1550-1553
The Catholic party soon found that Northumberland had used them only as
a cat’s-paw to satisfy his ambition; and that where mild Somerset had
scourged them with whips, he would scourge them with scorpions. Gardiner
and Bonner were made closer prisoners than ever. Princess Mary, who had
practically defied Somerset about her Mass, was more sternly dealt with
by Northumberland, her chaplains imprisoned, and her household placed
under strict observation;[27] Latin service was strictly forbidden
throughout the realm, altars were abolished, and uniformity enforced;
whilst Southampton, who had been largely instrumental in the overthrow
of Somerset, found, to his dismay, that he had laboured in vain so
far as he and his co-religionists were concerned. There is no reason
to doubt that, even thus early, Northumberland’s ambitious plans were
already formed. For their success two things were absolutely necessary:
first, the unanimous support of the Protestant party; and next, a close
understanding with France, which meant a reversal of the traditional
foreign policy of this country. The attempt to supersede Mary on the
death of the King, who was seen to be of short life, would be certain to
meet with opposition on the part of the Emperor, and would necessitate
the support of France to be successful. Much as Northumberland had
denounced the idea of the surrender of Boulogne in the time of Somerset,
he lost no time in concluding a peace by which the town was given up, the
necessity for doing so being still laid to the charge of his predecessor;
and the alliance between France and England, which included Scotland, was
nominally made the closer by the betrothal of Elizabeth,[28] the eldest
daughter of the King of France to Edward VI. Soon Somerset, who still
had many friends amongst Protestants, was released from prison, and in
more humble guise readmitted to the Council. On every hand Northumberland
courted popularity from all but the extreme Catholics, from whom he had
nothing but opposition to expect.
Under the circumstances it was necessary to have by his side an
experienced Secretary of State of Protestant leanings, as well as of
assiduity and ability. Petre and Wotton were known to be more than
doubtful with regard to religion; Smith had made himself impossible by
the active part he took against Northumberland at the time of Somerset’s
imprisonment. No man was more fitted to the post than Cecil, and on the
5th September 1550 he was made for the first time Secretary of State. In
the “perpetual calendar” at Hatfield the entry runs, “5 Sep. 4 Ed. VI.,
apud Oatlands Guil. Cecill admisus secr̄ in loco D. Wotton,” and the
Privy Council book confirms this, though the King in his journal gives
the date of the appointment as the 6th September. Again William Cecil
emerges from obscurity, and henceforward his position is unequivocal.
As before, everything seemed to pass through his hands. No matter was
too small or too large to claim his attention. His household biographer
says of him that he worked incessantly, except at meal times, when he
unbent and chatted wittily to his friends, but never of business. He
could, he says, never play any sort of game, took no interest in sport
or pastimes, his only exercise being riding round his garden walks on a
little mule. “He was rather meanly statured, but well proportioned, very
straight and upright, active and hardy, until crippled by constant gout.”
His hair and beard were brown, before they became silver-white, as they
did early in life; and his carriage and conversation were always grave
and circumspect.
If his own conduct was ruled—as some of his actions certainly were—by the
maxims which in middle age he laid down for his favourite son, he must
have been a marvel of prudence and wisdom. Like the usual recommendations
of age to youth, many of these precepts simply inculcate moderation,
religion, virtue, and other obviously good qualities; but here and there
Cecil’s own philosophy of life peeps out, and some of the reasons of
his success are exhibited. “Let thy hospitality be moderate, … rather
plentiful than sparing, for I never knew any man grow poor by keeping
an orderly table.… Beware thou spendest not more than three of four
parts of thy revenue, and not above a third part of that in thy house.”
“That gentleman who sells an acre of land sells an ounce of credit, for
gentility is nothing else but ancient riches.” “Suffer not thy sons to
cross the Alps, for they shall learn nothing there but pride, blasphemy,
and atheism; and if by travel they get a few broken languages, they
shall profit them nothing more than to have one meat served up in divers
dishes. Neither train them up in wars, for he that sets up to live by
that profession can hardly be an honest man or a good Christian.” “Beware
of being surety for thy best friends; he that payeth another man’s debts
seeketh his own decay.” “Be sure to keep some great man thy friend,
but trouble him not with trifles; compliment him often with many, yet
small, gifts.” “Towards thy superiors be humble, yet generous; with
thine equals familiar, yet respectful; towards thine inferiors show much
humanity, and some familiarity, as to bow the body, stretch forth the
hand, and to uncover the head.” “Trust not any man with thy life, credit,
or estate, for it is mere folly for a man to enthral himself to his
friend.” Such maxims as these evidently enshrine much of his own temper,
and throughout his career he rarely seems to have violated them. His was
a selfish and ungenerous gospel, but a prudent and circumspect one.
