An Elizabethan Man

manuscript by Hugh Bibbs

THE CECIL FAMILY IN ELIZABETHAN TIMES:



William Cecil was the grandson of David Sysill. He was raised at the court of Henry VIII, and educated to government. Upon Henry's death, he removed himself from court. During the troublesome successions of the late king's offspring, firstly the unhealthy young king Edward VI, and then queen Mary, he remained available to serve the crown in a skillfully impartial manner. Nevertheless, he took care not to give offence to the powerful interests who opposed Mary, Henry's catholic daughter by his first wife, the spanish Catherine of Aragon.
In fact, the Cecil's saw to it that the young anglican princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry's second wife, Anne Bolyn, was safely tucked away at their country home, Hatfield House, where she could be raised in relative serenity, away from the intrigues of the palace court.
After Queen Mary (called Bloody Mary, for disembowelling and burning 500 protestants at the stake) died, the new queen Elizabeth relied upon her friend, William, Lord Cecil, to advise her on matters of state, and she appointed him her chief minister. "This judgment I have of you," she told him, "that you will not be corrupted by any manner of gift and that you will be faithful to the State and that, without respect of my private will, you will give me that counsel which you think best." He remained her chief councellor for the rest of his life.
He was a man who had learned to keep himself under control. ;"I have gained more by my temperance and forebearing than ever I did by my wit," he once said. A contemporary observation made of him was that "he had no close friends, no inward companion as great men commonly have... nor did any other know his secrets; some noting it for a fault, but most thinking it a praise and an instance of his wisdom. By trusting none with his secrets, none could reveal them."
William's first son, Thomas Cecil, was suited to the nobleman's calling, soldiering. But, William held the work of the soldier in low esteem. "He that sets up to live by that profession," he told his son, "can hardly be an honest man or a good Christian." Of course, he accepted the fact that an army was necessary to protect the state, and accompanied the Duke of Somerset on the campaigns in Scotland as a judge at courts martial. But he was always of the opinion that, "a reign gaineth more by one year's peace than ten year's war."
His relationship with his queen was predictably uneven, as from time to time the royal mood showed a human temper. "I have found such torment with the Queen's Majesty," William exclaimed on one such occasion, "as an ague hath not in three fits so much abated." Later he framed this opinion, "Lord be thanked, her blast be not as storms of other princes!" adding ruefully, "they be shrewd sometimes to those she loveth best."
He did his best to avoid open disagreement with her, but if he saw it coming, he beat a tactical retreat sometimes."Good my Lord," he advised a younger man, "overcome her with yielding."
"I do hold and will always, this course in such matters as I differ from her Majesty,' he wrote, "as long as I may be allowed to give advice, I will not change my opinion by affirming the contrary, for that were to offend God, to whom I am sworn first; but as a servant I will obey her Majesty's commandment, and no wise contrary the same."
Elizabeth's reliance on, and her trust in, William never failed. "No prince in Europe hath such a counsellor as I have in mine," she said. And for his part, he confessed, "She has so rare gifts, as when her Counsellors had said all they could say she would frame out a wise counsel beyond theirs."

He took care of great affairs of state for Her Majesty, but also took pains to see to the resolution of minor affairs which he found required his influence to resolve. For instance, this letter he wrote to Sir Edward Stradling in 1593 dealt with a request for assistance from a poor man in Glamorganshire:

To my very lovinge frend Sr Edward Stradlinge, Knighte. After my very hartye comendacons. Wheras the berer herof, a poore aged man, one Evan Treheron, of the towne of Lantwitt in the countye of Glamorgan, hath exhibited a peticon unto mee, complayning that, beinge her [Majesty’s] tenante of a small house which he demised to one Richard Nicholls and John Rees for the rent of vis. by the yeare, and being covenant bounde to the repacons thereof like as they have covenanted with him, they doe nevrtheles suffer the sayd howse to goe into ruin and decaye, to his undoinge if he should repaire the same; wherefore I verye hartely praye you to call the sayd Nicholls and Rees before you, and to take suche order with them as thesayd tenemt maye be reasonabley repaired: and herin I am the bolder to use yor meanes to satisfye the desire of this poore man, being otherwise unwilling to troble you in a matter of so small importaunce. From the Corte att Nonsuche, this last of Maye 1593. Yor vearye loving frind, W. Burghley.





