potentia” — knowledge is power.

Memorial to Francis Bacon in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, Britain [WIKIPEDIA]

Born into a prominent family, Bacon was the son of a Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, yet he was frail from childhood. After traveling through France, Spain and Italy, he came to believe that knowledge arises from experience rather than contemplation. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he later entered Parliament representing his alma mater, at a time when universities themselves served as constituencies and graduates held two votes.

Despite his background, Bacon sought advancement through marriage. At 45, he married a 13-year-old court attendant. The imbalance in age was stark. As he grew older, his young wife reportedly engaged in affairs. Bacon initially ignored this but ultimately excluded her from his will.

A lawyer, he rose to hold multiple positions of power in an era before the separation of powers was established. He served as a senior judge, speaker of Parliament and a leading government figure. However, he faced 23 charges of corruption, all of which he admitted. After imprisonment in the Tower of London, he was released but spent his later years in debt, dying of pneumonia.

Reflecting on his marriage, Bacon remarked: A wife should be like a lover in youth, a companion in middle age and a nurse in old age.

Today, such a view may invite criticism, especially from those who reject traditional gender roles. It can sound as if a wife exists only to serve. Yet from another perspective, it reflects a longing for a partner who remains close through life’s changing stages.

Seen this way, Bacon’s words reveal not authority but vulnerability — the dependence that comes with aging and shared life.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.