Galileo discovered the first three moons of Jupiter on this day in 1610. By a happy coincidence, also on the 7th January, but in 1618, Francis Bacon became Lord Chancellor of England. The happy coincidence is because there is a connection to Sir Anthony Standen, my 10th great-granduncle, and hero of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures.
Anthony Bacon was Standen’s spy controller from the completion of his time spying on the Spanish Armada, through to accompanying Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex, on his fateful campaign in Ireland. Standen spent a considerable amount of time with both Anthony and Francis Bacon which is documented in The Golden Lads by Daphne Du Maurier.
Whilst The Spy who Sank the Armada is fiction only in as far as attempting to explain why and how Standen did the things he is known to have done, the later books in the series are historical crime fiction, set against the backdrop of documented history. Therefore Standen’s encounters with Galileo in Fire and Earth are entirely my invention. However my portrayal of Galileo is as accurate as I can make it. He was an exceptionally tall man for his time, he did have illegitimate daughters and a wastrel brother who was a drain on his resources. He also thought that the moon had nothing to do with the tides, which is probably because his research was all based in the Mediterranean Sea.
The moons which Galileo discovered were Io, Europa, and Ganymede. I have posted about Francis Bacon before. He will have served just over three years as Lord Chancellor before he was sent to the Tower of London charged with corruption. He was released after a few days. Francis Bacon is credited with inventing the scientific method, which is quite something considering Galileo was plying his trade at the same time.