From the first days of his appointment as Secretary of State, the
Duchess of Suffolk was again his constant correspondent. As she was one
of the first to condole with him on his misfortune, she was early to
congratulate him on “the good exchanges he had made, and on having come
to a good market”;[29] and thenceforward all the Lincolnshire gossip
from Grimsthorpe and Tattershall reached the Secretary regularly, with
many Lincolnshire petitions, and much business in the buying and leasing
of land by Cecil in the county, although his father lived until the
following year, 1552.[30] His erudite wife, of whom he always speaks
with tender regard, seems to have kept up a correspondence in Greek with
their friend, Sir Thomas Morysine, the English Ambassador to the Emperor,
and with the learned Joannes Sturmius, to which several references are
made in Morysine’s eccentric and affected letters to Cecil in the State
Papers, Foreign.
The letters of Morysine and Mason, the Ambassador to France, to Cecil
are of more importance as giving a just idea of Northumberland’s policy
abroad than are their despatches to the Council. The Protestant princes
were already recovering their spirits after the defeat of Muhlberg,
and the Emperor was again faced by persistent opposition in the Diet.
Henry II., having now made sure of Northumberland’s necessary adhesion
to him, once more launched against the empire the forces of the Turks
in the Mediterranean, whilst French armies invaded Italy and threatened
Flanders. To the old-fashioned English diplomatists, this driving of the
Emperor into a corner was a subject of alarm. Wotton, in a letter to
Cecil (2nd January 1551), expresses the opinion that an attack upon the
English at Calais would be the next move of the French King, and that
Frenchmen generally are not to be trusted;[31] and Mason, the Ambassador
in France (November 1550) writes also to Cecil: “The French profess
much, but I doubt their sincerity; I fear they know too well our estate,
and thereby think to ride upon our backs.”[32] But, withal, though as
yet they knew it not, Northumberland’s plans depended upon a close
understanding with France, and during the rest of his rule this was his
guiding principle. Mason had to be withdrawn from France, and Pickering,
another friend of Cecil’s, more favourable to the French interest,
was appointed; whilst Wotton was sent to calm the susceptibilities of
the Emperor, who was growing fractious at the close alliance between
Northumberland and the French, which was being cemented by one of the
most splendid embassies that ever left England (March 1551). Prudent
Cecil through it all gives in his correspondence no inkling of his own
feeling towards Northumberland’s new departure in foreign policy, though
the letters of his many friends to him are a sure indication that they
knew he was not really in favour of it.
In home affairs he was just as discreet. His view of the duty of a
Secretary of State was to carry out the orders of the Council without
seeking to impose his own opinion unduly, and to the last days of his
life his methods were conciliatory and diplomatic rather than forcible.
He bent before insistence; but he usually had his way, if indirectly, in
the end, as will be seen in the course of his career. For instance, one
of the first measures which he had to carry out under Northumberland was
the debasement of the coinage,[33] though it was one of his favourite
maxims that “the realm cannot be rich whose coin is base,”[34] and his
persistent efforts to reform the coinage under Elizabeth contributed much
to the renewed prosperity of England. It would appear to have been his
system to make his opinion known frankly in the Council, but when it was
overborne by a majority, to carry out the opposite policy loyally. As
will be seen, this mode of proceeding probably saved his head on the fall
of Northumberland.
He was, indeed, not of the stuff from which martyrs are made, and when
his first patron and friend, Somerset, finally fell, to the sorrow of all
England, and lost his head on Tower Hill, Cecil’s own position remained
unassailed. This is not the place to enter fully upon the vexed question
of the guilt of Somerset in the alleged plan to murder Warwick and his
friends, but a glance at Cecil’s attitude at the time will be useful.
According to the young King’s journal, the first revelation of the
conspiracy was made on the 7th October 1551 by Sir Thomas Palmer, who
on the following days amplified his information and implicated many of
Somerset’s friends. On the 14th, Somerset had got wind of the affair, and
sent for his friend Secretary Cecil to tell him he was afraid there was
some mischief brewing. Cecil answered coldly, “that if he were not guilty
he might be of good courage; if he were, he had nothing to say but to
lament him.”[35] In two days Somerset and his friends were in the Tower,
and thenceforward through all the shameful trial, until the sacrifice was
finally consummated, Cecil appeared to be prudently wrapped up in foreign
affairs;[36] for to him had been referred the appeal of the Protestant
princes brought by his friend A’Lasco, for help against their suzerain
the Emperor, and to others fell the main task of removing the King’s
uncle from the path of Northumberland.
