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The Ministers: the Cecil dynasty
William Cecil
William Cecil was born in 1520 in Lincolnshire. His father
was an MP and had connections at the court of Henry VIII.
At Oxford University he became a good scholar in classical
and foreign languages. He went on to be a legal official,
and then secretary to the Lord Protector, the Duke of Somerset,
who was the effective ruler of England during the first part
of the reign of the young King, Edward VI. During the reign
of Queen Mary, he gave up work for the government because
he had become closely involved in Protestant circles and did
not like Mary's religious policies.
During this time he became closely linked to Princess Elizabeth,
Henry VIII's other daughter. On the first day of her reign
in 1558 she appointed him secretary of state. From then up
to his death forty years later Cecil was the Queen's most
important adviser, despite the coming and going of much younger
rivals for the Queen's favour - especially Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leicester, and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. Cecil
also weathered some big differences of policy with the Queen,
the biggest being over the execution of Mary Queen of Scots
in 1586. In 1571 he became Lord Burghley and in 1572 he took
the office of Lord Treasurer. He died in 1598.
Robert Cecil
Zoom
Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, by John De Critz the Elder,
1602. National Portrait Gallery, LondonRobert Cecil
was born in 1563, the son of Queen Elizabeth's adviser, William
Cecil, Lord Burghley. He was educated mainly in the hothouse
atmosphere of his father's household, where he would have
constantly met politicians, officials, ambassadors and courtiers,
as well as the Queen on her visits to Burghley's house at
Theobalds in Hertfordshire.
He became an MP in 1584 and in 1586 drafted for the Queen
a defence of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, which was
translated for continental consumption. From 1591 he was in
the Privy Council, taking on an increasing amount of work
on behalf of his father, and later became secretary of state.
On Burghley's death in 1598 Cecil assumed his role as Queen
Elizabeth's chief adviser. But Burghley's rival, the Earl
of Essex, saw the old man's death as his opportunity to become
the dominant minister. His failure to achieve this led to
a chaotic and disastrous rebellion in 1601 and a failed attempt
to accuse Cecil of disloyalty, which led to Essex's execution.
The Queen's death two years later was another dangerous moment
for Cecil, as the new King, James, was highly suspicious of
the son of the man whom he blamed for the execution of his
mother, Mary Queen of Scots. But Cecil won his confidence,
and masterminded James's peaceful succession.
James became as dependent on him as Elizabeth had been, delegating
much of the management of policy and politics to him. In May
1605 he was made Earl of Salisbury. Like his father, he became
Lord Treasurer, and his last years were spent in an increasingly
difficult battle to restrain James's extravagant expenditure
and reform the royal revenues. Robert Cecil died in 1612.
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