Good evening, everyone. In my last lecture, I told the remarkable
story of the Boleyn family. A dynasty that rose in four generations from Norfolk gentry to produce
one of the greatest monarchs in English history. And of course, I don't mean Anne Boleyn, I mean, Elizabeth I, who
of course was a Boleyn. Their rise was founded on
money from the city of London, but it was consolidated through a series of spectacular marriages
that brought huge wealth and with it influence. Court connections were vital too and there's no doubt that
Thomas Boleyn's rise was aided by his intimate friendship
with Henry VIII, a relationship that amazingly survived the execution of his
daughter for high treason. My last lecture is still
on the college website but just to quickly remind you, if you weren't there, here is Geoffrey Boleyn,
the founder of the dynasty, who's a rich city merchant. He buys two houses Blickling and Hever. He marries into aristocratic family, inherited a house at Luton Hoo. His son William inherits Hever and Hoo. Then they get two more houses through another brilliant marriage. And so Anne Boleyn's father and his brother between them, owns as you can see a large
number of spectacular mansions. Now what's interesting about
this story, about the Boleyn's, is that until Anne became queen, none of them were great
architectural patrons. None of them built a new house. Here's Hever Castle, it was
obviously a very old house. And although they extended and modified and improved the houses that
they bought or inherited, it's impossible to see architecture as one of the driving
forces in their rise to and maintenance of power. There are reasons for this, which we shall turn to later. But there is a sense
that the Boleyn's enjoyed and capitalized on the
family connections embodied in the buildings that they acquired rather than having a passion
for creating new ones. Tonight I'm gonna tell
a very different story, but I'm gonna be referring
back to the Boleyns because the contrast
between tonight's dynasty and the Boleyns is very revealing. But first a very important point, the Boleyns were effectively
snuffed out as a leading family by the late 16th century through the tragedy of Anne's marriage and then her execution and
the execution of her brother, the Boleyns exited the national stage and their estates were
divided up and dispersed. The Cecil family, the subject of my lecture this evening, have been one of the most resilient and successful aristocratic
dynasties in English history. Although some of the original estates and houses amassed in the 16th and 17th century are now gone, the family has continued
to play a remarkable role in national politics and
culture, and still retain three of the most remarkable Jacobean
mansions in the country. As a result, there's no way I can cover the whole history of the family and I'm going to be
concentrating my remarks on the founding years and their period of outstanding
architectural patronage. Now the rise of the Cecils
was inextricably connected with the rise of the Tudors. Both families were Welsh and David Cecil, who was born in around 1460, rose on the coat tails of his godfather or maybe it was his
uncle Sir David Phillip, who was in the household
of Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII's mother, there she is. There Phillip rose to
become one of her closest and most trusted servants. And it's likely that David Cecil fought alongside Sir David Phillip
at the Battle of Bosworth and then followed him to Lincolnshire where Lady Margaret Beaufort
had not only extensive landed and commercial interests, but one of her favorite residences, which was Collyweston House. In 1488, Sir David was
made bailiff of Collyweston and took a large house in
Stamford only four miles away. And there he set David
Cecil up with Alice Dicons, the daughter of a wealthy
merchant and alderman of the town. So there's David Cecil
marrying Alice Dicons. This family tree will grow this evening and you may wonder why it's
so small at the moment, it won't remain that way for long. Well, who says connections don't matter. Tudor loyalist with a
root into the royal family and a foothold on the
latter of local power, David Cecil quickly became
a leading local figure. Serving as an MP in Henry
VII's last parliament and four of Henry VIII's parliaments. In his will proved in 1541, he styled himself a squire, but there was no great
financial legacy left to his only son, Richard, who had to wait until his stepmother died before coming into any
substantial property. But crucially David Cecil saw
to it that his son got a place in the Royal household where he became a page in
Henry VIII's chamber by 1517. Now, the pages were responsible for keeping the King's
