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Mildred Cecil, Baroness Burghley (née Cooke; 1526 – 4 April 1589) was an English noblewoman and translator in the sixteenth century. She was the wife of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the most trusted adviser of Elizabeth I, and the mother of
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, (1 June 156324 May 1612), was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart period, Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury s ...
, adviser to James I.


Family

Mildred Cooke, born in 1526, was the eldest of the five daughters of
Sir Anthony Cooke Sir Anthony Cooke (1504 – 11 June 1576) was an English people, English Renaissance humanism, humanist scholar. He was tutor to Edward VI of England, Edward VI. Family Anthony Cooke was the only son of John Cooke (died 10 October 1516), esqui ...
(d. 11 June 1576), son of John Cooke (d. 10 October 1515), esquire, of Gidea Hall, Essex, and Alice Saunders (d. 1510), daughter and coheiress of William Saunders of Banbury,
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
by Jane Spencer, daughter of John Spencer, esquire, of Hodnell, Warwickshire. Her paternal great-grandparents were Sir Philip Cooke (d. 7 December 1503) and Elizabeth Belknap (died c. 6 March 1504). Her paternal great-great-grandparents were Sir Thomas Cooke, a wealthy member of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and Lord Mayor of London in 1462–3, and Elizabeth Malpas, daughter of Philip Malpas, Master of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and Sheriff of London. Mildred Cooke's mother was Anne Fitzwilliam, the daughter of
Sir William Fitzwilliam Sir William FitzWilliam (1526–1599) was an English Lord Justice of Ireland and afterwards Lord Deputy of Ireland. In 1587, as Governor of Fotheringhay Castle, he supervised the execution of the death sentence on Mary, Queen of Scots. He was the ...
, Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors and Sheriff of London, by his first wife, Anne Hawes, daughter of Sir John Hawes. She had four brothers, Anthony,
Sir Richard ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
, Edward and William, and four sisters, three of whom were also known for their scholarship:
Anne Cooke Anne Cooke, (née Syme; born 14 November 1945) is a British biologist and academic, specialising in immunology and autoimmune diseases. From 2000 to 2013, she was Professor of Immunobiology at the University of Cambridge. She was a fellow of K ...
, who married, as his second wife, Sir Nicholas Bacon; Katherine Cooke, who married
Sir Henry Killigrew Sir Henry Killigrew (c. 1528Bell pp. 189–190 – 1603) was a Cornish diplomat and an ambassador for the Kingdom of England in the sixteenth century. He was several times employed by Elizabeth I in Scottish affairs and served as one of the Eng ...
;
Elizabeth Cooke Elizabeth Russell, Lady Russell (née Cooke; formerly Hoby; 1528–1609) was an English poet and noblewoman.Priestland – ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''; She was an influential member of Queen Elizabeth I's court and was known i ...
, who married firstly
Sir Thomas Hoby Sir Thomas Hoby (1530 – 13 July 1566) was an English diplomat and translator. Early life Hoby was born in 1530. He was the second son of William Hoby of Leominster, Herefordshire, by his second wife, Katherine, daughter of John Forden. He wa ...
and secondly John, Lord Russell (c.1553–1584), second son of
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, KG ( – 28 July 1585) of Chenies in Buckinghamshire and of Bedford House in Exeter, Devon, was an English nobleman, soldier, and politician. He was a godfather to the Devon-born sailor Sir Francis Drake ...
and first wife Margaret St John (1533–1562), daughter of Sir John St John (great-grandson of Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso) and Margaret Walgrave.