Cecil’s position as a Protestant Secretary of State was one that
required all his tact and discretion. Somerset was his first friend
and “master”; and although it is not well established that the Duke
personally was guilty of the particular crime for which he suffered, it
is unquestionable that he had been for several months coquetting with
the Catholic party, had agitated for the release of Gardiner from the
Tower, and that his friends were busy, almost certainly with his own
connivance, to obtain for him in the coming Parliament the renewal of his
office of Protector. Light is thrown upon Cecil’s share in bringing about
the Duke’s downfall, by the letters to him of his friend Whalley,[37]
who had been officiously pushing Somerset’s interests early in 1551,
and had been imprisoned for it. In June he had been released, and was
apparently made use of by Cecil to convey letters from the latter in
London to Northumberland in the country, complaining of Somerset’s
efforts in favour of Gardiner, and his intrigues with the Catholics.
That Cecil should resent, as Secretary of State, any movement that
threatened Northumberland and the Protestant cause at the time was
natural. It will be recollected that he did not become Northumberland’s
Secretary of State until the former had thrown over the Catholics—but
it was perhaps an ungenerous excess of zeal to be the first to denounce
his former patron. At all events, Northumberland was delighted with the
Secretary’s action in the matter, and told Whalley so—“He declared in
the end his good opinion of you in such sort, as I may well say he is
your very singular good lord, and resolved that he would write at length
his opinion unto you … for he plainly said ye had shown yourself therein
such a faithful servant, and by that, most witty councillor unto the
King’s Majesty and his proceedings, as was scarce the like within his
realm.” Whalley concludes his letter by urging Cecil to remonstrate with
Somerset. Whether he did so or not is unknown; but certainly for the next
three months there is no hint of any serious renewal of the quarrel:
the interminable proceedings against Gardiner continued, under Cecil’s
direction, without a word from Somerset, and the measures against the
Princess Mary’s mass continued unchecked.
The French alliance was now in full flush. All through the autumn the
stately embassy from Henry II. confirming the treaty, and bringing the
Order of St. Michael to Edward, was splendidly entertained at court;
the Emperor’s troubles were closing in around him; Northumberland could
afford to flout his remonstrance about the treatment of the Princess
Mary; and by the beginning of October, Northumberland’s power was at its
height. On the 4th October he assumed his dukedom, Dorset was made Duke
of Suffolk, the Earl of Wiltshire was created Marquis of Winchester, and
Cheke and Cecil were dubbed knights (although several of the latter’s
friends had insisted upon calling him Sir William months before).[38]
Then it was that the blow fell upon Somerset. We have seen how Cecil
bore himself to his former master at the first hint of danger on the
14th October; and though we have no letters of his own to indicate his
subsequent attitude, a few words in the confidential letters of his
correspondents allow us to surmise what it was.
Somerset was imprisoned on the 16th October (1551). On the 27th,
Pickering, the Ambassador in Paris, writes that “he is glad Cecil
is found to be undefiled with the folly of this unfortunate Duke of
Somerset.” But Morysine, Cecil’s old Lincolnshire friend, the Ambassador
in Germany, reflects, evidently with exactitude, the tone which Cecil
must have adopted. He speaks of Somerset as the Secretary’s old friend,
and congratulates Cecil that he has not been dragged down with him. “For
it were a way to make an end of amity, if, when men fall, their friends
should forthwith therefore be troubled.” He plainly sees, he says, that
the mark Cecil shoots at is their master’s service; “A God’s blessing!
let the Duke bear his own burden, or cast it where he can.”[39] Morysine
might have saved his wisdom; Cecil would certainly bear no other man’s
burden if he could help it.
Through all this critical time Sir William was indefatigable. His wife
lived usually retired from the court, at their home at Wimbledon; but
Cecil’s town house at Cannon Row, Westminster, was the scene of ceaseless
business, for Petre, the joint-Secretary, was ill disposed, and did
little. The Duchess of Suffolk, Lord Clinton, and all the Lincolnshire
folk used Cecil unsparingly in all their suits and troubles, and they
had many. Cecil’s own properties were now very extensive, and were
constantly augmented by purchases and grants. He had been appointed
Recorder of Boston in the previous year (May 1551). Northumberland
consulted and deferred to him at every point; Cranmer sent to him the
host of Protestant refugees from Germany and France: no matter what
business was in hand, or whose it was, it inevitably found its way
into Sir William Cecil’s study, and by him was dealt with moderately,
patiently, and wisely.
