THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY
Walker & Boutall, photo. McQueen, Sc.
The Great
Lord Burghley
A STUDY IN ELIZABETHAN
STATECRAFT BY
MARTIN A. S. HUME
Author of “The Courtships of QueenElizabeth,” Editor of the Calendars of SpanishState Papers (Public Record Office)
“He can never be a good statesman whorespecteth not the public more than his ownprivate advantage.”—Lord Burghley
London
JAMES NISBET & CO., LIMITED
21 BERNERS STREET
1898
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
TO THE MOST HONOURABLE
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, K.G.
THIRD MARQUIS OF SALISBURY
PRIME MINISTER OF QUEEN VICTORIA,
THIS ATTEMPT AT A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY OFHIS ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTOR, THE PRIMEMINISTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH,
is respectfully dedicated by
MARTIN A. S. HUME.
INTRODUCTION
For nearly half a century William Cecil, Lord Burghley,exercised greater influence over the future fortunes ofEngland than ever fell to the share of a statesman beforeor since. It was a period when Mediæval Europe was inthe melting-pot, from which, in due season, some of herpeoples were to arise bright and shining, with fresh faiths,higher ideals, and nobler aspirations, to start on a newcareer of civilisation; whilst others were still to clinga while longer to the garb of dross which remainedof the old order, and was to hamper them in the timesto come.
How England should emerge from the welter of theold tides and the new, depended to some extent upon providentialcircumstances, but more largely still upon thepersonal characteristics of those who guided her nationalpolicy and that of her competitors. Never was nationmore favoured in this respect than was England at thiscrisis of the world’s history. The conditions of theQueen’s birth compelled her to embrace the cause ofreligious freedom, whilst her intellect, her sex, and herversatility enabled her during a long course of years successfullyto play off one continental rival against another,until she was strong enough openly to grasp and hold thebalance. But withal, her vanity, her fickleness, the follyand greed of her favourites, or