chambers clean, the fires lit and doing all the menial
work in the royal lodgings. And Richard Cecil must have
been diligent and personable because he was promoted
to become a gentlemen of the chamber by 1540 and concurrently he got a
place in the King's wardrobe of the robes becoming a groom by 1528 and a yeoman of the robes by 1539. It was a cosmopolitan existence, traveling round the kingdom on royal progress and accompanying Henry VIII to Guînes for the Field of the
Cloth of Gold in 1520. He rubbed shoulders with
the good and the great and he spent a lot of time
personally with the King. And all his court posts attracted salary. But far more important than
the salary was the opportunity to petition the King or his ministers for other crown offices. Richard got his first post in 1517. And to this, he added
a sheaf of keeperships, bailiwicks and stewardships
each one of which attracted a salary and some fees. And these fruits of office were extremely cannily invested in property. He first took leases in Lincolnshire from Lady Margaret's former
estate in around 1519 when he married Jane Heckington, the daughter of a
well-off local gentlemen. So there is David and
Alice, here is Richard Cecil and here is Jane Heckington, his wife. He then continued with the
purchase of the reversion of Little Burghley of Burghley and of neighboring lands from
Sir William Compton in 1527. But his big opportunity came as it did for so many Tudor courtiers with the dissolution of the monasteries, which in five years
yielded him in succession, Stamford nunnery, Stanford
priory and Stamford friary to which he added in 1544 the
Manor of Essendine in Rutland. His son and heir was William. Just as his grandfather had
ruthlessly used his connections to get Richard a place at court, so Richard Cecil maneuvered
his clever young son William into St. John's College, Cambridge, which of course had been founded
by Lady Margaret Beaufort. Here he had as his tutor
amongst others, Thomas Smith, of who will know more in a moment. But William never finished his studies as he fell in love with Mary Cheke, the sister of one of his tutors. And against his father's
wishes, he married her. And you can see that his
first marriage, Mary Cheke. After bearing him a son, Thomas, his first wife Mary died and less than two years later,
he married Mildred Cooke. The first marriage was a love match, the second marriage was a career move. Sir Anthony, who you see
here, Mildred's father, was a noted scholar. He was also one of Henry VIII's gentleman of the privy chamber, an important post that brought
him into intimate contact with the King. And here is Mildred who
you'll hear more about later. After Henry VIII's death in
the reign of Edward VI, his, Mildred's father became
one of Edward's tutors, but as an evangelical, he was forced to spend most
of Mary's reign abroad. So the important point about
the family tree is that the young William Cecil now
had two routes into court through his father Richard, but also through his
father-in-law Sir Antony. And the young William was
therefore able to come to the notice of Henry VIII, who was so impressed with him that he was granted the
reversion of the keepership of the writz and rolls in
the Court of Common Pleas, an office which he was to take
up in the reign of Edward VI. It's worth pausing for a
moment now in the story because it was at court where the Boleyns and the Cecils must have met. We've got no record of this, but Richard Cecil would have
known Thomas Boleyn well because both of them were
in the King's privy chamber. And at this juncture of
course, the Cecils were squires to the much grander and
aristocratic Boleyns. Thomas Boleyn's blood cost
with aristocratic corpuscles. These were injected into his
veins by marriage alliances that his families had made. And even in disgrace, his daughter's marriage to the King, had irreversibly enriched the family and their wealth remained on a vast scale to the modest estates of
the Lincolnshire Cecils. But whatever gifts Thomas Boleyn had, they were not particularly intellectual. The young William Cecil however,
and this is not him young, this is him much older was
not only highly intelligent but had been trained at Cambridge by some of the most
brilliant minds of his age. After five years, he left
fluent in Greek and Latin, in French and Spanish, adroit at maths, schooled in political
philosophy and in rhetoric. Richard, his father then
guided him to the Inns of Court where at Gray's Inn, he entered the vocational
part of his training. The end game wasn't to be a lawyer, but to be equipped to serve
his sovereign at court. It was probably through his father-in-law that Cecil became secretary
to protect Sir Somerset in the early part of Edward VI reign. And it was working for Somerset that Cecil got his