In the war of faiths he was the universal arbitrator, and his task was
not an easy one. The clergy had sunk to the lowest depth of degradation,
and cures of souls had been given by patrons to domestic servants, and
often to persons unable to read. The returned refugees from Switzerland
had many of them brought back Calvinistic methods and beliefs, and
between their rigidity and the English Catholicism of Henry VIII. all
grades of ritual were practised. Cranmer was at the head of a commission
to settle a form of liturgy and the Articles for the Church, Cecil, of
course, being a member. After immense labour, forty-two Articles were
agreed upon—reduced to thirty-nine ten years afterwards—but before
finally submitting them to Parliament and Convocation for adoption,
Cranmer referred them absolutely to Cecil and Cheke, “the two great
patrons of the Reformation at court.”[40]
In foreign affairs, also, Cecil arranged everything but the main line
of policy which Northumberland’s plans dictated. We have seen how the
question of aid to the Protestant princes of Germany was referred to his
consideration, and the help refused. The subject was shortly made a much
larger one by the utter defeat of the Emperor by his former henchman,
Maurice of Saxony, and the invasion of Luxembourg by the French (July
1552). The tables were now turned indeed. By the peace of Passau the
Protestant princes extorted the religious liberty they had in vain
prayed for, and it was seen that for a time Charles’s power was broken.
A considerable party in England, faithful to old traditions, were in a
fever of alarm at the growth of the power of France, and Stukeley told
the King that Henry II. had confided to him his intention to capture
Calais.[41]
The Emperor, ready to snatch at any straw, sent an ambassador to
England in September 1552 to claim the aid to which, under the treaty
of 1542, he was entitled from England if France invaded his territory.
The whole question was referred to Cecil; and, as a specimen of his
patient, judicial style, his report, as given in the King’s Journal, is
reproduced here. It will be seen that he affects impartially to weigh
both sides, but his fear of French aggression is made as clear as was
prudent, considering Northumberland’s leanings.[42] Throughout the
whole of his official life this was the way in which he dealt with all
really important questions referred to him, and his leading principle
was to strike a middle course, which would allow England to remain
openly friendly with the House of Burgundy without breaking with France,
and to keep the latter power out of Flanders, while still defending
Protestantism, which the ruler of Flanders was pledged to destroy.
How his actions usually squared with his axioms is seen, amongst other
things, from his constant efforts to extend the commerce and wealth
of England. Amongst the apophthegms which he most affected are the
following:[43] “A realm can never be rich that hath not an intercourse
and trade of merchandise with other nations,” and “A realm must needs be
poor that carryeth not out more (merchandise) than it bringeth in.” In
consequence of the privileges granted to the Hanse merchants, nearly the
whole of the export trade of England had been concentrated into the hands
of foreigners, and in the year that Cecil was appointed Secretary of
State, the Steelyard Corporation is said to have exported 44,000 lengths
of English cloth, whereas all the other London merchants together had not
shipped more than 1100 lengths.[44] Cecil was in favour of establishing
privileged cloth markets at Southampton and Hull, and of placing
impediments on the exportation of cloths first-hand by foreigners, until
the new markets had succeeded in attracting customers from abroad, so
that the merchants’ profits would remain in England as well as the
money spent here by the foreign buyers. Although this particular project
ultimately fell through, owing to the King’s death and other causes,
Cecil throughout his life laboured incessantly to increase English trade
and navigation, by favouring the establishment of foreign weavers in
various parts of the country, by laws for the protection of fisheries, by
the promotion of trading corporations, like the Russian Company, of which
he was one of the founders, by the rehabilitation of the coinage, and
by a host of other measures, to some of which reference will be made in
their chronological order.
The position of affairs during the last months of Edward’s life was
broadly this: Protestant uniformity was being imposed upon the country
with a severity unknown under the rule of Somerset; Northumberland’s
plans for the elevation of Jane Grey to the throne were maturing;
Southampton, Paget, Arundel, Beaumont, and the Catholics were in disgrace
or exile; and De Noailles, the new French Ambassador, was working his
hardest to help Northumberland, when the time should come, to exclude
from the throne the half-Spanish Princess Mary. But though Sir William
Cecil was the channel through which most of the business passed, he
avoided as much as possible personal identification with Northumberland’s
plans. It must have needed all his tact, for Northumberland consulted
and deferred to him in everything, and as the time approached for him
to act, was evidently apprehensive, and stayed away from the Council.
