1G50.] THE EARL OF SALISBURY. 177 



lowed, Lord Colcpeper was zealously and actively engaged in 

 trying to serve the king and the royal family, so much so that 

 it excited the jealousy of Prince Rupert, who was strongly 

 prejudiced against him. When Prince Charles became king 

 by the tragic death of his father, he sent Lord Colepeper to 

 Russia on a begging mission, which resulted in the Czar 

 granting the prince ^50,000 " in rich commodities." At the 

 Restoration he accompanied the king to England, and re- 

 sumed his place of Master of the Rolls ; but he was not 

 destined long to enjoy it, for within little more than a month 

 after his landing he was seized with an illness, of which he died 

 on July 1 1, 1660. 



^•^^ William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, was one of 

 the Parliamentary Commissioners of the Great Seal for less 

 than four months. His grandfather was the renowned Lord 

 Burleigh, and his father was Robert Cecil, the sapient minister 

 of Queen Elizabeth and James I., who, after serving both 

 sovereigns, and after passing through the two lower grades of 

 the peerage, was created Earl of Salisbury in 1605. On his 

 death, in 161 2, this William succeeded, but did not do much 

 credit to his lineage. At first, the obsequious servant of his 

 sovereign, he concurred in every act proposed by the court, 

 and attended Charles L when he retired in his troubles to 

 York, joining the peers in signing the declaration, that the 

 king had no intention to take warlike measures. Soon after, 

 without any apparent reason, he fled the court, deserting the 

 king's party for that of the Parliament, and forming one of 

 the small knot of lords who legislated at Westminster. 

 Though totally without credit with either party, he was 

 appointed a commissioner of the Great Seal, July 3, 1646. 

 The Parliament, however, withdrew their confidence from him 

 and the other commissioners on October 30, and placed the 

 Seal in the custody of the Speakers of the two houses. On 

 the decapitation of Charles I., Salisbury allowed himself 

 to be nominated one of the Council of State, and, as if 

 this was not sufficient degradation, he got himself, on the 

 abolition of the House of Lords (to which he greatly con- 

 VOL. II. N . 



