The first Cecils. (Books About Antiques).('Patronage, Culture and Power: The Early Cecils')

The cover of this collection of essays about the first Cecils shows William Cecil, Lord Burghley astride a small mule. This was one of the few recreations he allowed himself while in the lifelong service of Elizabeth I as, successively, secretary of state, master of the wards, and lord treasurer. As Cecil's secretary John Clapham later wrote: "in matters of counsel, nothing for the most part was done without him, for that nothing was thought well done whereof he was not the contriver and director."

At the age of seventy, when Cecil longed to retire to ride his mule and spend a day or two in a small house on the grounds of Theobalds, his grand showplace, he organized an elaborate conceit to broach the idea to the queen. On May 10, 1591, she came to visit Theobalds and was greeted by an actor dressed as a hermit who presented Cecil's case. According to the scripted fiction, Cecil had changed places with the hermit, who begs the queen to reverse the situation, since the hermit longed to return to his solitude. The hermit complains that he has come into conflict with Cecil's son Robert, who is prepared to run the house himself, if only the queen permits it.

The queen replied by producing a mock charter, complete with seal, granting the hermits request, yet enjoining William Cecil to resume his role as master of Theobalds and Elizabeth's indispensable adviser. Implicitly, Robert is passed over as his father's successor.

On the queen's visit to Theobalds in 1594, the same hermit again pleads the case for Cecil's retirement, describing his sorry condition: "When his body being laden with yeares, oppressed with sicknes, having spent his strength for public service, desireth to be ridd of worldly cares, by ending his dayes; your Majestie, with a band of princely kindness, even when he is most greviosly sicke, and lowest brought, holdes him back and ransometh him." This time the queen ignored the playlet, keeping Cecil busy almost until his death in 1598.

One of the chief reasons Cecil wished to retire was the death in 1589 of his beloved second wife, Lady Mildred, Robert's mother, whom he had married in 1545. An outstanding linguist, she spoke Greek fluently and was one of the finest Greek scholars in England. She also evidently read Latin and French, to judge by works in the notable library she assembled, which even included medical texts by Galen and others. She had a weakness for fine clothes and being a vigorous lady, she enjoyed hawking, shooting the long bow, and making the trip from Theobalds to Westminster, a dozen miles away on horseback.

Burghley House, Theobalds, Hatfield House, and a solid power base in Westminster in London, all erected by William or Robert Cecil, were meant to anchor and solidify their status as "the most powerful political family in England between 1558 and 1612," this being the span of years treated in this book. During this Tudor time ...