This was resented by his colleagues, as will be seen from his letter to
Cecil of 3rd January 1553[45] from Chelsea, saying that “he has never
absented himself from the King’s service but through ill-health. The
Italian proverb is true: a faithful servant will become a perpetual ass.
He wishes to retire and end his days in tranquillity, as he fears he is
going to be very ill.” When it came to illness, diplomatic or otherwise,
Cecil was a match for his master. He had been, according to his diary, in
imminent danger of death in the previous year, at his house at Wimbledon;
and in the spring of 1553 he again fell seriously sick. During May,
Secretary Petre constantly wrote to him hoping he would soon recover and
be back again at court. Lord Audley comforted him by sending several
curious remedies for his malady, amongst which is “a stewed sowe pygge of
ix dayes olde”;[46] and the Marquis of Winchester was equally solicitous
to see the Secretary back to the Council again. Northumberland evidently
tried to keep him satisfied by grants and favours, for he conferred
upon him a lease of Combe Park, Surrey, part of Somerset’s lands; the
lands in Northampton held for life by Richard Cecil, his father, were
regranted to Sir William on his death, and during the Secretary’s illness
and absence from court he received the office of Chancellor of the Order
of the Garter, with an income of 100 marks a year and fees.[47] But
Cecil’s illness, real or feigned,[48] made him in no hurry to return
and take a prominent part in Northumberland’s dangerous game, which was
now patent. During his absence his brother-in-law, Sir John Cheke, was
appointed as an additional Secretary of State to help Petre (June 1553),
and his fervent Protestantism and weakness of will made him a less wary
instrument than Sir William in the final stages of the intrigue.
It was during Cecil’s absence from court in May that Lady Jane Grey was
married to Northumberland’s son Guildford Dudley;[49] but by the time
the plot was ready for consummation, Sir William could stay away no
longer, and was at work again in his office. The letter, dated 11th June
1553, addressed to the Lord Chief-Justice and other judges, summoning
them to the royal presence, was signed by Cecil, as well as by Cheke
and Petre. When the young King handed to the Chief-Justice a memorandum
of his intention to set aside King Henry’s will, and leave the crown
to the descendants of Henry’s youngest sister Mary, to the deprivation
of his daughters, the Chief-Justice told him that such a settlement
would be illegal. The King insisted that a new deed of settlement must
be drawn up. The next day at Ely Place, when Northumberland threatened
Chief-Justice Montagu as a traitor, Petre was present, but not Cecil;
but he must have been at the remarkable Council meeting on the 14th
June, when the Chief-Justice and the other judges with tears in their
eyes were hectored into drawing up the fateful will disinheriting Mary
and Elizabeth; for upon Northumberland insisting that every one present
should sign the document, he, Cecil, like the rest of them—with the
honourable exception of Sir John Hales—dared not refuse, and appended his
name to it. He was probably sorry that his illness did not delay him a
little longer at Wimbledon, for shortly before he had, in a conversation
with Roger Alford, one of the confidential members of his household,
expressed an intention to be no party to a change in the order of the
succession. Alford relates the story.[50] He was walking in Greenwich
Park with Cecil, when the latter told him that he knew some such plan was
in contemplation, “but that he would never be a partaker in that device.”
If Alford is to be believed, Northumberland was from the first suspicious
of Cecil’s absence. He says that the Secretary feared assassination,
and went armed, against his usual practice, visiting London secretly at
night only, and concealed his valuables. His household biographer also
says that he incurred the particular displeasure of Northumberland “for
mislyking or not consenting to the Duke’s purpose touching the Lady
Jane.”[51] And Alford, in his testimony in Cecil’s favour, asserted
that the latter told him that he had refused to sign the settlement
as a Councillor, but only did so as a witness, which the paper itself
disproves. The position of Cecil was indeed a most difficult one. He
was not a brave or heroic man, he hated extreme courses, and this was a
juncture where his usual non-committal _via media_ was of no avail. Of
the two evils he chose the lesser, and not only signed the settlement
like the rest of the Councillors, but also the instrument by which
certain members pledged themselves on oath to carry it out. But though
he, like others, was terrorised into bending to Northumberland’s will,
it is certain that he disliked the business, made no secret of his
unwillingness to acquiesce in it, and separated himself from it at the
earliest possible moment that he could do so with safety. There is in the
Lansdowne MSS.[52] a paper in Cecil’s hand, written after the accession
of Mary, in which is contained his exculpation. As it throws much light
on the matter, and upon Cecil’s own character, it will be useful to quote
it at length. It is headed “A briefe note of my submission and of my
doings.