introduction to architecture. Now, Edward Somerset who
you see a picture of here, the Duke of Somerset, the first Duke, was the most important
architectural patron of the mid 16th century. Although Somerset House on the
Strand still bears his name, it was far from his only commission. Hilary Mantel has made his
Wilshire house Wolf Hall almost as famous as Somerset
House in her fictional account of Henry VII's reign. But of all his buildings,
Somerset House, Somerset place as it was then known
is the most important. As this building was
conceived in his mind, Somerset's inner a circle contained the three most important
figures in the development of 16th century architecture in England. John Thynne was his building agent and he commissioned Longleat House. Then there was Thomas Smith who of course Cecil knew
from his time at Cambridge. He was the builder of Hill
Hall, which still exists. You can still see it. And of course there was
William Cecil himself. And for these three men,
architecture was a passion. Thomas Smith was appointed
clerk to the Privy Council and master of Somerset's
Court of Requests. And both of these bodies
met at Somerset House. And Cecil then succeeded Smith in Somerset's Court of Requests and both of them became
secretaries of state. And so it's really
inconceivable that Thynne, Smith and Cecil together with Seymour, wouldn't have discussed every
detail of Somerset place as it rose on the Strand. Well, here is the quite
well-known early drawing of the Strand facade of Somerset place. This was a building that
was designed to stand out, to be radical, to be ahead of its time. It was an expression in stone of Somerset's wider world picture. His political, religious and
economic program of reform. And Somerset's place has
gotta be seen in the context of the increasing use of
renaissance architectural elements. A fact that began around 1515. Under Henry VIII this was driven by the ability of Northern
European craftsman, but in the middle of the
century it was maintained by an increasing flow of prints and books that provided a rich
stream of inspiration. And the Strand facade of
Somerset place represented at the time, a new departure
for English architecture. It introduced a treatment that as bay windows would
be taken up at Longleat and as elsewhere as a core
component of Elizabethan design. But probably the most novel
element was the centerpiece. A feature based on the
Roman triumphal arch, a fundamental ingredient in early renaissance architecture based on an easily understandable antique concept and well-preserved originals. Now, William Cecil managed
to ride the turbulence of the mid Tudor period, changing alliances and masters
without losing his head and spending only a very brief
spell in the tower of London. His religious convictions caused him to withdraw from court under Mary, but in 1550, he secured a post in the Protestant household of princess Elizabeth
becoming her surveyor. Now, by the provisions
of Henry VIII's will, Mary had received estates
worth about £4,000 a year and Elizabeth estate's worth about £3,000. Mary's were confirmed at
the King's death in 1547, but Elizabeth who was still
a minor when her father died, had to wait until 1550 to come into hers. And amongst her lands were
a number of royal houses. Hatfield, which you see
here, Hatfield old palace where her nursery was first established. A house at Ashridge and one at Enfield, but also her grandmother's
house at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, which
I've already mentioned. In London. she was granted the large house that had formerly belonged to the Bishop of Durham, Durham place. And to the princess in 1550, now pass the responsibility for the repair and maintenance of all these houses and this she delegated to
William Cecil as her surveyor at a fee of £20 a year. So Cecil's first appointment
under Elizabeth was essentially one concerned
with real estate. And in particular with
Hatfield, Ashridge and Enfield, the three houses that she favored. Hatfield which I shall return to later on, was an extremely fine house
much liked by Henry VIII, who constantly borrowed
it from the bishops of Ely to who it belonged. And here is an early plan of the house, which is at Hatfield House now, you can see it beautifully drawn, you can see it in its gardens. It was a handsome at courtyard house. It only had one suite of state rooms. Had the suite here
overlooking the gardens. And it was in this suite that
Elizabeth as princess lived. And in that suite, that
William Cecil attended her as her surveyor, presumably with his deputy
who I think probably undertook most of the tedious everyday tasks of looking after her property interests. In London, Elizabeth barely
