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SALISBURY, ROBERT CECIL, 1ST EARL OF ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 78 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SALISBURY, See also:ROBERT See also:CECIL, 1ST See also:EARL OF (c. 1565-1612) , See also:English See also:lord treasurer, the exact See also:year of whose See also:birth is unrecorded, was the youngest son of See also:William Cecil, 1st Lord See also:Burghley, and of his second wife Mildred, daughter of See also:Sir See also:Anthony See also:Cooke, of Gidea See also:Hall in See also:Essex. He was educated in his See also:father's See also:house and at See also:Cambridge University. In 1584 he was sent to See also:France, and was returned the same year to See also:parliament, and again in 1586, as member for See also:Westminster. In 1588 he accompanied Lord See also:Derby in his See also:mission to the See also:Netherlands to negotiate See also:peace with See also:Spain,and sat in the parliament of 1588, and in the assemblies of r593, 1597 and 1601 for See also:Hertfordshire. About 1589 he appears to have entered upon the duties of secretary of See also:state, though he did not receive the See also:official See also:appointment till 1596. On the loth of May r591 he was knighted, and in See also:August sworn of the privy See also:council. In 1597 he was made See also:chancellor of the duchy of See also:Lancaster, and in 1598 despatched on a mission to See also:Henry IV. of France, to prevent the impending See also:alliance between that See also:country and Spain. The next year he succeeded his father as See also:master of the See also:court of wards. On Lord Burghley's See also:death on the 4th of August both Essex and See also:Bacon desired to succeed him in the supreme direction of affairs, but the See also:queen preferred the son of her last See also:great See also:minister. On Essex's disgrace, consequent on his sudden and unauthorized See also:abandonment of his command in See also:Ireland, Cecil's conduct was worthy of high praise. " By employing his See also:credit with Her See also:Majesty in behalf of the Earl," wrote See also:John See also:Petit (See also:June 14, 'boo), " he has gained great creditto himself both at See also:home and abroad." At this See also:period began Cecil's See also:secret See also:correspondence with See also:James in See also:Scotland.

Hitherto Cecil's enemies had persuaded James that the secretary was unfavourable to his claims to the English See also:

throne. An under-See also:standing was now effected by which Cecil was able to assure James of his See also:succession, ensure his own See also:power and predominance in the new reign against Sir See also:Walter See also:Raleigh and other competitors, and secure the tranquillity of the last years of See also:Elizabeth, the conditions demanded by him being that all attempts of James to obtain See also:parliamentary recognition of his See also:title should cease, that an See also:absolute respect should be paid to the queen's feelings, and that the communications should remain a profound secret. See also:Writing later in the reign of James, Cecil says: " If Her Majesty had known all I did, how well these (? she) should have known the innocency and constancy of my See also:present faith, yet her See also:age and orbity, joined to the See also:jealousy of her See also:sex, might have moved her to think See also:ill of that which helped to preserve her."' Such was the nature of these secret communications, which, while they aimed at securing for Cecil a fresh See also:lease of power in the new reign, conferred undoubted advantages on the country. Owing to Cecil's See also:action, on the death of Elizabeth on the 24th of See also:March 16o3, James was proclaimed See also:king, and took See also:possession of the throne without opposition. Cecil was continued in his See also:office, was created See also:Baron Cecil of Essendon in Rutlandshire on the 13th of May, See also:Viscount Cranborne on the loth of August 1604, and earl of Salisbury on the 4th of May x6o5. He was elected chancellor of the University of Cambridge in See also:February 1601, and obtained the Garter in May 16o6. Meanwhile Cecil's success had completed the discontent of Raleigh, who, exasperated at his dismissal from the captaincy of the guard, became involved —whether innocently or not is uncertain—in the treasonable See also:conspiracy known as the " Bye See also:Plot." Cecil took a leading See also:part in his trial in See also:July 1603, and, though probably convinced of his See also:guilt, endeavoured to ensure him a See also:fair trial and rebuked the See also:attorney-See also:general, Sir See also:Edward See also:Coke, for his harshness towards the prisoner. On the 6th of May 16o8 the office of lord treasurer was added to Salisbury's other appointments, and the whole conduct of public affairs was placed solely in his hands. His real policy is not always easy to distinguish, for the king constantly interfered, and Cecil, far from holding any absolute or continuous See also:control, was often not even an adviser but merely a follower, simulating approval of schemes opposed to his real See also:judgment. In See also:foreign affairs his aim was to preserve the See also:balance of power between France and Spain, and to secure the See also:independence of the Netherlands from either state. He also hoped, like his father, to make See also:England the See also:head of the See also:Protestant alliance abroad; and his last energies were expended in effecting the See also:marriage in 1612 of the princess Elizabeth, James's daughter, with the Elector See also:Palatine. He was in favour of peace, preoccupied with the state of the finances at home and the decreasing See also:revenue, and, though sharing Raleigh's dislike of Spain, was instrumental in making the treaty with that power in 1604.

