His attitude was one of friendly and respectful independence.
It was not misunderstood by the King.

Bacon, who had hitherto been an unsworn and unpaid member of the Learned Counsel, now received his office by patent, with a small salary, and he was charged with the grave business of preparing the work for the Commissioners for the Union of the Kingdoms, in which, when the Commission met, he took a foremost and successful part.
But the Parliament before which their report was to be laid did not meet till ten months after the work of the Commission was done (Dec., 1604--Nov., 1605).

For nearly another year Bacon had no public work.

The leisure was used for his own objects.

He was interested in history in a degree only second to his interest in nature; indeed, but for the engrossing claims of his philosophy of nature, he might have been the first and one of the greatest of our historians.