Sir Robert Cecil, since Earl of Salisbury, was the son of the Lord
Burleigh, and, by degrees, successor of his places and favours, though
not of his lands; for he had Sir Thomas Cecil, his elder brother, since
created Earl of Exeter; he was first Secretary of State, then Master of
the Court of Wards, and, in the last of her reign, came to be Lord
Treasurer: all which were the steps of his father’s greatness, and of the
honour he left to his house. For his person, he was not much beholden to
Nature, though somewhat for his face, which was the best part of his
outside: for his inside, it may be said, and without offence, that he was
his father’s own son, and a pregnant precedent in all his discipline of
state: he was a courtier from his cradle, which might have made him
betimes; but he was at the age of twenty and upwards, and was far short
of his after-proof, but exposed, and by change of climate he soon made
show what he was and would be.
He lived in those times wherein the Queen had most need and use of men of
weight; and, amongst many able ones, this was chief, as having taken his
sufficiency from his instruction who begat him, the tutorship of the
times and court, which were then academies of Art and Cunning. For such
was the Queen’s condition, from the tenth or twelfth of her reign, that
she had the happiness to stand up, whereof there is a former intimation,
environed with many and more enemies, and assaulted with more dangerous
practices, than any prince of her times, and of many ages before: where
we must not, in this her preservation, attribute it to human power, for
that in his own omnipotent providence God ordained those secondary means,
as instruments of the work, by an evident manifestation of the same work,
which she acted; and it was a well-pleasing work of his own, out of a
peculiar care he had decreed the protection of the work-mistress, and,
thereunto, added his abundant blessing upon all and whatsoever she
undertook: which is an observation of satisfaction to myself, that she
was in the right; though, to others now breathing under the same form and
frame of her government, it may not seem an animadversion of their worth:
but I leave them to the peril of their own folly, and so come again to
this great minister of state and the staff of the Queen’s declining age;
who, though his little crooked person could not promise any great
supportation, yet it carried thereon a head and a head-piece of a vast
content; and therein, it seems, Nature was so diligent to complete one
and the best part about him, as the perfection of his memory and
intellectuals; she took care also of his senses, and to put him in
_lynceos oculos_, or, to pleasure him the more, borrowed of Argos, so to
give unto him a prospective sight; and, for the rest of his sensitive
virtues, his predecessor, Walsingham, had left him a receipt to smell out
what was done in the conclave.
And his good old father was so well seen in mathematics, that he could
tell you, throughout Spain, every part, every port, every ship, with its
burden; whither bound, what preparations, what impediments for diversion
of enterprises, counsel, and resolution; and, that we may see, as in a
little map, how docible this little man was, I will present a taste of
his abilities.
My Lord of Devonshire, upon certainty that the Spaniards would invade
Ireland with a strong army, had written very earnestly to the Queen and
to the Council for such supplies to be timely sent over, that might
enable him both to march up to the Spaniard, if he did land, and follow
on his prosecution without diverting his intentions against the rebels.
Sir Robert Cecil, besides the general dispatch of the Council (as he
often did) writ thus in private, for these two then began to love dearly:
“My lord, out of the abundance of my affection, and the care I have of
your well-doing, I must in private put you out of doubt or fear, for I
know you cannot be sensible, otherwise than in the way of honour, that
the Spaniards will not come unto you this year; for I have it from my
own, what his preparations are in all his parts, and what he can do; for,
be confident, he beareth up a reputation, by seeming to embrace more than
he can gripe; but, the next year, be assured, he will cast over to you
some forlorn troops, which, how they may be reinforced beyond his present
ability, and his first intention, I cannot, as yet, make any certain
judgment; but I believe, out of my intelligence, that you may expect the
landing in Munster, and, the more to distract you, in several places, as,
at Kinsale, Beerhaven, and Baltimore; where, you may be sure, coming from
sea, they will first fortify, and learn the strength of the rebels,
before they dare take the field. Howsoever, as I know you will not
lessen your care, neither your defences, whatsoever lies in my power to
do you and the public service, rest thereof assured.”
And to this I could add much more, but it may (as it is) suffice to
present much of his abilities in the pen, that he was his crafts-master
in foreign intelligence, and for domestic affairs. As he was one of
those that sat at the helm to the last of the Queen, so was he none of
the least in skill, and in the true use of the compass; and so I shall
only vindicate the scandal of his death, and conclude him; for he
departed at St. Margaret’s, near Marlborough, at his return from Bath, as
my Lord Vice-Chamberlain, my Lord Clifford, and myself, his son, and
son-in-law, and many more can witness: but that the day before, he
swooned on the way, and was taken out of his litter, and laid into his
coach, was a truth out of which that falsehood concerning the manner of
his death had its derivation, though nothing to the purpose, or to the
prejudice of his worth.