In June 1607 he promised the support of the See also:

government to the merchants who complained of See also:Spanish ill-usage, but declared that the See also:commons must not meddle with questions of peace and See also:war. In 1611 he disapproved of the proposed marriage between the See also:prince of See also:Wales and the Infanta. His See also:bias against Spain and his fidelity to the See also:national interests render, therefore, his See also:acceptance of a See also:pension from Spain a surprising incident in his career. At the conclusion of the peace in 1604 the sum Cecil received was £r000, which was raised the following year to £1500; while in 1609 he demanded an See also:augmentation and to be paid for each piece of See also:information separately. If; as has been stated,' he received a pension also from France, it is not improbable that, like his contemporary Bacon, who accepted presents from suitors on both sides and still gave an See also:independent See also:decree, Cecil may have maintained a freedom from corrupting influences, while his acceptance of See also:money as the See also:price of information concerning the intentions of the government may have formed 1 Correspondence of King James VI. of Scotland with Sir R. Cecil, ed. by J. See also:Bruce (See also:Camden See also:Soc., 1861), p. xl. 2 See also:Gardiner, See also:History of England, i. 214. part of a general policy of cultivating See also:good relations with the two great rivals of England (one See also:advantage of which was the communication of plots formed against the government), and of maintaining the balance of power between them. It is difficult, however, in the See also:absence of See also:complete information, to understand the exact nature and signification of these See also:strange relations. As lord treasurer Salisbury showed considerable See also:financial ability.

During the year preceding his acceptance of that office the See also:

expenditure had risen to £500,000, leaving, with an See also:ordinary revenue of about £320,000 and the subsidies voted by parliament, a yearly deficit of £73,000. Lord Salisbury took advantage of the decision by the See also:judges in the court of See also:exchequer in See also:Bates's See also:case in favour of the king's right to See also:levy impositions; and (on the 28th of July 16o8) imposed new duties on articles of luxury and those of foreign manufacture which competed with English goods, while lowering the dues on currants and See also:tobacco. By this measure, and by a more careful collection, the ordinary income was raised to £460,000, while £700,000 was paid off the See also:debt, leaving at the beginning of 1610 the sum of £300,000. This was a substantial reform, and if, as has been stated, the " See also:total result of Salisbury's financial See also:administration " was " the halving of the debt at the cost of doubling the deficiency," ' the failure to secure a permanent improvement must be ascribed to the extravagance of James, who, disregarding his minister's entreaties and See also:advice, continued to exceed his income by £149,000. But a want of statesmanship had been shown by Salisbury in forcing the king's legal right to levy impositions against the remonstrances of the parliament. In the " great See also:contract," the See also:scheme now put forward by Salisbury for settling the finances, his lack of See also:political See also:wisdom was still more apparent. The Commons were to See also:guarantee a fixed See also:annual See also:subsidy, on See also:condition of the abandonment of impositions and of the redress of grievances by the king. An unworthy and undignified See also:system of higgling and haggling was initiated between the See also:crown and the parliament. Salisbury could only attribute the See also:miscarriage of his scheme to the fact " that See also:God did not bless it." But Bacon regarded it with severe disapproval, and in the parliament of 1613, after the treasurer's death, he begged the king to abandon these humiliating and dangerous bargainings, " that your majesty do for this parliament put off the See also:person of a See also:merchant and contractor and See also:rest upon the person of a king." In fact, the vicious principle was introduced that a redress of grievances could only be obtained by a See also:payment of subsidies. The identity of interests between the crown and the nation which had made the reign of Elizabeth so glorious, and which she herself had consummated on the occasion of her last public See also:appearance by a See also:free and voluntary concession of these same impositions, was now destroyed, and a divergence of interests, made patent by vulgar bargaining, was substituted which stimulated the disastrous struggle between See also:sovereign and See also:people, and paralysed the national development for two generations. This was scarcely a See also:time to expect any favours for the See also:Roman Catholics, but Salisbury, while fear'ng that the Roman See also:Church in England would become a danger to the state, had always been averse from See also:prosecution for religi ,n, and he attempted to distinguish between the large See also:body of See also:law-abiding and loyal Roman Catholics and those connected with plots and intrigues against the throne and government, making the offer in See also:October 1607 that if the See also:pope would excommunicate those that rebelled against the king and oblige them to defend him against invasion, the fines for recusancy would be remitted and they would be allowed to keep priests in their houses. This was a fair measure of See also:toleration.