“1. My submission with all lowliness that any heart can
conceive.
“2. My misliking of the matter when I heard it secretly;
whereupon I made conveyance away of my lands, part of my goods,
my leases, and my raiment.
“3. I determined to suffer for saving my conscience; whereof
the witnesses, Sir Anthony Cooke, Nicholas Bacon, Esq.,
Laurence D’Eresby of Louth; two of my suite, Roger Alford and
William Cawood.
“4. Of my purpose to stand against the matter, be also witness
Mr. Petre and Mr. Cheke.
“5. I did refuse to subscribe the book when none of the Council
did refuse: in what peril I refer it to be considered by them
who know the Duke.
“6. I refused to make a proclamation, and turned the labour
to Mr. Throckmorton, whose conscience, I saw, was troubled
therewith, misliking the matter.
“7. I eschewed writing the Queen’s highness bastard, and
therefore the Duke wrote the letter himself, which was sent
abroad in the realm.[53]
“8. I eschewed to be at the drawing of the proclamation for the
publishing of the usurper’s title, being specially appointed
thereto.
“9. I avoided the answer of the Queen’s highness’ letter.
“10. I avoided also the writing of all the public letters of
the realm.
“11. I wrote no letter to Lord La Warr as I was commanded.
“12. I dissembled the taking of my horse and the raising of
Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and avowed the pardonable
lie where it was suspected to my danger.
“13. I practised with the Lord Treasurer to win the Lord Privy
Seal, that I might by Lord Russell’s means cause Windsor Castle
to serve the Queen, and they two to levy the west parts for the
Queen’s service. I have the Lord Treasurer’s letter to Lord
St. John for to keep me safe if I could not prevail in the
enterprise of Windsor Castle, and my name was feigned to be
Harding.
“14. I did open myself to the Earl of Arundel, whom I found
thereto disposed; and likewise I did the like to Lord Darcy,
who heard me with good contentation, whereof I did immediately
tell Mr. Petre, for both our comfort.
“15. I did also determine to flee from them if the consultation
had not taken effect, as Mr. Petre can tell, who meant the
like.
“16. I purposed to have stolen down to the Queen’s highness, as
Mr. Gosnold can tell, who offered to lead me thither, as I knew
not the way.
“17. I had my horses ready at Lambeth for the purpose.
“18. I procured a letter from the Lords that the Queen’s
tenants of Wimbledon should not go with Sir Thomas Caverden;
and yet I never gave one man warning so much as to be in
readiness, and yet they sent to me for the purpose, and I
willed them to be quiet. I might as steward there make for the
Queen’s service a hundred men to serve.
“19. When I sent into Lincolnshire for my horses, I sent but
for five horses and eight servants, and charged that none of my
tenants should be stirred.
“20. I caused my horses, being indeed but four, to be taken up
in Northamptonshire; and the next day following I countermanded
them again by my letters, remaining in the country and
notoriously there known.
“21. When this conspiracy was first opened to me, I did fully
set me to flee the realm, and was dissuaded by Mr. Cheke, who
willed me for my satisfaction to read a dialogue of Plato where
Socrates, being in prison, was offered to escape and flee, and
yet he would not. I read the dialogue, whose reasons, indeed,
did stay me.
“Finally, I beseech her Highness that in her grace I may feel
some difference from others that have more plainly offended
and yet be partakers of her Highness’ bountifulness and grace;
if difference may be made I do differ from them whom I served,
and also them that had liberty after their enforcement to
depart, by means whereof they did, both like noblemen and true
subjects, show their duties to their sovereign lady. The like
whereof was my devotion to have done if I might have had the
like liberty, as knoweth God, the searcher of all hearts,
whose indignation I call upon me if it be not true.
“‘Justus adjutorius meus Dominus qui salvos facit rectos
corde’—‘God save the Queen in all felicity,’
“W. CECILL.”[54]
The document shows us the real William Cecil. It is probably quite
true: he had taken care, whilst remaining a member of Northumberland’s
Council, and openly acquiescing in his acts, to make himself safe in
either case. Throgmorton and Cheke might be made scapegoats—as Davison
was years afterwards—but Jane or Mary, Protestant or Catholic, the first
consideration for William Cecil was not unnaturally William Cecil’s own
head. He was probably not worse than the other members of the Council,
for most of them acted in a similar manner, and when at length they
turned against Northumberland, and openly declared for Mary, Sir William
was safe to choose the winning side.