ever used Durham House. And in 1553, the Duke of
Northumberland engineered a swap whereby Elizabeth would
have Somerset place while he would have a Durham House added to his personal estate. And it was in this way that princess Elizabeth
came into possession of the most modern and striking
townhouse in London sited strategically on the Strand. And here you can see it. Here's the River Thames, wonderful gardens, here's the house, big courtyard house on the Strand, the principal road between
the city and Westminster. The house was in fact incomplete
when Elizabeth took it on. And to make up for this the Royal Office of Works
was instructed to finish the half built palace. A large sum of £900 was spent
on the princess's new home, a place which of course her surveyor, Cecil knew extremely well. Well, Mary died in November, 1558 and Elizabeth was told at
Hatfield where she'd been based since 1555 that she was now queen. That very day, she chose the two men who were
to be the key relationships in her life. Robert Dudley, who became
the Earl of Leicester in 1564 and William Cecil who became
Lord Burghley in 1571. Now, Elizabeth was
quite unlike her father. Henry had clearly defined ambitions and his minister's job was
quite simply to fulfill them. His daughter had no such program. She was a pragmatist to the core. She waited on events, responding slowly, quite often hesitantly,
usually asking and listening to William Cecil's advice, advice which she might or might not take. She had no passion for
building, even if she had it, it would have been a strange
thing for a woman who owned over 70 domestic residences
to want to have more. Elizabeth was never a great
patron of architecture. Indeed, she struggled to
maintain the extensive estate that she had inherited. During the Elizabethan age, architectural initiative
shifted from the crown to the ministers in its service. These men's wealth came
not through salaries, which were negligible, but
through the fruits of office and from gifts from the crown. And of all these servants, of course, William Cecil was the greatest. Cecil had always had a house at Burghley in Lincolnshire as it now is, but his focus was in London. And he lived in a house in
Canon Row in Westminster very handily placed
for access to Whitehall and the offices, courts and
councils at Westminster. And it was in this house that his elderly father died in 1553. But as his wealth and his confidence grew, he took The Rectory at
Wimbledon on a long lease. And here he based his wife Mildred and brought up his son, Thomas. This is a picture from
Country Life Magazine when it was on the market not so long ago, many, many alterations
since the days of Cecils but the house is essentially
the same building. In the 16th century, most wealthy man had a suburban residence where they could retire from the business of
London and Westminster. And although Wimbledon
Rectory wasn't a new house, it was large, it was well sited and it was close to Westminster. But while Wimbledon was
convenient for a Westminster, a trip to Burghley was a major operation. And I love this well-known picture of William Cecil on his ass and you can imagine what a long way it was
to Northamptonshire. So for instance, in May, 1557, the journey from Wimbledon to Burghley involved his household
getting to London by boat and then the next morning
traveling onto Royston where they spent the night, the day after they had
dinner in Huntington and only reached a Burghley at nightfall. And for a man as busy as Cecil, visiting his country estates
could not be on impulse. Nevertheless, in around 1573, he decided to start building at Burghley a great country house. The impulse to do this
had probably long existed, but the trigger was almost
certainly his peerage in 1572 and the following year his
appointment as Lord Treasurer and his receipt of the
Order of the Garter. Cecil now had the status and the cash to make architectural waves. Unlike the Boleyn's who had the resources to build a new house if they had wanted, Cecil set out to build on a new ground. Also, unlike the Boleyn's who traded on their
aristocratic connections and whose large 15th century
mansions proclaimed them as part of the establishment, Cecil had come from
relatively humble stock. And although he had land, he had no great mansion at its center. Burghley House was an
exercise in constructing a dynastic seat, a central act in his
ambition to raise the Cecils from country gentry
into the elite community of the 50 odd hereditary nobles. In 1572, Cecil took
his title from Burghley and it was to be left to
his eldest son, Thomas. And in the rest of this lecture, I'm gonna carry on calling
them by their Christian names because their titles, the
