William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC (28 March 1591 – 3 December 1668), known as Viscount Cranborne from 1605 to 1612, was an English peer, nobleman, and politician.

[1] In January 1600 Queen Elizabeth gave him a coat, a girdle and dagger, a hat with a feather, and a jewel to wear on it.

[2] He was educated at Sherborne School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he started his terms in 1602, at age eleven.

In 1608, aged 17, Cranborne's father sent him to France, but quickly recalled him to England to marry Catherine, the daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk in December 1608.

[1] His father was determined that Cranborne should spend two years living abroad, and instructed him to return to France following his marriage.

[1] He also made Hatfield House a cultural centre, serving as patron for painter Peter Lely, musician Nicholas Lanier, and gardener John Tradescant the elder.

[1] This decision was influenced by several facts: two of his sons had sided with the parliamentarians during the English Civil War; Parliament voted to indemnify Salisbury's friend Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke for his losses during the war; and several of his close friends, especially Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland (his son-in-law) had sided with Parliament.

[1] His mental faculties apparently failed in his last years: Samuel Pepys, observing him at church in October 1664, called him "my simple Lord Salisbury".