King Edward died at Greenwich on the 6th July 1553, and on the 10th, Lady
Jane was proclaimed Queen by virtue of his settlement by patent.[55] Two
days afterwards the Council in the Tower learnt that the Lady Mary was
rallying powerful friends about her in Kenninghall Castle, Norfolk, and
it was agreed that Queen Jane’s father, the Duke of Suffolk, should lead
a force to capture and bring her to London. But the girl Queen begged so
hard that her father might remain by her side that her tears prevailed;
“whereupon the Councell perswaded the Duke of Northumberland to take that
voyage upon him, saying that no man was so fit therefor, because he had
atchieved the victorie in Norfolk once already, … besides that, he was
the best man of war in the realm.… ‘Well,’ quoth the Duke then, ‘since ye
think it good I and mine will goe, not doubting of your fidelity to the
Quene’s Majesty, which I leave in your custody.’”[56]
Northumberland hurriedly completed his preparations at Durham Place,
and urged the Council to send powers and directions after him to reach
him at Newmarket. He insisted upon having the warrant of the Council
for every step he took in order to pledge them all; but at the farewell
dinner-party with them it is clear that his mind was ill at ease, and his
heart already sinking. He appealed humbly to his colleagues not to betray
him. “If,” he said, “we thought you wolde through malice, conspiracie, or
discentyon, leave us your frendes in the breers (briars) and betray us,
we could as well sondery (sundry) ways foresee and provide for our own
safeguards as any of you by betraying us can do for yours.” He reminds
them of their oath of allegiance to Queen Jane, made freely to her, “who
by your and our enticement is rather of force placed therein than by hir
owne seking;” again points out that they are as deeply pledged on each
point as he himself. “But if ye meane deceat, though not furthwith, God
will revenge the same. I can say no more, but in this troblesome tyme
wishe you to use constaunte hartes, abandoning all malice, envy, and
privat affections.” Some of the Council protested their good faith. “I
pray God yt be so,” quod the Duke; “let us go to dyner.”[57]
Cecil must have been present at this scene, and when Northumberland left
London on his way to Cambridge, “none,” as he himself remarked, “not
one, saying God spede us,” Sir William must have known as well, or
better, than any of them that the house of cards was falling, and that
Northumberland was a doomed man. The moment he was gone, Cecil, like the
rest of them, strove to betray him. The ships on the east coast declared
for Mary, the people of London were almost in revolt already, the nobles
in the country flocked to the rightful Queen. On the 19th July, Mary was
proclaimed by the Council at Baynard’s Castle, and the joy was general:
“the Earle of Pembroke threwe awaye his cape full of angeletes. I saw
money throwne out at windowes for joy, and the bonfires weare without
nomber,” says an eye-witness.[58] Sir John Cheke was present at this
stirring scene, upon which he must have looked with a wry face; but, as
we have seen by his submission, Cecil had already been busy trimming and
facing both ways. He first sent his wife’s sister, Lady Bacon, to meet
the new Queen, whom she knew, and as soon as might be himself started for
the eastern counties, to greet the rising sun.[59] Lady Bacon had paved
the way, and, to make quite sure, Cecil sent his henchman Alford ahead to
see her at Ipswich, and learn what sort of reception her brother-in-law
might expect. Her message was “that the Queen thought well of her brother
Cecil, and said he was a very honest man.” Then Sir William went on, and
met Mary at Newhall, Essex, where he explained matters as best he could.
When he was reproached with arming his four horsemen to oppose Queen
Mary, he explained, as we have seen, that he himself had secretly caused
them to be detained. No doubt the sardonic disillusioned Queen must have
smiled grimly as she read the shifty, ungenerous “submission,” already
quoted in full; and however “honest” she may have considered Lady Bacon’s
brother-in-law, she knew he was not a bold man or a thorough partisan of
hers, and when her ministry was formed, Cecil was no longer Secretary—but
he did not, like poor Sir John Cheke, find himself a prisoner in the
Tower.
Sir William’s entry in his journal on the occasion of the King’s death
is a curious one,[60] and seems to indicate his general dislike of his
position under Northumberland, whose home and foreign policy, as we have
seen, were both diametrically opposite to those dictated by the training
and character of Cecil.[61] The only point upon which there could
have been a real community of aims between them was that of religion,
and on that point Northumberland, who subsequently avowed himself a
Catholic,[62] was false to his own convictions.
