Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (1 June 1563 – 24 May 1612) was an English statesman and alleged spymaster noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury served as the Secretary of State of England (1596–1612) and Lord High Treasurer (1608–1612), succeeding his father as Queen Elizabeth I's Lord Privy Seal and remaining in power during the first nine years of King James I's reign until his own death.
The principal discoverer of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, Robert Cecil remains a controversial historic figure as it is still debated at what point he first learned of the plot and to what extent he acted as an agent provocateur.
Cecil (created Earl of Salisbury in 1605) was the younger son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley by his second wife, Mildred Cooke, eldest daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea, Essex. His elder half-brother was Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, and philosopher Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, was his first cousin.
Robert Cecil was 5 ft 4 in (163 cm) tall, had scoliosis, and was hunchbacked. Living in an age which attached much importance to physical beauty in both sexes, he endured much ridicule as a result: Queen Elizabeth I called him "my pygmy", and King James I nicknamed him "my little beagle". Nonetheless, his father recognised that it was Robert rather than his half-brother Thomas who had inherited his own political genius.
Cecil attended St John's College, Cambridge, in the 1580s, but did not take a degree. He also attended "disputations" at the Sorbonne.
In 1589, Cecil married Elizabeth Brooke, the daughter of William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham by his second wife, Frances Newton. Their son, William Cecil, was born in Westminster on 28 March 1591, and baptised in St Clement Danes on 11 April. He was followed by a daughter, Lady Frances Cecil (1593–1644). Elizabeth died in 1597, leaving Cecil with two small children. Her brothers Henry, 11th Baron Cobham, and George Brooke were arrested by Cecil for their involvement in the Bye and Main Plots; George, her younger brother, was executed at Winchester on 5 December 1603 for high treason.
In 1608, Frances Cecil caught the eye of King James I's daughter Elizabeth and she made Sir John Harington write to Salisbury to invite her to join her household. She married the 5th Earl of Cumberland and had one daughter but no sons.
In 1584, Cecil sat for the first time in the House of Commons, representing his birthplace, the borough of Westminster, and was re-elected in 1586. He was a back bencher, never making a speech until 1593, some time after having been appointed a Privy Counsellor. In 1588, he accompanied Lord Derby in his mission to the Netherlands to negotiate peace with Spain. He was elected for Hertfordshire in 1589, 1593, 1597, and 1601. The 1591 appointment as a Privy Counsellor came to fruition when by 1597 he became the Council's leader.
Following the death of Sir Francis Walsingham in 1590, Burghley acted as Secretary of State, while Cecil took on an increasingly heavy work-load. He was also knighted and subsequently appointed to the Privy Council in 1591, and began to act as Secretary of State in 1589, although his formal appointment came later. He participated in the social life of the royal court: on 15 September 1595 he went hawking with the queen and they caught three partridges, which they gave to Elizabeth Wolley.
In 1597, he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in February 1598 dispatched on a mission to Henry IV of France, to prevent the impending alliance between that country and Spain. Three ambassadors, Cecil, John Herbert, and Thomas Wilkes left from Dover, but Wilkes died soon after arrival at Rouen. Cecil and Herbert lodged at a house of the Duke of Montpensier in Paris, and subsequently travelled south to meet the French king at Angers in March. They had their final audiences with the king at Nantes and the Duke de Bouillon gave Cecil a locket with the king's portrait. They sailed home to Portsmouth from Ouistreham, a port near Caen, in the Adventure commanded by Sir Alexander Clifford. Cecil became the leading minister after the death of his father in August 1598, serving both Queen Elizabeth and King James as Secretary of State.
Cecil fell into dispute with the 2nd Earl of Essex, and only prevailed at Court upon the latter's poor campaign against the Irish rebels during the Nine Years War in 1599. He was then in a position to orchestrate the smooth succession of King James. Lord Essex's unsuccessful rebellion in 1601, which resulted in his final downfall and death, was largely aimed at Sir Robert Cecil, as he then was, who was to be removed from power and impeached. Whether Essex intended that Cecil should actually die is unclear.
It is to Cecil's credit that the Queen, largely at his urging, treated the rebels with a degree of mercy, which was unusual in that age. Essex himself and four of his closest allies were executed, but the great majority of his followers were spared: even Essex's denunciation of his sister Penelope, as the ringleader of the rebellion, was tactfully ignored. This clemency did Cecil, on the other hand, no good in the eyes of the public, who had loved Essex and mourned him deeply. Cecil, who had never been very popular, now became a much-hated figure and was viciously attacked in ballads like Essex's Last Good Night.
Cecil was extensively involved in matters of state security. As the son of Queen Elizabeth's principal minister and a protégé of Francis Walsingham (Elizabeth's principal spymaster), he was trained by them in spy-craft as a matter of course. The "Rainbow Portrait" of Queen Elizabeth at Hatfield, decorated with eyes and ears, may relate to this role.
Cecil, like his father, greatly admired the Queen, whom he famously described as being "more than a man, but less than a woman". Despite his careful preparations for the succession, he clearly regarded the Queen's death as a misfortune to be postponed as long as possible. During her last illness, when Elizabeth would sit motionless on cushions for hours on end, Cecil boldly told her that she must go to bed. Elizabeth roused herself one last time to snap at him: "Little man, little man, 'Must' is not a word to use to princes. Your father were he here durst never speak to me so"; but she added wryly "Ah, but ye know that I must die, and it makes you presumptuous".
Sir Robert Cecil now promoted James as successor to Elizabeth. Around 1600, he began a secret correspondence with James in Scotland, to persuade James that he favoured his claims to the English throne. An understanding was now effected by which Cecil was able to assure James of his succession, ensure his own power and predominance in the new reign against Sir Walter Raleigh and other competitors, and secure the tranquillity of the last years of Elizabeth. Cecil demanded as conditions that James stop his attempts to obtain parliamentary recognition of his title, that absolute respect should be paid to the queen's feelings, and that the communications should remain a secret.
James took the throne without opposition, and the new monarch expressed his gratitude by elevating Cecil to the peerage. Cecil also served as both the third chancellor of the University of Dublin, and chancellor of the University of Cambridge, between 1601 and 1612.
In 1603, Cecil's brothers-in-law, Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham and George Brooke, along with Sir Walter Raleigh, were implicated in both the Bye Plot and the Main Plot, an attempt to remove King James I from the throne and replace him with his first cousin, Lady Arbella Stuart. Cecil was one of the judges who tried them for treason: at Raleigh's trial, Cecil was the only judge who appeared to have some doubts about his guilt (which is still a matter of debate, although the prevailing view now is that Raleigh was involved in the Plot to some extent). Though they were found guilty and sentenced to death, both Cobham and Raleigh were eventually reprieved; this may have been due in part to Cecil's pleas for mercy, although the King kept his intentions a secret until the last minute.