Book review: Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I

Published on Friday 20 June 2008 17:20

BURGHLEY: WILLIAM CECIL AT THE COURT OF ELIZABETH I Stephen Alford Yale University Press, £25

FOR most of us, William Cecil was the archetypal civil servant; Sir Humphrey to his fingertips. But Stephen Alford lets us know that we are in for a much more exciting tale: "The world into which William Cecil was born was one he would later help to tear to pieces bit by bit."

His father was a minor landowner in Lincolnshire, although as a yeoman of Henry VIII's wardrobe he was usually absent on royal business. William Cecil attended school in Radcliffe, where he was taught by the local priest. He later joined the college of St John's in Cambridge, where he witnessed Henry's Reformation. By 1540 he was a lawyer at Gray's Inn living, as all lawyers did, by his wits, and by 1547 had entered the household of the Earl of Somerset.

Cecil fought with him at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh during Somerset's campaign of fire, murder, and destruction, but, bizarrely, Alford refers to this savage invasion of Scotland as delivering "a message of friendship, religion and British unity" – a curious lapse in an otherwise even-handed book.

Despite a period in the Tower after Somerset's fall, Cecil was to become known as "the most witty counsellor within this realm" and was accepted into the councils of Mary Tudor. By 1558 Mary was dead and Cecil was Secretary to the Protestant Elizabeth Tudor.

Cecil's greatest concerns were for the stability of England, followed by the welfare of the Queen, and the maintenance of the Protestant religion. Added to these tasks was his loving and affectionate care for his family, and Alford gives us a dramatic story of a man almost broken under the weight of duty. He was meticulous in thought, examining every possibility before taking action and writing countless memoranda to himself.

When Elizabeth was ill, he even wrote a proposal for a republic ruled by a council of regents – anything to prevent the accession of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. He brought off the almost impossible trick of forcing Elizabeth – one of the greatest prevaricators in history – to take action against Mary.

This is a scholarly, readable and affectionate biography of one of Britain's greatest politicians. Burghley would have put careful ticks in most of the margins.