Career

According to Caroline Bowden, she was educated at home by her father, Sir Anthony Cooke, who provided his five daughters with an education equal to that afforded to his sons.Mildred Cooke (August 24, 1524-April 4, 1589), A Who’s Who of Tudor Women: Cl-Cy,compiled by Kathy Lynn Emerson to update and correct ''Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth-Century England'' (1984)
.
In 1559 William Bercher attested to their learning in his ''Nobility of Women''. John Strype lauded her ability to speak Greek as easily as English, and Roger Ascham, tutor to the future Elizabeth I, ranked Mildred Cooke and her sisters alongside
Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 – 12 February 1554), later known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage) and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. Jane was ...
for their erudition. She served briefly at court as a lady of the privy chamber when Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558. She had charge of her children's education, as well as that of the various royal wards for whom her husband was responsible, including
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of ...
, whom her daughter Anne eventually married. Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex was the ward of William Cecil. The Burghley household was one in which learning was valued:
Unlike Dudley ecilwas a scholar, a lover of books, and a man of great intellectual curiosity. He and his wife Mildred...had their children tutored to a high degree of erudition, and in their house Classical studies, philosophy and science, and at least certain kinds of poetry and music could seek refuge. Indeed, Cecil House was England’s nearest equivalent of a humanist salon since the days of More.
Lord Burghley went on to become Elizabeth I's most trusted adviser, and he and Lady Burghley entertained the queen on several occasions at their residences, including Theobalds. As the wife of the queen's chief adviser, Lady Burghley exercised influence in various ways, a circumstance that was recognized by the Spanish ambassador Guzman da Silva in 1567. While negotiations were ongoing for a marriage between the queen and
Charles II, Archduke of Austria Charles II Francis of Austria (german: Karl II. Franz von Innerösterreich) (3 June 1540 – 10 July 1590) was an Archduke of Austria and ruler of Inner Austria (Styria, Carniola, Carinthia and Gorizia) from 1564. He was a member of the House o ...
, Guzman wrote to Philip II that:
Cecil desires this business so greatly that he does not speak about the religious point, but this may be deceit as his wife is of a contrary opinion, and thinks that great trouble may be caused to the peace of the country through it. She has great influence with her husband, and no doubt discusses the matter with him; but she appears a much more furious heretic than he is.
In 1560 three Scottish leaders corresponded with her regarding the Treaty of Edinburgh then being negotiated. In 1573 she wrote in Latin to her cousin,
Sir William Fitzwilliam Sir William FitzWilliam (1526–1599) was an English Lord Justice of Ireland and afterwards Lord Deputy of Ireland. In 1587, as Governor of Fotheringhay Castle, he supervised the execution of the death sentence on Mary, Queen of Scots. He was the ...
,
Lord Deputy of Ireland The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive (government), executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland ...
, offering advice. In 1580 she was given £250 for having acted as an intermediary for a suitor petitioning her husband. Three books were dedicated to her during her lifetime: *
Thomas Drant Thomas Drant (c.1540–1578) was an English clergyman and poet. Work of his on prosody was known to Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. He was in the intellectual court circle known as the 'Areopagus', and including, as well as Sidney, Edward ...
's ''A Medicinable Moral, that is, Two Books of Horace His Satires (London, 1566) * Ulpian Fulwell's ''The First Part of the Eighth Liberal Science Entitled Ars Adulandi'' (London, 1576) *
Christopher Ockland Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει ...
's ''Eirenarchi siue Elizabetha'' (London, 1582) Lady Burghley did not publish her own translations, however, and few survive in manuscript. One that is extant is her translation dating from about 1550, circulated in manuscript, of Basil the Great's sermon on
Deuteronomy Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html"_;"title="f_Moses">f_Moseslabel=none)_and_th ...
, which she dedicated to
Anne, Duchess of Somerset Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (née Stanhope; before 1512 – 16 April 1587) was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1500–1552), who held the office of lord protector during the first part of the reign of their ...
,Goodrich, Jamie, 'Early Modern English Women as Translators of Religious and Political Literature, 1500--1641', PhD thesis, ProQuest, 2008, p. 373
Retrieved 25 November 2013.
