biography
| name: |
Cecil, William, 1st Baron Burghley or Burghleigh
|
pronunciation:
[sesil]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1520–98)
|
| biography:
| English statesmen, born in Bourn, Lincolnshire, EC England, UK. He studied at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, London, served under Somerset and Northumberland, became secretary of state (1550), and was knighted (1551). During Mary I's reign he conformed to Catholicism. In 1558 Elizabeth appointed him chief secretary of state, and for the next 40 years he was the chief architect of Elizabethan greatness, influencing her pro-Protestant foreign policy, securing the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and preparing for the Spanish Armada. He used an army of spies to ensure security at home. In 1571 he was created Baron Burghley, and in 1572 became Lord High Treasurer - an office he held until his death. |
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