(Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, makes frequent, if somewhat ghostly, appearances in the contemporary mystery Stealing Tomorrow’s Thunder by Tony Thistlewood. But why does Robert discuss Shakespeare, particularly Hamlet, with Rosalind Parsons? And what is it that provokes his lordship’s appearances – a dream, a hypnotic trance – or perhaps there is a valid reason, more mysterious yet more earthly, behind the Earl of Salisbury’s baffling visitations.)
Queen Elizabeth I called Robert Cecil her “pygmy”, while King James I/VI referred to him as his “elf”.
It is rather sad that the gifted and intelligent younger son of Lord Burghley should be so childishly maligned by those who owed him so much. True, he was small in stature and had a hunched back and twisted spine, and so some who didn’t know him assumed that his nature was also twisted. It was not, of course. Indeed, an ambassador once wrote that, despite his deformities, his lordship was noble in both countenance and manner.
Robert Cecil, the 1st Earl of Salisbury, was the principal political architect of the smooth transition from the Tudor dynasty to the Stuart. During the years of planning and intriguing that it took for this change to happen so seamlessly, Cecil completely outplayed the elegant and ambitious Sir Walter Raleigh who tried in vain to promote Arbella Stuart as Queen Elizabeth’s successor.
Even so, Lord Salisbury was not popular with the people. It didn’t help when two of Shakespeare’s plays, Richard III and Henry VI Part III, both portrayed King Richard III as a hunchback. Theatregoers immediately associated the description with Robert Cecil, and so he became a deformed monster in their eyes. (The descriptions in both plays are quoted in the contemporary novel, Stealing Tomorrow's Thunder by Tony Thistlewood).
Although the abilities of Robert Earl of Salisbury were highly respected, he was not particularly popular at Court either. For example, Robert’s less conspicuous elder half-brother, Thomas Cecil, was created a Knight of the Garter in 1601 – five years before his more illustrious sibling, Robert. In addition to the reigning monarch and the Prince of Wales, there are only twenty-four members of the Order of the Garter at any one time. When a vacancy occurs, usually through death, the remaining members of the Order vote for a replacement although the monarch may overturn their choice and appoint someone else. It seems that no one was in a hurry to elect poor Robert Cecil.
Fortunately for England, Robert Cecil had enormous strength of character, great courage and much determination, which not only allowed him to overcame his unpopularity and his deformities but also to serve his sovereigns and his country exceptionally well.
If some of the more salacious rumours about the Queen’s pygmy can be believed, Robert Cecil was more popular with the ladies than with his fellow male courtiers. After his wife died in 1596, he allegedly had affairs with two noblewomen at Court: Kathryn Countess of Suffolk and Lady (Audrey) Walsingham.
Kathryn Knyvett was the wife of Thomas Howard, the Lord Chamberlain and a younger son of the ill-fated Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. Kathryn was a beauty by all accounts, but was sadly struck down by small pox that ruined her good looks although it spared her life. After this tragedy, she apparently became so desperate for attention that she resorted to the Queen’s pygmy for solace. Why not, he was not without charm... and power. What makes this story even more surprising is the fact that Kathryn’s husband, Thomas Earl of Suffolk, was one of Robert Cecil’s few close friends. Not only that, but Cecil’s son, William, married Thomas’s daughter, Catherine! Family gatherings must have been rather interesting!
On the other hand, little is known about Lady (Audrey) Walsingham. She was the wife of Sir Thomas Walsingham, a cousin once removed to Sir Francis Walsingham. Audrey became Mistress of the Wardrobe to Queen Anne, King James’s Danish wife.
The rumours of these romances, if that is what they were, continued after Robert Cecil’s death in 1612 through satirical verses such as:
Oh ladies, ladies howl and cry,
For
you have lost your Salisbur-eye,
Come with your tears, bedew his
locks,
Death killed him not, for ’twas the pox.
It was not true, of course. Robert Cecil died from scurvy not the pox… or so it was claimed.
Snapshot Bio of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Date
of Birth:
Parents:
Date of Death:
Married:
Houses:
Salisbury House, London.
You can read about Robert Cecil's ghostly appearances in the novel
Stealing
Tomorrow's Thunder
by clicking on this link:
Back to Home from Robert Cecil
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