Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC (1 June 1563 – 24 May 1612) was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603).

[3] Living in an age which attached much importance to physical beauty in both sexes, he endured much ridicule as a result: Queen Elizabeth I called him "my pygmy", and King James I nicknamed him "my little beagle".

In 1608, Frances Cecil caught the eye of King James I's daughter Elizabeth and she made Sir John Harington write to Salisbury to invite her to join her household.

[10] Following the death of Sir Francis Walsingham in 1590, Burghley acted as Secretary of State, while Cecil took on an increasingly heavy work-load.

[13] In 1597, he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in February 1598 dispatched on a mission to Henry IV of France, to prevent the impending alliance between that country and Spain.

Cecil and Herbert lodged at a house of the Duke of Montpensier in Paris, and subsequently travelled south to meet the French king at Angers in March.

[1] Cecil fell into dispute with the 2nd Earl of Essex, and only prevailed at Court upon the latter's poor campaign against the Irish rebels during the Nine Years War in 1599.

Lord Essex's unsuccessful rebellion in 1601, which resulted in his final downfall and death, was largely aimed at Sir Robert Cecil, as he then was, who was to be removed from power and impeached.

An understanding was now effected by which Cecil was able to assure James of his succession, ensure his own power and predominance in the new reign against Sir Walter Raleigh and other competitors, and secure the tranquillity of the last years of Elizabeth.

Cecil demanded as conditions that James stop his attempts to obtain parliamentary recognition of his title, that absolute respect should be paid to the queen's feelings, and that the communications should remain a secret.

[24] Though they were found guilty and sentenced to death, both Cobham and Raleigh were eventually reprieved; this may have been due in part to Cecil's pleas for mercy, although the King kept his intentions a secret until the last minute.

Between 1603 and 1604 difficult negotiations with the Spanish delegation took place, but through Cecil's determined statesmanship the treaty bought an "honourable and advantageous" peace for England.

Cecil, who had endured a lifetime of jibes about his height (even Queen Elizabeth had called him "pygmy" and "little man"; he had a curvature of the spine and was barely 5 feet (1.5 m) tall), is unlikely to have found the joke funny, while the crushing weight of business with which the King duly loaded him probably hastened his death at the age of 48.

[32] Cecil did hope, like his father, to make England the head of the international Protestant alliance, and his last energies were expended in effecting the marriage in 1612 of the princess Elizabeth, James's daughter, with Frederick, the Elector Palatine.

[11]: 76  Still, he was averse to prosecution for religion, and attempted to distinguish between the large body of law-abiding and loyal Catholics and those connected with plots against the throne and government.

The Nine Years' War there had ended with the leader of the rebels, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, submitting to the Crown and being restored to his estates, following the Treaty of Mellifont (1603).

[11]: 77 In 1610–11, Salisbury worked hard to persuade Parliament to enact the Great Contract, under which the King would give up all his feudal and customary sources of revenue (wardship and purveyance) in return for a fixed annual income of approximately £300,000.

[36] The project was one to which Salisbury attached great importance, but the House of Commons eventually lost interest in the plan,[37] and Francis Bacon argued against it, calling it humiliating.

This was a double blow to Lord Salisbury, who was sick and prematurely aged, and conscious that the King now increasingly preferred the company of his male favourites, like The 1st Earl of Somerset.

Both monarchs were notoriously heavy drinkers, and according to some of those present, the occasion was simply an orgy of drunkenness, as few English or Danish courtiers had their rulers' capacity to hold their drink.

According to Harrington, who may have been mischievously fictionalising,[43][44] the masque put on to honour the two kings was a drunken fiasco: "the entertainment and show went forward, and most of the players went backward, or fell down, wine did so occupy their upper chambers".

[47] The Cecil family fostered arts: they supported musicians such as William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Robinson,[48] and the Irish harper and composer Cormac MacDermott.

[50] In poor health and worn out by years of overwork, Salisbury, in the spring of 1612, went on a journey to take the waters at Bath in hope of a cure; but he obtained little relief.

He started on the journey home but died of cancer,[51] "in great pain and even greater wretchedness of mind",[51] at Marlborough, Wiltshire, on 24 May 1612, a week short of his 49th birthday.