A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Burleigh, Lady Mildred
BURLEIGH, LADY MILDRED,
Eldest daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, and sister of Anne Bacon, was born at Milton, in 1526. Her education was carefully superintended by her father, and she learned to read and write the Greek and Latin languages with ease and elegance. On presenting the Bible, in Hebrew and other languages, to the University of Cambridge, she sent with it an epistle in Greek of her own composition.
In 1546 she married Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, lord high-treasurer of England, privy-counseller to Queen Elizabeth, and Knight of the Garter.
Lady Burleigh was very happy in her long marriage of forty-two years; she died, April 4th, 1589, deeply regretted by her husband, who lost in her not only an amiable wife, but a friend whom he had been accustomed to consult on the most important occasions, and whose judgment and knowledge in state affairs was little inferior to his own. She was buried in Westminster Abbey.
After her decease, Lord Burleigh diverted his sorrow by composing "Meditations" on his irreparable loss, in which, after expressing his high sense of the admirable virtues of his wife, he enumerates her acts of beneficence and liberality, many of which had, during her life, been carefully concealed from himself.