in whose household she had served before her marriage. She also translated a work by John Chrysostom, which has not survived. In his will Lady Burghley's father, Sir Anthony Cooke, left her only three books; however she built up 'an impressive library mainly in Latin and Greek', described by Bowden as 'one of the finest private libraries of the day'. More than thirty books inscribed with her name are still extant, seventeen of them at Hatfield House. Her library included works in Greek, Latin, French, and English on a wide range of topics including history, literature, medicine, and theology, many of them printed on the continent. In 1580 she presented a polyglot Bible to
St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
, according to one source accompanied by a letter in her own hand written in Greek. In 1587 she presented eight volumes by Galen, five in Greek and three in Latin, to
Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
. She later gave two books to
St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...
, and two books to Westminster School. She provided an exhibition for two scholars and four quarterly sermons at
St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
, Lord Burghley's old college. Lady Burghley died on 4 April 1589 after 43 years of marriage. She was buried with her daughter,
Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford Anne de Vere (née Cecil), Countess of Oxford (5 December 1556 – 5 June 1588) was the daughter of the statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the translator Mildred Cooke. In 1571 she be ...
, in Westminster Abbey, where an enormous Corinthian tomb 24 feet high was erected. Lady Burghley is depicted lying on a
sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
. At her head are her three granddaughters, Elizabeth de Vere, Bridget de Vere, and
Susan de Vere Susan Herbert (née de Vere), Countess of Montgomery (26 May 1587 – 1629), was an English court office holder. She served as lady-in-waiting to the queen consort of England, Anne of Denmark. She was the youngest daughter of Elizabethan court ...
, and at her feet her only son,
Robert Cecil Robert Cecil may refer to: * Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (1563–1612), English administrator and politician, MP for Westminster, and for Hertfordshire * Robert Cecil (1670–1716), Member of Parliament for Castle Rising, and for Wootton Ba ...
. In a recess is the recumbent figure of her daughter Anne, Countess of Oxford. In the upper story Lord Burghley is depicted kneeling in his robes. A long Latin inscription composed by Lord Burghley describes his eyes dim with tears for those who were dear to him beyond the whole race of womankind. Lord Burghley lay in state here, but was buried at
St Martin's Church, Stamford St Martin's Church, Stamford, is a parish church in the Church of England located in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. The area of the town south of the River Welland was in Northamptonshire until 1889 and is called Stamford Baron or St Martin' ...
. After her death, Lord Burghley wrote a ''Meditation of the Death of His Lady'', which is among the
Lansdowne manuscripts The Lansdowne manuscripts are a significant named collection of the British Library, based on the collection of William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne. The purchase of the collection by the British Museum was in 1807.''Dictionary of National Biog ...
at the British Library (C III 51), recounting, among other things, the charitable works which she had kept secret from him during her lifetime. There are two known portraits of Lady Burghley, both at Hatfield House; one shows her during a pregnancy, probably that of 1563. The artist has been called "the Master of Mildred Cooke", but both portraits have recently been attributed to Hans Eworth.


Marriage and issue

In December 1545 she married William Cecil as his second wife. Their first child, a daughter, Francisca, was born in 1554, nine years after their marriage, but did not long survive.Cecil Papers - December 1594, 26-31 - British History Online
etrieved 13 August 2014
A second daughter, Anne, was born in 1556, and married, as his first wife,
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of ...
. Two sons, both named William,died shortly after their respective births in 1559 and 1561. In 1563 a third son was born, Robert, who succeeded his father at court and was created Earl of Salisbury by James I. Another daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1564, who married William Wentworth, but both she and her husband died shortly afterward without issue.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Bowden, Caroline, 'The Library of Mildred Cooke Cecil, Lady Burghley'
Retrieved 25 November 2013
Croft, Pauline, ed., 'Mildred, Lady Burghley: The Matriarch', in ''Patronage, Culture and Power: The Early Cecils 1558-1612'', 2002
Retrieved 25 November 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Mildred 1526 births 1589 deaths 16th-century English nobility 16th-century English women 16th-century translators Burials at Westminster Abbey Mildred English ladies-in-waiting Burghley Ladies of the Privy Chamber Court of Elizabeth I Wives of knights