names of the titles changed and it's just quite confusing, so I'm just gonna stick
to their Christian names and carry on calling him William. So physical building at a
Burghley was accompanied by a systematic amassing of local power influence and assets. The estate which he built up
centered on Stanford gave not only the income necessary for a peer, but gave him a base for regional power. Cecil became the steward and
the recorder of Stanford, the steward of King's Lynn and Yarmouth, the recorder of Boston, surveyor of royal lands in Lincolnshire, keeper of Rockingham forest and Cliff Park and the steward of numerous
royal estates in the area. He became Lord Lieutenant
of Lincolnshire in 1587 and of Hampshire and of
Essex in the following year. So Burghley House was primarily intended to be the seat of a great
aristocrat wielding power locally as landed magnets had done for centuries. It might also be the venue for great national events connected with his offices of state. But we've got to remember
as this map shows that Burghley House was
a long way from London and not at all convenient for
ambassadors or delegations unless they were to follow
the queen on progress. And although the queen
was once invited to stay, her plans changed at the last moment and the estate bed at Burghley was one of the few aristocratic beds in which Elizabeth never slept. Now, I've already explained that Cecil was part of a small group of avant-garde patrons of architecture in the circle of the Duke of Somerset. But his position as Lord Treasurer meant that he was also effectively in charge of the royal building works. He was more or less, if you like, the Elizabethan minister for architecture. Now, I'm not actually
gonna talk about this, but his intimacy
involvement in the details of royal buildings for 40
years was very important for two reasons. First, it meant that he had access to the best craftsman and architects, which he deployed on his
own building projects. But secondly, that he
really deeply understood the functional requirements
of a royal palaces. And this meant that his own
houses could be designed to accommodate the royal
visits if necessary. And so when we look at the
west front of Burghley House, it was designed by one
of the leading architects from the Office of Works, Henry Hawthorn, and it emphasized
traditional architectural and social values with
this great gatehouse and towers and turrets and bay windows and inside the great hall has
a traditional hammerbeam roof. The courtyard, however,
is a masterly assemblage of classical elements focused on this extraordinary tower of the orders, which ultimately derives from the great gatehouse at Somerset House. Whilst much more are
correct in its deployment of the classical orders of architecture than most later Elizabethan buildings, barely is still a melange
of classical elements rather than a house that
could have been built, for instance, in contemporary
France, where the adherence to the rules of classical
architecture was important rather than just the decorative
use of individual elements. The completed house, which
was built in phases up until about 1588 was very big, but the principle suite of
rooms was not strictly speaking a royal state suite. And you can see here, the
plan of the house originally, here's the great hall, you ascended a spectacular staircase and you came into a great chamber, a private or privy chamber, a bed chamber, a closet
and then a gallery. And whilst this is a
very typical arrangement for a 16th century aristocrat, it had various shortcomings if it were to ever be
used by the queen herself. Now, given the extraordinary
size and splendor of Burghley, why did Cecil embark on
building a second country house at Theobalds in 1563 to four? Now Theobalds is written Theobalds, but it was always pronounced chip Tibbles in the, in the 17th,
16th and 17th century. Well, I think it's not
very hard to explain this, Cecil was now enormously wealthy. It's very difficult to give a reliable figure of his total income, but his landed income was somewhere around £6,000 a year. But this figure kind of hardly matters because it was an enormous
sum in contemporary values and it didn't include all
the fruits of his office, the financial fruits of his office. So he could afford to build and he needed to build for two reasons. First of all, he had to have a house that was closer to London than Burghley, but he was a hundred miles away and his duties meant that
he was glued to court and he needed a house within
a day's ride of London that would replace Wimbledon
Manor as a suburban retreat that he could actually use. The second reason was actually dynastic. And here we need to turn
back to the family tree. You'll see here, his first