His want of true statesmanship was shown with regard to the Protestant Nonconformists, towards whom his attitude was identical with that afterwards maintained by See also:

Laud, and the same ideal pursued, namely that of material and outward conformity, Salisbury employing almost the same words as the See also:archbishop later, that " unity in belief cannot be preserved unless it is to be found in See also:worship."2 Bacon's disparaging estimate of his See also:cousin and See also:rival was See also:Spedding, See also:Life and Letters of Bacon, iv. 276. 2 Gardiner, History of England, i. 199.probably tinged with some See also:personal animus; and instigated by the See also:hope of recommending himself to James as his successor; but there is little doubt that his acute and penetrating description of Salisbury to James as one " See also:fit to prevent things from growing worse but not fit to make them better," as one " greater in operation than in opere," is a true one.3 Elsewhere Bacon accuses him " of an artificial animating of the negative " —in See also:modern See also:language, of official obstruction and " red tape." But in one instance at least, when he advised James not to See also:press forward too hastily the See also:union of England and Scotland, a measure which especially appealed to Bacon's See also:imagination and was ardently desired by him, Salisbury showed a prudence and judgment See also:superior to his illustrious critic. It can scarcely be denied that he rendered substantial services to the state in times of great difficulty and perplexity, and these services would probably have been greater and more permanent had he served a better king and in more propitious times. Both Elizabeth and James found a See also:security in Salisbury's See also:calm good sense, safe, orderly official mind and See also:practical experience of business, of which there was no guarantee in the restlessness of Essex, the enterprise of Raleigh or the See also:speculation of Bacon. On the other See also:hand, he was neither guided nor inspired by any great principle or ideal, he contributed nothing towards the See also:settlement of the great national problems, and he precipitated by his ill-advised action the disastrous struggle between crown and parliament. Lord Salisbury died on the 24th of May 1612, at the parsonage house at See also:Marlborough, while returning to See also:London from taking the See also:waters at See also:Bath. During his See also:long political career he had amassed a large See also:fortune, besides inheriting a considerable portion of Lord Burghley's landed See also:estate. In 1607 he exchanged, at the king's See also:request, his estate of Theobalds in Hertfordshire for See also:Hatfield. Here he built the magnificent house of which he himself conceived the plans and the See also:design, but which he did not live to inhabit, its completion almost coinciding with his death. In person and figure he was in strange contrast with his rivals at court, being diminutive in stature, ill-formed and weak in See also:health.

Elizabeth styled him her See also:

pygmy; his enemies delighted in vilifying his " wry See also:neck," " crooked back " and " splay See also:foot," and in Bacon's See also:essay on " Deformity," it was said, " the See also:world takes See also:notice that he paints out his little cousin to the life."' Molin, the Venetian See also:ambassador in England, gives a similar description of his person, but adds that he had " a See also:noble countenance and features."6 Lord Salisbury wrote The State and Dignitie of a Secretaire of Estate's See also:Place (publ. 1642, reprinted in Harleian See also:Miscellany, ii. and See also:Somers Tracts (1809), v.; see also Harleian See also:MSS. 305 and 354), and An See also:Answer to Certain Scandalous Papers scattered abroad under See also:Colour of a Catholick Admonition (16o6), justifying his attitude towards recusants after the See also:discovery of the See also:Gun-See also:powder Plot (Hari. Misc. ii.; Somers Tracts, v.). He married Elizabeth, daughter of William See also:Brooke, 5th Baron See also:Cobham, by whom, besides one daughter, he had William (1591-1668), his successor as 2nd earl. No complete life of Robert Cecil has been attempted, but the materials for it are very extensive, including Hist. MSS. See also:Comm. See also:Series, See also:Marquis of Salisbury's MSS. (superseding former reports in the series), from which MSS. selections were published in 1740 by S. Haynes, by Wm. Murdin in 1759, by John Bruce, in The Correspondence of King James VI. with Sir Robert Cecil, in 1861 (Camden Society), and by Ed.

See also:

Lodge, in Illustrations of English History, in 1838. The 2nd earl of 'Salisbury, who sided with the parliament during the See also:Civil War and represented his party in negotiations with the king at See also:Uxbridge and at See also:Newport, was succeeded by his See also:grandson James (1648-1683) as 3rd earl. James's descendant, James, the 7th earl (1748-1823), who was lord See also:chamberlain of the royal See also:household from 1783 to 1804, was created See also:marquess of Salisbury in 1789. ' His son and successor, James Brownlow William, the 2nd marquess (1791-1868), married Frances See also:Mary, daughter of Bamber Gascoyne of Childwall Hall, See also:Lancashire, and took the name of Gascoyne before that of Cecil. He was lord privy See also:seal in 1852 and lord See also:president of the council in 1858-1859; his son and See also:heir was the famous See also:prime minister. Spedding, Life and Letters of Bacon, iv. 278 See also:note, 279. ' Chamberlain to See also:Carleton, See also:Birch's Court of King James, i. 214. 2 Cal. of State Papers: Venetian, x. 515.

End of Article: SALISBURY, ROBERT CECIL, 1ST EARL OF (c. 1565-1612)

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