Contributions
The younger son of William Cecil, Robert Cecil inherited his father's political genius and carried it through one of the most delicate passages in English history: the transition from one dynasty to another. Schooled at court and in Parliament, small of stature and with a curved back - which earned him cruel nicknames - he made up for it with an uncommon intelligence and command of detail. Secretary of State to Elizabeth I from 1596, he became the key man of the reign's last years. His masterstroke was to prepare in secret, through a ciphered correspondence with James VI of Scotland, the succession to the throne, securing in 1603 a peaceful transfer of power to James I of England. The new king heaped honours upon him - baron, viscount, Earl of Salisbury - and made him Lord High Treasurer. In 1605 he played a central part in uncovering the Gunpowder Plot. A great builder in his turn, he raised Hatfield House, a masterpiece of Jacobean architecture.
Significance
Robert Cecil embodies the continuity of the state beyond the death of sovereigns. In a realm where a succession could mean civil war, he arranged the passing of the crown from Tudor to Stuart without bloodshed: a political achievement of great weight, the fruit of patient and secret diplomacy. Serving two monarchs as unlike as could be, he preserved the coherence of the governing machine inherited from his father. His shadow is that of power wielded in shadow: master of a vast intelligence network, he was suspected - without decisive proof - of having let the Gunpowder Plot ripen, even manipulated it, the better to foil it and strengthen the Protestant cause. He was reproached too for his enrichment and his grip on royal favour. Yet his loyalty to the state and his administrative skill are undeniable. Worn out by illness and by royal finances he could not mend, he died in 1612, leaving the nation Hatfield House and the memory of a statesman who had held the realm with a firm hand across a reign and a succession.
Influence
He secured the survival of the Elizabethan model of government under the first Stuarts and proved that a dynastic succession could be prepared by secret diplomacy rather than by arms. Hatfield House, which he commissioned, became a touchstone of Jacobean architecture, and his practice of state intelligence extended the legacy of Walsingham and of his father.
Anecdote
Frail in health and with a body misshapen by scoliosis, Robert Cecil endured mockery all his life: Queen Elizabeth, who nonetheless loved him, familiarly called him her "pygmy," and James I called him his "little beagle." In the months before James came to the throne, he carried on so discreet a ciphered correspondence with the Scottish king that the dying old queen never knew of it, preparing the realm's peace in the shadows.