For He
Achieved It, But With Much Pains And Carefulness, And Not Without
The Forces And Many Jealousies Of The
Court and times, wherewith the
Queen's age and the malignity of her settling times were replete.
And so I come
To his dear friend in court, Secretary Cecil, whom, in
his long absence, he adored as his saint, and counted him his only
MECENAS, both before and after his departure from court, and during
all the time of his command in Ireland; well knowing that it lay in
his power, and by a word of his mouth, to make or mar him.
ROBERT CECIL.
Sir Robert Cecil, since Earl of Salisbury, was the son of the Lord
Burleigh, and, by degrees, successor of his places and favours,
though not of his lands; for he had Sir Thomas Cecil, his elder
brother, since created Earl of Exeter; he was first Secretary of
State, then Master of the Court of Wards, and, in the last of her
reign, came to be Lord Treasurer: all which were the steps of his
father's greatness, and of the honour he left to his house. For his
person, he was not much beholden to Nature, though somewhat for his
face, which was the best part of his outside: for his inside, it
may be said, and without offence, that he was his father's own son,
and a pregnant precedent in all his discipline of state: he was a
courtier from his cradle, which might have made him betimes; but he
was at the age of twenty and upwards, and was far short of his
after-proof, but exposed, and by change of climate he soon made show
what he was and would be.
He lived in those times wherein the Queen had most need and use of
men of weight; and, amongst many able ones, this was chief, as
having taken his sufficiency from his instruction who begat him, the
tutorship of the times and court, which were then academies of Art
and Cunning. For such was the Queen's condition, from the tenth or
twelfth of her reign, that she had the happiness to stand up,
whereof there is a former intimation, environed with many and more
enemies, and assaulted with more dangerous practices, than any
prince of her times, and of many ages before: where we must not, in
this her preservation, attribute it to human power, for that in his
own omnipotent providence God ordained those secondary means, as
instruments of the work, by an evident manifestation of the same
work, which she acted; and it was a well-pleasing work of his own,
out of a peculiar care he had decreed the protection of the work-
mistress, and, thereunto, added his abundant blessing upon all and
whatsoever she undertook: which is an observation of satisfaction
to myself, that she was in the right; though, to others now
breathing under the same form and frame of her government, it may
not seem an animadversion of their worth: but I leave them to the
peril of their own folly, and so come again to this great minister
of state and the staff of the Queen's declining age; who, though his
little crooked person could not promise any great supportation, yet
it carried thereon a head and a head-piece of a vast content; and
therein, it seems, Nature was so diligent to complete one and the
best part about him, as the perfection of his memory and
intellectuals; she took care also of his senses, and to put him in
LYNCEOS OCULOS, or, to pleasure him the more, borrowed of Argos, so
to give unto him a prospective sight; and, for the rest of his
sensitive virtues, his predecessor, Walsingham, had left him a
receipt to smell out what was done in the conclave.
And his good old father was so well seen in mathematics, that he
could tell you, throughout Spain, every part, every port, every
ship, with its burden; whither bound, what preparations, what
impediments for diversion of enterprises, counsel, and resolution;
and, that we may see, as in a little map, how docible this little
man was, I will present a taste of his abilities.
My Lord of Devonshire, upon certainty that the Spaniards would
invade Ireland with a strong army, had written very earnestly to the
Queen and to the Council for such supplies to be timely sent over,
that might enable him both to march up to the Spaniard, if he did
land, and follow on his prosecution without diverting his intentions
against the rebels. Sir Robert Cecil, besides the general dispatch
of the Council (as he often did) writ thus in private, for these two
then began to love dearly:
"My lord, out of the abundance of my affection, and the care I have
of your well-doing, I must in private put you out of doubt or fear,
for I know you cannot be sensible, otherwise than in the way of
honour, that the Spaniards will not come unto you this year; for I
have it from my own, what his preparations are in all his parts, and
what he can do; for, be confident, he beareth up a reputation, by
seeming to embrace more than he can gripe; but, the next year, be
assured, he will cast over to you some forlorn troops, which, how
they may be reinforced beyond his present ability, and his first
intention, I cannot, as yet, make any certain judgment; but I
believe, out of my intelligence, that you may expect the landing in
Munster, and, the more to distract you, in several places, as, at
Kinsale, Beerhaven, and Baltimore; where, you may be sure, coming
from sea, they will first fortify, and learn the strength of the
rebels, before they dare take the field. Howsoever, as I know you
will not lessen your care, neither your defences, whatsoever lies in
my power to do you and the public service, rest thereof assured."
And to this I could add much more, but it may (as it is) suffice to
present much of his abilities in the pen, that he was his crafts-
master in foreign intelligence, and for domestic affairs.
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