137 



CECIL, WILLIAM. 



CECIL, ROBERT. 



he married a sister of Sir John Cheke, who died in the second year 

 of their marriage, leaving one son, Thomas, afterwards earl of Exeter. 

 In the same year, having successfully contended in an argument ou 

 the supremacy of the pope and the Catholic faith, with two priests, 

 chaplains of O'Neil the Irish chief, he was at the king's desire brought 

 into his presence. Conceiving a favourable opinion of Cecil's abilities, 

 the king, in order to secure his services, conferred upon him the 

 reversion of the office of custos brevium in the Common Pleas, an 

 office of considerable emolument, and which fell into his possession 

 about five years afterwards. Shortly after the accession of Edward VI., 

 Cecil married Mildred, daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, the director of 

 the king's studies, which connection, together with his acknowledged 

 high talents and habits of application, and his known attachment to 

 the principles of the Reformation, procured him the friendship of the 

 lord protector, to whose notice he had already been recommended by 

 the Cheke family. In 1547 the lord protector appointed him 

 big master of requests, an office not only of distinction but of great 

 trust. In the same year he accompanied the lord protector in the 

 Scotch expedition, and was present at the battle of Musselburgh. 

 Cecil quickly acquired the esteem and confidence of the young 

 king, and in the year 1548 was appointed secretary of state. 

 On the fall of the lord protector, Cecil was committed to the Tower, 

 but was discharged after an imprisonment of three mouths; and in 

 October 1551, was by the Duke of Northumberland restored to his 

 office, knighted, and sworn of the privy council. It does not appear 

 that he was in any way privy to the fall of his early patron the lord 

 protector ; but the extreme caution of his subsequent behaviour to 

 his fallen friend borders closely on ingratitude. 



Soon after his re-appointment as secretary of state, Cecil effected 

 several important measures. The abolition of the exclusive privileges 

 of the merchants of the Steel-yard seems to have sprung from that 

 large and enlightened policy which distinguished Lis whole career. 

 He further proposed to abolish the staple or regular market for the 

 wool and chief productions of England, then existing at Antwerp, 

 and to open two free ports in England, one at Southampton, the other 

 at Hull ; but from the then low state of commercial knowledge, and 

 the perplexities arising from state-intrigues, the plan was not accom- 

 plished. 



Cecil took no part in Northumberland's designs for altering the 

 succession to the throne ou the death of Edward VI., though he 

 affixed his name to the instrument of settlement as witness to the 

 king's signature, at his earnest request. On Northumberland's march 

 into Cambridgeshire Cecil joined Mary, who had already been declared 

 queen, and by whom he was graciously received. Under the new 

 reign he gave up his employments because he would not change his 

 religion, but he continued in his usual cautious policy, and carefully 

 abstained from joining in any of the proceedings of the opponents of 

 the court. He even cultivated the friendship of many of Mary's 

 ministers, and became attached to the party of Cardinal Pole, who, in 

 opposition to Gardiner, advised moderation and mildness in matters 

 of religion. 



Being chosen in 1555 one of the members for his native county, he 

 distinguished himself by his opposition to the measures of the Catholic 

 party. The rejection of the bill for confiscating the estates of such 

 as had quitted the kingdom on the score of religion is mainly attri- 

 buted to him. In consequence of his conduct on this occasion he 

 was summoned before the privy council, but he made so satisfactory a 

 defence that he escaped committal to the Tower : a fate which befel 

 those who were summoned with him. He however continued in that 

 and the next parliament to advocate the cause of the persecuted 

 Protestants. Foreseeing that Mary could not long survive, Cecil 

 opened a private correspondence with the Princess Elizabeth, and 

 enabled her by his communications and counsel to avoid the snares 

 of the vindictive and suspicious Mary. On the very day of Elizabeth's 

 accession he presented to her a paper setting forth twelve affairs which 

 required immediate despatch; which particulars, it is remarkable, 

 formed the basis of his chief measures throughout his long adminis- 

 tration : they were doubtless the result of the broad and comprehensive 

 survey his comparative retirement from active life had enabled him 

 to take of the state of the kingdom. He was the first person sworn 

 of the privy council in the new reign, and was forthwith appointed 

 secretary of state. From this time until the close of his life Cecil 

 directed the affairs of England. A full account of his life would be 

 the history of the reign of Elizabeth. Capricious as the queen often 

 was, her sound judgment enabled her to see the true value of Cecil, 

 and induced her on many occasions to yield to his cool and dis- 

 passionate reasonings. In 1571 Cecil was created Baron Burleigh, in 

 1572 he received the Order of the Garter, and in the same year suc- 

 ceeded the Marquis of Winchester as lord high treasurer ; in which 

 office ho continued till his death. These honours may seem but an 

 inadequate reward for Cecil's services, but the peerage in the reign of 

 :th was a mark of the highest favour, and a token of real merit. 