marriage to Mary Cheke. His first son, his eldest
son was Thomas Cecil who married a lady called Dorothy Nevill, we'll come onto that in a moment. His second marriage if you
remember, is to Mildred. And he has Robert Cecil by that marriage and Robert Cecil marries Elizabeth Brooke and has his own three children. And so William Cecil has two sons and he needs two houses. His first born Thomas
would inherit Burghley. He'd have the title and the house. So, Theobalds was a bought, it was built and started
for his second son, Robert. Well, having purchased Theobalds in 1563, he began a building program
which went on to about 1585. Completed, the house was gigantic. In fact, arguably the largest
house in England at the time. His original intention wasn't
to build something so large, but Elizabeth I really liked the place and wanted to come and stay. And to accommodate her
and the whole court, the place had to be extended. The design, as far as we know it, was largely Burghley's own and it became a model
that was consulted by the other great Elizabethan
and Jacobean builders. It wasn't the exterior of the house, and you see a drawing of it
here, that impressed visitors, it was the astonishing series of interiors where curiosity, delight and
spectacle created a theater for the court. At the entrance for instance, there was a huge bunch of grapes that gushed red and white wine. In the great chamber, there was a grotto with precious stones and figures of men and women and wild beasts creeping
through the bushes. Whilst the ceiling was constructed as the sky at night with a mechanical sun that moved across it. Theobalds was no normal house. It was to Elizabeth and Cecil what Hampton court had been
to Henry VIII and Wolsey. It was the architectural embodiment of their joint enterprise
in running the country. Ownership was not the point. What was significant was the
ability of Monarch and minister to jointly enjoy the fruits of office. Elizabeth liked the house a lot, visiting on each of 11 years after 1571. Apparently in 1583, she said, and I quote that she was never in
any place better pleased and sure the house garden and walks any compare with any
delicate place in Italy. Her enthusiasm for the house led Cecil to start in around 1572, the construction of a whole new courtyard to the West of the house to
contain two sets of lodgings, one for the queen and a suite
mirroring it for her consort. So the original house is this bit here. He then starts building
this huge courtyard on here to provide two sets of
lodgings, one for the queen and one for the expected King, who she was expected to, of course, marry. So what had been achieved
by 1603 was a house of royal proportions. In reality, too large the
Cecil's taste or purse. And it's likely that even
before it was finished, he was rather hoping that he might be able
to pass this vast place on to the crown. But just before moving on
to the second generation to Cecil's two sons, Thomas and Robert, I should mention that Robert, sorry, that William also
flirted with the idea of building a great house
in Chelsea in 1595 to six. And in 1582, he bought
Pymmes Manor in Edmonton for his second son Robert. He did this because it was
very close to Theobalds and provided a house for
Robert and his wife Elizabeth and their growing family of
children close to Theobalds, which of course would
be their eventual home. And so if we pause just to take stock, we can see that William
managed to elevate his family vastly above his father's estate, acquiring his house in Canon Row, a house in Wimbledon, a big house in Stamford, in Burghley, Theobalds
House, Burghley House London that I'll mentioned in a few minutes, Pymmes in Edmonton and
Beaufort House in Chelsea. And in addition, in addition to these, of course, there was all the
land that came with them. But perhaps William's greatest
achievement was transferring his offices and his
power to his son, Robert. Now Robert was perhaps not
a natural born courtier. In an age where a fine
leg was the first step on the ladder to preferment the hunchbacked Robert
only 5'4" tall was not an obvious star. Famously Queen Elizabeth
called him my pygmy and James I had nicknamed
him my little beagle, but behind the jests the, was a huge respect for a man who had inherited not
only his father's job but his father's genius. He was one of the key architects of James I excession in 1603 and welcomed James to Theobalds just before his entry
into his new capital. Well, James was completely
blown away by the size and splendor of a Theobalds House and very quickly a series of visits by the King resulted in him acquiring it from Cecil in exchange for lands that included a number of properties including the Manor of Hatfield. Now acquiring a new house
