Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury, was small in stature. He suffered from scoliosis and was physically frail. Following in the footsteps of his father he devoted himself to the service of the crown, yet, he is described as an 'archetypal, shadowy, creepy man' operating quietly, but dangerously in the shadows.
Edward Hogg as Robert Cecil in 2011 film Anonymous.
Baptised at St Clement Danes Church in London on the 6th June 1563, he was the only son of William Cecil and his second wife Mildred Cook. He entered parliament in 1534, and very quickly established himself, but was not as popular, but would go on to be a successful politician and an administrator who took over his father's role in government when he became too ill to do the job himself. In 1596, Cecil became Elizabeth's secretary and out-maneuvered her favourite Robert Devereux in what history calls the Essex's Rebellion. Cecil successfully quashed the rebellion and the Earl of Essex along with it, thus eliminating any rivals to his position as the queen's minister. He would be responsible for the smooth transfer of the crown to James VI of Scotland on Elizabeth's death in 1603.
On the succession of the Scottish king, as James I, to the English throne, he temporarily lost influence as James had been a supporter of Essex, but the king came to trust and rely on Cecil, eventually calling him his 'little beagle'. In 1605, Cecil quashed yet another uprising - the Gunpower Plot, although it is thought that it was Cecil who instigated it, with the aim to convince James that he should not trust those of the Catholic persuasion.
As well as being immersed in political intrigue, Cecil was a dab hand at entertaining, he welcomed both Elizabeth and James to his home. He had an eye for the arts, he liked collecting paintings and even swapped one of his homes for one of the kings.
As well as being immersed in political intrigue, Cecil was a dab hand at entertaining, he welcomed both Elizabeth and James to his home. He had an eye for the arts, he liked collecting paintings and even swapped one of his homes for one of the kings.
However, the burden of work eventually wore him down when in the spring of 1612, he complained of being "in great pain and even greater wretchedness of mind" and following a trip to take the waters in the town of Bath, he died of cancer on the 24th of May in 16 at Marlborough in Wiltshire. He was not yet forty-nine.
Cecil was buried in St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield in Herefordshire, and lays beneath an elaborate tomb.
It is highly likely that Shakespeare was referring to Robert Cecil, as the unpopular hunchback when he was writing his play Richard III, and this is captured very well in the 2011 film Anonymous where he is portrayed as a small dark creature, underhand, and skulking about the Elizabethan corridors.
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