CECIL, THOMAS, first Earl of Exeter, second Lord Burghley (1542–1622), eldest son of William Cecil, lord Burghley, by Mary Cheke [see Cecil, William], was born on 5 May 1542. He seems to have been brought up under tutors at his father's house, and never to have received a university education; he gave no signs of more than average ability, and it was probably because his father knew him to be deficient in capacity that he felt compelled to keep him in the background during his own lifetime. In June 1561 he was sent with Sir Thomas Windebank to travel on the continent, but he had hardly got to Paris before he began to exhibit a taste for dissipation, and he seems to have indulged that taste with much freedom. His father was greatly distressed by the reports he received, and in one of his letters expresses a fear that his son ‘will return home like a spending sot, meet only to keep a tennis court.’
Windebank, when he had been in Paris for more than a year, wrote home in despair, saying there was no doing anything with the young man, whose idle and dissolute habits had quite got beyond his control, and recommended his being recalled. To this, however, his father did not agree, and we hear that in August 1562 they left Paris ‘secretly,’ and slipped away to Antwerp and thence made their way to Spires, Heidelberg, and Frankfort. Young Cecil's conduct showed no improvement, and though his father wished him to visit Italy and Switzerland he had no desire himself to prolong his stay abroad, and returned in the spring of 1563. In 1563 he was M.P. for Stamford, and again in 1571 and 1572. In 1564 he married Dorothy, second daughter and coheiress of John, lord Latimer, negotiations for the marriage having, it appears, been begun two years before. During the next five years we hear little of him, but during the rebellion of the northern earls in 1569 he showed a commendable activity, and did not forget to claim his reward. In 1570 the Earl of Sussex, under whom he had served, recommended him to the queen as deserving some recognition, and he wrote a letter of thanks, which has been preserved. If it be a fair specimen of his style of composition, he must indeed have been a man of but small ‘parts.’ Next year, on the occasion of the French ambassador visiting Cambridge, accompanied by Lord Burghley as chancellor of the university, and other notables, Cecil was admitted M.A. by a special grace of the senate. At a magnificent tournament held at Westminster during this year he took a prominent part, and received a prize at the hands of the queen for his prowess at the barriers. He had always had a desire for a military life, which his father would never allow him to gratify; but in 1573 he volunteered for the Scotch war without asking leave, and was present at the storming of Edinburgh on 28 May. In July 1575 he received the honour of knighthood on the occasion of the queen's visit to Kenilworth. When Leicester went in command of the English contingent to the Low Countries, Cecil accompanied him and distinguished himself by his valour in the campaign. In November 1585 he was made governor of the Brille, one of the cautionary towns. There was little cordiality between him and Leicester, for whom he entertained a scarcely disguised contempt; on the other hand, he was one of those who showed a loyal admiration for Sir John Norris.
In August 1587 we find him among the mourners at the funeral ceremonies of Mary Queen of Scots, which were celebrated at Peterborough. In 1588 he was among the volunteers who served on the fleet equipped to resist the Spanish Armada. In 1584 and 1586 he was M.P. for Lincolnshire, and in 1592 for Northamptonshire. At his father's funeral in 1598 the queen gave order that he, as chief mourner, should ‘mourn as an earl.’
