William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 1521–4 August 1598), was an English politician, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign (17 November 1558–24 March 1603), and Lord High Treasurer from 1572.

Early Career

William Cecil's early career was spent in the service of the Duke of Somerset (a brother of the late Queen Jane, who was Lord Protector during the early years of the reign of his nephew, the young King Edward VI). Cecil accompanied Somerset on his Pinkie campaign, being one of the two Judges of the Marshalsea, i.e. in the courts-martial. The other was William Patten, who states that both he and Cecil began to write independent accounts of the campaign, and that Cecil generously communicated his notes for Patten's narrative, which has been reprinted more than once.

Related Topics:
Duke of Somerset - Queen Jane - Lord Protector - King Edward VI - Pinkie - Courts-martial

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Cecil, according to his autobiographical notes, sat in Parliament in 1543; but his name does not occur in the imperfect parliamentary returns until 1547, when he was elected for the family borough of Stamford.

Related Topics:
Autobiographical - Parliament - 1547 - Borough

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In 1548 he is described as the Protector's Master of Requests, which apparently means that he was clerk or registrar of the court of requests which the Protector, possibly at Hugh Latimer's instigation, illegally set up in Somerset House to hear poor men's complaints. He also seems to have acted as private secretary to the Protector, and was in some danger at the time of the Protector's fall in October 1549. The lords opposed to Somerset ordered his detention on the 10th of October, and in November he was in the Tower.

Related Topics:
1548 - Registrar - Hugh Latimer - Somerset House - 1549 - Tower

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Cecil ingratiated himself with Warwick, and on the 15th of September 1550 he was sworn in as one of King Edward's two secretaries. He was knighted on the 11th of October 1551, on the eve of Somerset's second fall, and was congratulated on his success in escaping his benefactor's fate. (Somerset, who had been a powerful figure during the early part of the reign of Edward VI (28 January 1547–6 July 1553), was disgraced and executed on Tower Hill in January 1552.)

Related Topics:
Warwick - 1550 - Secretaries - Knight - 1551 - Benefactor - Executed - Tower Hill

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In April 1551 Cecil became Chancellor of the Order of the Garter. But service under John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland was no bed of roses, and in his diary Cecil recorded his release in the phrase ec niisero aulicofacius liber et lneijuris. His responsibility for Edward's illegal devises of the crown (a document which barred both Elizabeth and Mary, the remaining children of Henry VIII, from the throne, in favour of Lady Jane Grey) has been studiously minimized by Cecil himself and by his biographers. Years afterwards, he pretended that he had only signed the devise as a witness, but in his apology to Queen Mary I, he did not venture to allege so flimsy an excuse; he preferred to lay stress on the extent to which he succeeded in shifting the responsibility on to the shoulders of his brother-in-law, Sir John Cheke, and other friends, and on his intrigues to frustrate the Queen to whom he had sworn allegiance.

Related Topics:
Chancellor - Order of the Garter - John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland - Henry VIII - Lady Jane Grey - Biographers - Queen Mary I

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There is no doubt that Burghley saw which way the wind was blowing, and disliked Northumberland's scheme; but he had not the courage to resist the duke to his face. As soon, however, as the duke had set out to meet Mary, Cecil became the most active intriguer against him, and to these efforts, of which he laid a fall account before Queen Mary, he mainly owed his immunity. He had, moreover, had no part in the divorce of Catherine or in the humiliation of Mary in Henry's reign, and he made no scruple about conforming to the religious reaction. He went to Mass, confessed, and out of sheer zeal and in no official capacity went to meet Cardinal Pole on his pious mission to England in December 1554, again accompanying him to Calais in May 1555.

Related Topics:
Catherine - Mass - Confessed - Cardinal Pole - 1554 - Calais - 1555

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It was rumored in December 1554 that Cecil would succeed Sir William Petre as Secretary of State, an office which, with his chancellorship of the Garter, he had lost on Mary's accession to the throne. Probably the Queen had more to do with the falsification of this rumor than Cecil, though he is said to have opposed, in the parliament of 1555 (in which he represented Lincolnshire), a bill for the confiscation of the estates of the Protestant refugees. But the story, even as told by his biographer (Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, 1732–1735, i. 11), does not represent Cecil's conduct as having been very courageous; and it is more to his credit that he found no seat in the parliament of 1558, for which Mary had directed the return of discreet and good Catholic members.

Related Topics:
Sir William Petre - Secretary of State - Accession - Lincolnshire - Confiscation - Protestant - Refugee - Peck - 1732 - 1735 - 1558 - Catholic - Members

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