was quite a rare thing to do, but there was a big
celebratory party at Theobalds as the house was handed
over from minister to King. Now only the merest fragments remain of this once vast mansion, but there is enough evidence to reconstruct it at least in plan. And you see here is not my drawing, this is by another scholar
called Martin Andrews, you can see how the house
was not only approached by a great avenue into
these three courtyards, it was surrounded by gardens and these series of waterways and moats that, that surrounded it. The plan in a little more detail involved entering the first court, mounting the staircase from the great hall and a series, a classic series
of royal chambers presence, privy withdrawing room, bed
chamber overlooking the gardens and a long gallery
overlooking more gardens here. There were a second suite
of lodgings on this side was the one that was occupied by Elizabeth I and another gallery here. And this area here was
occupied by James I's son with another gallery beneath
that terrace on that side. Sadly, there is little information about the inside of this house, but a remarkable painting
surviving in the royal collection, I think does depict the great gallery. This shows Charles I and
Henrietta Maria at Theobalds once it's a Royal Palace, but I think you can begin to get a flavor of Cecil's house here and a
glimpse into the long gallery, which he built for Elizabeth I. Well, we have to remember
that Robert Cecil's transition from Elizabethan to
Jacobean Royal Secretary, was far from guaranteed. And in the years after
1601 when it was clear that the queen wasn't
going to last much longer, he was very careful to build
himself an insurance policy. He entered into a frenzy
of land speculation, becoming one of the largest
purchasers of crown lands, which were then flooding
onto the property market to fund the war in Ireland. As well as spending some £30,000 in 1601 to two, he borrowed
heavily from the city to enable him to scoop up
prime property on the market. And what this meant was that, if all went according to plan and his position in government
continued under James I, he'd be very well placed to impress and entertain his new King, but if his plans failed
and he lost office, he could retire to his
estates, plant his gardens, go hawking and pass his
estate onto his son, William. And one of these purchases,
his sort of insurance policy, was the Manor of Cranborne in Dorset, which you can see on my map down here. He bought it as a hunting lodge and when in 1604, James I created Robert viscount, he took Cranborne as his title. Here you see an estate
map showing the house. The attraction of it was
it's grounds and crucially the parks and hunting in Cranborne Chase that were available to it. Cecil asked the Somerset
architect and mason William Arnold to convert the medieval house. He's one of the lesser known
geniuses of Jacobean design. He designed Montacute House
and Wadham College, Oxford as well as Cranborne
Manor which you see here. And we know that Cecil
spent hours closeted away with Arnold devising this scheme. It was a fascinating design that preserved the essentials of the medieval house. This is the medieval
house in the dark color. Ignore this, this is later. And you can see the way these
new elements were added, which have a certain amount
of Italianate classical design but also very much show the
house as a medieval house as a traditional hunting lodge, a Neo medieval hunting lodge. And so very much like
his father at Burghley, he wanted his house to be referenced back to the feudal past as well as
containing modern comforts. In the same perilous period when he was trying to secure his job over the change of regimes, he also concentrated on building
himself a house in London. Now his father William
had been given a house on the Strand by Elizabeth
I, and this is a plan of it that's at Burghley House. And you can see it was a large
house with two courtyards. This is the Strand here. These are gardens going back
to Covent Garden up here, great hall with staircase
and first floor rooms. It was a large, large enough for him to throw really quite large parties. But as a boy, Robert Cecil was living in one of the wings of the house. But of course, this house is inherited by his half brother Thomas, and he is forced to buy his own house. And he does that on the Strand at nearby becomes Salisbury House. You see a picture of it here. And in the Bodleian library,
there are a series of plans which show the house as it was in about 1612. And here is the Strand along the bottom, you came off the street
into a handsome courtyard, there was a great hall, you then went up the stairs into a suite of rooms on the first floor, this is the ground floor plan in which he was able to live and much more importantly to entertain. Well, you know, I think