During the whole of the reign of Edward, Cecil had continued to enrich
himself by grants, stewardships, reversions, and offices; not of course
to the same extent as Somerset, Northumberland, Clinton, or Winchester,
for he was a moderate man and loved safety, but on the accession of
Mary he must have been very rich. During his mother’s life, which was
a long one, he always looked upon Burghley House as hers, although he
spent large sums of his own money upon buildings and improvements;
but he inherited from his father large estates in Northamptonshire,
Rutland, Lincolnshire, and elsewhere. We have already noticed that he
obtained the Crown manor of Wimbledon and other grants; but, in addition
to those already noted, he obtained, in October 1551, the period of
Somerset’s sacrifice, grants of the manor of Berchamstow and Deeping, in
Lincolnshire; the manor and hall of Thetford, in the same county; the
reversion of the manor of Wrangdike, Rutland; the manor of Liddington,
Rutland, and a moiety of the rectory of Godstow. He was a large purchaser
of land also in the county of Lincoln; so that although his household
historian asserts that his lands never brought him in more than £4000
a year, his expenses were on a very lavish scale, and he had, as his
friend the Duchess of Suffolk says in one of her letters to him, brought
his wares to a good market. By his embroiderer’s account, already
quoted, we see that at this period of his life he maintained thirty-six
servitors wearing his badge and livery; but in the time of Elizabeth his
establishments were on a truly princely footing. He had eighty servants
wearing his livery, and we are told that the best gentlemen in England
competed to enter his service; “I have nombered in his howse attending at
table twenty gentlemen of his retayners of £1000 per annum a peece, in
possession or reversion, and of his ordinarie men, as many more, some
worth £1000, some worth 3, 5, 10, yea, £20,000, daily attending his
service.”
But though acquisitive and fond of surrounding himself with the
accessories of wealth and great standing, he had few of the tastes of
the territorial aristocracy, whom he imitated. Arms, sport, athletic
exercises, did not appeal to him. From his youth he dressed gravely and
soberly; and at a time, subsequently, when splendour and extravagance in
attire were the rule, he still kept to his fur-trimmed gown and staid
raiment. He was an insatiable book buyer and collector of heraldic and
genealogical manuscripts. Sir William Pickering in Paris, and Sir John
Mason, had orders to buy for him all the attractive new books published
in France; and Chamberlain in Brussels had a similar commission. The
former mentions in one letter (15th Dec. 1551, State Papers, Foreign)
having purchased Euclid with the figures, Machiavelli, Le Long, the New
Testament in Greek, _L’Horloge des Princes_, _Discours de la Guerre_,
Notes on Aristotle in Italian, and others; and the Hatfield Papers
contain very numerous memoranda of books and genealogies bought by
Cecil, or sent to him as presents from his friends and suitors. Wotton,
for instance, when he was abroad and wished to oblige his friend, says:
“If I knew anye kind of bookes heere (Poissy) which yow like, I wold
bye them for yow, and bring them home with some of myne owne. Here is
_Clemens Alexandrinus_ and _Theodoretus in Epistolas Pauli_, turned into
Latin. But because I heere that yow have _Clemens Alexandrinus_ in Greek
already, I suppose yow care not for him in Latin.”[63]
His love of study, too, extended to interest in others. He was a constant
benefactor to Cambridge University, and St. John’s particularly, and
influenced the King[64] to bequeath £100 per annum to the foundation
in his will. Shortly before the young King’s death, also, he appears to
have granted to Cecil’s own town of Stamford—almost certainly at his
instance—funds for the foundation of a grammar school there, of which Sir
William was to be the life governor, and there is ample evidence that the
establishment of the large number of educational benefactions with which
the young King signalised his reign—primarily at the instance of Bishop
Hooper—was powerfully promoted by Cecil; who seems also, on his own
account, to have always maintained a certain number of scholars,[65] and
to have been the universal resource of students, teachers, and colleges,
in their troubles and difficulties. The accession of Mary, which threw
Cecil out of office, or, as he puts it, gave him his liberty, did not
deprive him of his large means, or limit his enlightened activity in
other directions. But for a time after the death of Edward, he remained,
so far as so prominent and able a man could do so, simply a private
citizen. His household biographer asserts “that Mary had a good liking
for him as a Councillor, and would have appointed him if he had changed
his religion.” Although he puts a grandiloquent speech in Cecil’s mouth,
refusing office, saying much about preferring God’s service before that
of the Queen, it is extremely doubtful whether Mary ever offered to call
him to her Council. Towards the end of her reign, when Elizabeth’s early
accession was inevitable, however, the Council itself was desirous of
conciliating him. Lloyd (“State Worthies”) says of him: “When he was out
of place he was not out of service in Queen Mary’s days, his abilities
being as necessary in those times as his inclinations, and that Queen’s
Council being as ready to advance him _at last_ as they were to _use_ him
all her reign.”