il, he was made a secretary of state and
sworn of the privy council. In 1571 he was created Lord Burghley, and
from 1572, when he was given the Garter, he was lord high treasurer and
principal minister to Queen Elizabeth. By his first wife, Mary Cheke,
sister of the scholar Sir John Cheke, tutor to Edward VI., he was father
to Thomas, first earl of Exeter. By a second wife, Mildred Cooke, the
most learned lady of her time, he had an only surviving son, Robert
Cecil, ancestor of the house of Salisbury.

Created earl of Exeter by James I., the second Lord Burghley was more
soldier than statesman, and from his death to the present day the elder
line of the Cecils has taken small part in public affairs. William
Cecil, 2nd earl of Exeter, took as his first wife the Lady Roos,
daughter and heir of the 3rd earl of Rutland of the Manners family. The
son of this marriage inherited the barony of Roos as heir general, and
died as a Roman Catholic at Naples in 1618 leaving no issue. A third son
of the 1st earl was Edward Cecil, a somewhat incompetent military
commander, created in 1625 Lord Cecil of Putney and Viscount Wimbledon,
titles that died with him in 1638, although he was thrice married. In
1801 a marquessate was given to the 10th earl of Exeter, the story of
whose marriage with Sarah Hoggins, daughter of a Shropshire husbandman,
has been refined by Tennyson into the romance of "The Lord of Burleigh."
This elder line is still seated at Burghley, the great mansion built by
their ancestor, the first lord.

The younger or Hatfield line was founded by Robert Cecil, the only
surviving son of the great Burghley's second marriage. As a secretary of
state he followed in his father's steps, and on the death of Elizabeth
he may be said to have secured the accession of King James, who created
him Lord Cecil of Essendine (1603), Viscount Cranborne (1604), and earl
of Salisbury (1605). Forced by the king to exchange his house of
Theobalds for Hatfield, he died in 1612, worn out with incessant labour,
before he could inhabit the house which he built upon his new
Hertfordshire estate. Of Burghley and his son Salisbury, "great
ministers of state in the eyes of Christendom," Clarendon writes that
"their wisdom and virtues died with them." The 2nd earl of Salisbury, "a
man of no words, except in hunting and hawking," was at first remarked
for his obsequiousness to the court party, but taking no part in the
Civil War came at last to sit in t