 Except in the instance of Leicester, no example perhaps occurs in 

 that reii<n of a title acquired without desert. It is impossible within 

 the limits of this article to notice even the principal measures pro- 

 moted by tl is great minister. In every branch of his policy, whether 

 in relation to religion, which then formed so material a part of Euro- 

 pean affairs, the internal government of England, or her foreign policy, 

 BIOO. DIV. VOL. u, 



he was guided by fixed and well-grounded principles ; and no net of 

 his administration appears to have been produced by motives of 

 temporary expediency only, but to have formed a part of a cousisteut 

 and well-considered plan. He was cautious and intriguing, but caution 

 and intrigue were necessary in an age when negociation was a system 

 of duplicity. Few ministers have been exposed to more acrimonious 

 attacks than Lord Burleigh. The favourites of the queen were at all 

 times opposed to his judicious and economical policy. The frequent 

 plots occasioned by the rancorous excitement of religious feeling the 

 disputes fostered by the unsettled state of the succession the 

 chivalrous feeling excited and produced by Mary queen of Scotlaud 

 and her partisans and the capricious conduct of Elizabeth, herself 

 secretly approving even when publicly blaming her minister, and 

 holding him up to screen herself from public disapprobation all con- 

 duced to embarrass his plans and confound his operations. But the 

 accurate information which Lord Burleigh at all times obtained, his 

 vigilance, his unceasing application, and unimpeachable integrity, 

 enabled him to overcome the difficulties which surrounded him, and 

 to the end of his career to retain the favour of the queen and the 

 respect and affection of her subjects. It is worthy of observation, 

 that those parts of his conduct which have been characterised as 

 unfeeling and selfish, have generally received the approbation of 

 posterity ; and it is admitted, with all the advantage we possess from 

 the knowledge of the effects of his measures, that they were the most 

 judicious that could have been taken for the preservation of the peace 

 and welfare of his country, and the establishment of the reformed 

 religion. He was distinguished for self-command and moderation. It 

 was observed that he never spoke harshly of his enemies, nor embraced 

 any opportunity of revenge ; and as he was no less on his guard to 

 avoid every undue bias from affection, it became a general remark that 

 he was a better enemy than friend. " I entertain," he said, " malice 

 against no iudividual whatever ; and I thank God that I never retired 

 to rest out of charity with any man." 



In common with most other great public men, he possessed discern- 

 ment in discovering men of peculiar talents for business. " He 

 seemed resolved that England should be distinguished above all 

 nations for the integrity of her judges, the piety of her divines, and 

 the sagacity of her ambassadors." He encouraged open discussion, as 

 tending to the discovery of truth. He was strictly and scrupulously 

 impartial; magnificent in his several establishments; and liberal to 

 his officers and dependents. He gave largely in charity, and increased 

 his private fortune without borrowing from the coffers of the state, as 

 before his time was the common custom with those who had the 

 power, and without tarnishing his fame by any public or private 

 extortion, as appeared at his death, when the queen instituted a 

 rigorous inquiry into his affairs. In private he was cheerful, affable, 

 and facetious; abstemious in his own diet, he eujoyed the cheerful 

 relaxation at his table with his family and friends. Books and the 

 superintendence of his garden at Theobald's formed the chief amuse- 

 ment in his few hours of leisure. His mind was strongly tinctured 

 with piety. 



lu 1589 he lost his wife Mildred, his affectionate companion for 

 forty-three years. The despondency produced by this calamity, the 

 increasing infirmities of age, and successive attacks of the gout, 

 rendered more severe by a weakness whieh had been caused by his 

 sedentary habits, interrupted the unruffled calmness of his temper ; 

 he became subject to bursts of peevishness, but on such occasions he 

 immediately endeavoured to make reparation for the pain which he 

 bad caused. He died on the 4th of August 1598, in the seventy-eighth 

 year of his age, having held the station of prime minister of England 

 for upwards of half a century. He had, by his second wife, Robert, 

 created earl of Salisbury ; Anne, married to Edward Vere, seventeenth 

 earl of Oxford ; and Elizabeth, married to William, eldest son of Lord 

 Wentworth, of whom the first-named only survived him. 



(Macdiarmid, Sritiih Statesmen ; Biog. Brit.; Camden, Annals; 

 Fuller, holy State.) 



CECIL, ROBERT, EARL OF SALISBURY, son of Lord Burleigh, 

 by his second wife Mildred, was born about 1550. He was of a weakly 

 constitution and deformed in his person, upon which account he was 

 not sent to school ; he afterwards went to St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge. He was knighted by Queeu Elizabeth, who sent him as 

 assistant to the Earl of Derby, the English ambassador in France. On 

 his return, in 1596, he was appointed second secretary of state; and 

 on the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, became principal secretary, 

 n which office he continued till his death. He was appointed to various 

 offices of trust by Elizabeth; and on the decease of his father, succeeded 

 aim as prime minister. He privately corresponded with James I., and, 

 on his accession, was confirmed in his office. In 1603, he was created 

 aaron of Essendeu ; in 1604, Viscount Cranbourne ; and in 1605, Earl 

 of Salisbury ; his elder brother Thomas being created Earl of Exeter 

 on the evening of the same day. He was also elected chancellor of 

 ,he university of Cambridge, and instilled a knight of the garter in 

 the same year. In 1608, on the death of the Earl of Dorset, he suc- 

 ceeded to the office of lord high treasurer, in which capacity he effected 

 great reformation in the Exchequer. He was unquestionably the 

 tblest minister of his time, and appears to have repressed the increasing 

 encroachments of the crown to the utmost of his power; but he was 

 of a cold-hearted and iutensely selfish disposition, and remorselessly 



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