[9][10] John Strype lauded her ability to speak Greek as easily as English,[1] and Roger Ascham, tutor to the future Elizabeth I, ranked Mildred Cooke and her sisters alongside Lady Jane Grey for their erudition.

[9] She had charge of her children's education, as well as that of the various royal wards for whom her husband was responsible, including Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, whom her daughter Anne eventually married.

[9] The Burghley household was one in which learning was valued:[12] Unlike Dudley [Cecil] was a scholar, a lover of books, and a man of great intellectual curiosity.

He and his wife Mildred...had their children tutored to a high degree of erudition, and in their house Classical studies, philosophy and science, and at least certain kinds of poetry and music could seek refuge.

As the wife of the queen's chief adviser, Lady Burghley exercised influence in various ways, a circumstance that was recognized by the Spanish ambassador Guzman da Silva in 1567.

She has great influence with her husband, and no doubt discusses the matter with him; but she appears a much more furious heretic than he is.In 1560 three Scottish leaders corresponded with her regarding the Treaty of Edinburgh then being negotiated.

[1] One that is extant is her translation dating from about 1550, circulated in manuscript, of Basil the Great's sermon on Deuteronomy, which she dedicated to Anne, Duchess of Somerset,[18] in whose household she had served before her marriage.

She was buried with her daughter, Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford, in Westminster Abbey, where an enormous Corinthian tomb 24 feet high was erected.

A long Latin inscription composed by Lord Burghley describes his eyes dim with tears for those who were dear to him beyond the whole race of womankind.