airs of a bountiful sovereign, and perhaps they shared in their patron's contempt for Cecil's cool head and provoking self-command. It is small wonder if this man of thirty-five, watching the queen growing old and knowing himself to be unloved, should at times have been oppressed by a sense of loneliness, and should have written in a cynical tone to Sir John Harrington: ‘Good knight, rest content, and give heed to one that hath sorrowed in the bright lustre of a court, and gone heavily even on the best-seeming fair ground. I know it bringeth little comfort on earth, and he is, I reckon, no wise man that looketh this way to heaven.’
After the dissolution of the parliament in February 1598 no new parliament was summoned till October 1601. Meanwhile Essex was removed out of Cecil's path by being sent to Ireland. In September 1599 Essex suddenly presented himself before the queen without having previously obtained any leave of absence from his province. Such an offence could not be passed over. On 5 June 1600 the earl was brought before eighteen commissioners, numbering among them the chief officers of the state, whose business it was to report upon his misconduct. Cecil was among the commissioners, of course, and it was through his discreet intercession and the courtesy and forbearance which he displayed that the earl was allowed his liberty, though still forbidden the royal presence. In the February following Essex engaged upon his mad outbreak, and on 19 Feb. 1601 he was put upon his trial. In the course of that trial a highly dramatic incident occurred. ‘Essex accused Sir Robert Cecil of having said that the infanta of Spain was the right heir to the crown of England. The secretary … stepped forth on this being said, and desiring to speak insisted that Essex should produce his authority, who only replied that Southampton had heard it as well as himself. Cecil then conjured the latter by his duty to God, by his christianity and their ancient friendship, to name the councillor to whom he was reported to have made this speech. Being told it was Mr. Comptroller, the secretary fell on his knees, desired that Sir William Knollys might be sent for, and sent a message to the queen, vowing to God that if she would not allow Sir William to come he would die rather than ever serve her again.’ The baseless charge was entirely discredited, but it was a critical moment in Cecil's life. It was only after Essex had suffered for his awkward attempt at an insurrection that Cecil allowed himself to enter into communication with James I, precisely as his father had done with Elizabeth, and with characteristic caution he began to prepare the way for the king of Scots to succeed to the throne, as Burghley had done for the queen. So well, however, was this secret of state kept that it was not till a century ago that the existence of any such correspondence had been suspected, and not till Mr. Bruce published them for the Camden Society that the real contents of those letters were made known to the world.
In the following October Queen Elizabeth's last parliament assembled, and Cecil represented Hertfordshire, as he had done in the three previous parliaments. In the debates that ensued he spoke with remarkable dignity and force. His business was to obtain the supplies for prosecuting the war with Spain, which now threatened to be carried on in Ireland, and to make the best of the grievances, especially those which had to do with monopolies, of which the popular party in the house were disposed to complain loudly. He managed to obtain the necessary subsidies, and the parliament was dissolved in less than two months after it had assembled. During the remainder of the queen's reign his work necessitated his keeping many secretaries; even his private letters it was difficult for him to attend to, ‘not being able,’ as he writes, ‘to undergo the continual multiplicity of the despatches of state and the due correspondences which I owe.’ The accession of James I found him prepared at all points. Elizabeth died 24 March 1603, at 2 A.M. At eleven, in the presence of some of the chief nobility and others, Cecil read the proclamation declaring that James was king of England. He was continued as secretary by James I, and on 13 May made Baron Cecil of Essendine, Rutland, on 20 Aug. 1604 Viscount Cranborne, on 4 May 1605 Earl of Salisbury, and on 20 May 1606 a knight of the Garter. He was lord-lieutenant of Hertfordshire from 1605 till death. A large portion of his father's landed property had descended to him by the deed of settlement made when Burghley had married Lady Mildred, Burleigh House and the bulk of the Lincolnshire estates which had come through his grandmother being entailed upon his elder brother, now Earl of Exeter. He had also succeeded his father as master of the court of wards, and in October 1603 was appointed lord high steward to the queen, Anne of Denmark. His resources must have been very large. From this time till his death it is hardly too much to say that the whole administration of the country was in his hands. The extravagance of the king and the greediness of the courtiers knew no bounds. The Englishmen denounced the Scotchmen as rapacious plunderers; but it appears that there was very little to choose between them, and