William Cecil, Baron Burghley: circa 1570

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As to his own affairs, William took care not to overspend, in spite of the profligacy of his peers, such that almost alone among them, he left his estate unhindered by any debt whatever. At one time he had been offered an earldom by Elizabeth, but he refused it on the grounds that it would oblige him to become involved in more expense that he could cope with.
As it was, he built himself a great London house,..."and two palatial residences, at Burghley in Stamford, Northampton, and at Theobalds in Hertfordshire. This required an army of dependants, chaplains, librarians, grooms," et cetera. He was not much of a sportsman at all, but, amusingly enough from our vantage point today, he enjoyed plodding around his estate grounds on a mule, a gentle enough ride for a dignified man, but not a dignified ride for a gentleman.
His second son, Robert, was much like him. So much so, that he replaced him as Elizabeth's chief of state upon William's death.
But Thomas, the firstborn, remained his own man from day one. From the book of the Cecil family:
"All too often the father cannot help trying to force his son into what he considers the proper mould for his heir; all too often the son shows himself unwilling or unable to fit into such a mould. Thomas Cecil could not fit into it. He was wonderfully unlike his father: a healthy, lazy, amiable young man with not much brain and intent mainly on girls and sport.
Burghley was early aware of his son's deficiencies; though he behaved towards Thomas conscientiously, he had to admit he could not feel affection for him. 'Indeed to this hour,' he said, 'I never showed any fatherly affection to him but in teaching and correcting.' Possibly as a result of this bleak regime, young Thomas did not improve."
Thomas was sent, at nineteen years of age, away to France to learn what he could not at home. Under the care of his new tutor, Thomas learned too little and spent a great deal too much. "I see in the end my son will come home like a spending sot and meet to keep a tennis court," observed the Baron Burghley sourly. Then, he received a letter from the poor tutor, detailing the success Thomas had enjoyed in breaking open his tutor's strongbox in order to finance his debaucheries, which focussed chiefly on the daughter of a respectable french family. William wrote to Thomas,

"I wish you grace, being commonly reputed by common fame to be a dissolute, slothful and careless young man and especially noted no lover of learning or knowledge."

To the tutor he wrote,

"I am hard used to troubles, but none creep so near my heart as does this of my lewd son. I am perplexed what to think. The shame that I shall receive to have so unruly a son grieveth me more than if I had lost him by honest death."

Such a sentiment is certainly expressive of a cold relationship. However, as the book of the Cecil family goes on to observe:
"In fact, Thomas did not turn out badly. After two years he returned from abroad, married, and settled down to live a respectable life of public service, the loyal supporter of his famous father and later of his famous younger brother. Burghley appears to have recognized Thomas's improved character. He stopped expecting more of him than he could hope to get and turned his attention to the promising Robert."
Thomas married Dorothy Neville, the daughter of John Neville, Lord Latimer, the descendant of Gilbert de Neville, the knight who accompanied William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings.
Robert, on his part, was fond of his older brother, Thomas, now Earl of Exeter. Like his father, Robert was a loner, and once, in a fit of self doubt confided to Thomas that he did not feel loved by him. Thomas replied,
"Let this letter be kept as a witness against me if you shall not find in me towards you a love void of envy, of mistrust, and as glad of your honour and merit as a dear brother ought be. For I am not partial, but confess that God hath bestowed rarer gifts of mind upon you than upon me."
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A well-researched biography of Elizabeth I. With 32 pages of illustrations, both color and b&w.






And now for something completely entertaining...

Click here to view a 45 minute lecture
"Elizabeth R, the First Royal Movie Star" by Ron Newcomer. 10/4/03
from The Many Faces of Elizabeth I. The 2003 ACMRS Symposium
and entertaining lecture which includes clips from most of Hollywood's movies about Elizabeth I