This edition has been many years in the making and has left me with numerous debts. I first began working with Anne Bacon's letters during my doctoral research. After my initial despair over the indecipherable nature of Anne's handwriting, the correspondence formed an important part of my thesis and subsequent monograph. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Felicity Heal, who supervised my doctoral studies and who has been kind enough to guide and encourage my labours ever since. The suggestion that I should compile an edition first came from James Daybell, over a cup of tea in Blackwell's coffee shop in Oxford. I am very much indebted to James for his support of the project ever since and for generously sharing his expertise in early modern epistolary culture. Lynne Magnusson and Alan Stewart both read the edition in its entirety at a particularly busy point in the academic year. I am hugely grateful for their herculean efforts; their erudition and detailed knowledge of the Bacon archive has saved me from countless errors. As literary director for the Camden series, Ian Archer has shown unstinting patience as more letters were discovered and deadlines were revised; I am grateful too for his perceptive comments on various letters. Many other scholars were generous with advice and references, including Timothy Barnes, Susan Brigden, Susan Doran, Clive Holmes, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Michael McVaugh, Alison Wall, and Alison Wiggins. My colleagues at both Pembroke College and, more recently, the Open University have encouraged my labours with the letters; I am most grateful to them all and in particular to Eleanor Betts, Amanda Goodrich, Helen King, Anne Laurence, Donna Loftus, Rosemary O'Day, and Gabriella Zuccolin. I must also acknowledge the patience shown by my students, for indulging my enthusiasm when Anne Bacon letters made appearances in tutorials.

Lady Anne Bacon (c.1528–1610) was a woman who inspired strong emotion in her own lifetime. As a girl, she was praised as a ‘verteouse meyden’ for her religious translations, while a rejected suitor condemned her as faithless as an ancient Greek temptress. The Spanish ambassador reported home that, as a married woman, she was a tiresomely learned lady, whereas her husband celebrated the time they spent reading classical literature together. During her widowhood, she was ‘beloved’ of the godly preachers surrounding her in Hertfordshire; Godfrey Goodman, later bishop of Gloucester, instead argued that she was ‘little better than frantic in her age’. Anne's own letters allow a more balanced exploration of her life. An unusually large number are still extant; she is one of the select group of Elizabethan women whose surviving correspondence includes over fifty of the letters they wrote themselves, a group that incorporates her sister, Lady Elizabeth Russell, and the noblewoman Bess of Hardwick, the countess of Shrewsbury.

Letters have been ordered by chronology. Dates are given in Old Style, with the year taken to begin on 1 January; when the letter was originally dated in New Style, the equivalent Old Style date has been provided in the heading for consistency. Primarily the letters were given Old Style dates, either by the writer or by Anthony Bacon's secretaries, who endorsed most of his letters. Very occasionally, however, Anthony's secretaries are inconsistent as to whether they take the year to begin on 25 March or 1 January; unless there is evidence to the contrary, it has been assumed that endorsements follow the standard practice of the year beginning on 25 March, which in this edition is then altered to reflect the year beginning on 1 January. The endorsement and the date given by the letter-writer are often the same; Anne's letters reveal evidence that she expected the bearer to deliver her letter to London and return to Hertfordshire on the same day. On other occasions, the date given in the letter and the endorsement can be days apart. When there is no dating given by the letter-writer, however, then the date of endorsement has been taken as the date. Undated letters have been placed in chronological order, as far as the internal evidence allows, and the reasoning behind the decision is explained fully in the footnotes. In some cases, this has presented particular difficulties, when the internal evidence is very inexact.

Published, prefatory letter. B. Ochino, Sermons of Barnadine Ochine of Sena godlye, frutefull, and very necessarye for all true Christians, trans. anon (London, 1548), sigs A2r–A4r.