Robert Cecil was actually rather glad to get rid of Theobalds. It had become a behemoth
guzzling his money. But his transfer, it's
transferred to the King left him with only Pymmes House
near London in Edmonton. And therefore he decided to build himself a new out of town residence at Hatfield, which of course was one of the
properties transferred to him in exchange for Theobalds. Like his father, Robert
was a hands on patron. And during the five years that
Hatfield House took to build, he stayed in the parsonage at Hatfield with his wife and children, so he could supervise
work going on in detail. There was no one designer and Robert took a major
role in all the decisions, but Simon Basil from the Office of Works and the architect, Robert
Liming were probably key in helping to formulate the design. It cost the colossal amount of £38,000. And Cecil died in 1612 just
before it was completed. The plan and the elevation
of Hatfield House owe a great deal to Theobalds. The use of brick with stone dressings, the big square blocks
at the corners joined by a lower section, the architrave, frieze
and cornice running around the whole building, the
balustrades, the flat roofs, the little dome turrets,
the central clock tower and the open lodger all take
their cue from Theobalds. And of course Liming had worked there and Robert Cecil had lived there, so there is a logic to this. But I think to me, there's
almost a sense in which the house was almost attribute
to his father William. And in 1611 when Robert had moved in a portrait of his father adorned his study in his private suite. Well, these days a visit
to Hatfield gets you as close as you can get to
the world of the early Cecils. The astonishing ravishing
grand stair finished in 1611. The great chamber containing the marble fireplace
carved by Maximillian Colt, the King's carver, that bears a bronze statue
of James I presented to Cecil by the King himself. These are more or less as Robert Cecil would have known them. But what is in my opinion, one of the most gorgeous
rooms in all England, is Cecil's Long Gallery. It's been altered, but
not to its detriment. It still has its original
ceiling and it's a fireplaces. William Cecil seems to
have decided quite early on that in Thomas, his eldest son and heir the future of the family did not reside. He famously was to say that he was neat only
to keep a tennis court. Yet, this was a little bit unfair. Thomas had a successful
career under Elizabeth as a soldier and a courtier
and after his father's death, as a regional magnet based at Burghley. On the excession of James I, he was made a member of the Privy Council and in 1605 at the age of 62 years old, he was made Earl of
Exeter at the same time as Robert was created Earl of Salisbury. Thanks to his father amassing
property in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire he
was never short of money. And his marriage to Dorothy
Nevill bought him an inheritance when her father died without a male heir. And through Dorothy came Snape Castle, which you see on my map here in Yorkshire. This was an extremely useful inheritance as Thomas received a
commission from the queen to be Lord President of
the Council of North. A job that came with special orders to hunt down Catholic recusants. Snape was a convenient base for the duties that kept him in the North of England. And in the 1580s, Thomas
undertook a remodeling there. The core of the place was medieval. And just as his half-brother
had done at Cranborne, Thomas opted for a
re-medievalising of the building rather than an outright modernization. Four battlemented corner towers give the castle its distinctive skyline, two of which were added by Thomas. But he was also a patron
of modern architecture and commissioned two of
the most interesting houses of his generation. And the first of these was at Wimbledon where he had grown up. In 1575, his father granted
him, the family house there and the following year he bought the nearby manor house its gardens and its park from Sir Christopher Hatton. And he started from scratch
choosing a new location for his house, cut into
the side of the Hill. Here is the house. The land rises here steeply. And on terraces behind this house, he cut really remarkable
and beautiful gardens. Here you see the house and
the rising land behind. And here you see a symmetrical house to
an H-plan bay windows, capped stair towers, flat parapet, these are all very familiar
Cecil architectural devices. But I think the compactness of the plan and the magnificence of its
setting were remarkable. The house was not large, you see it's a plan here, it was actually only one deep. There was a great hall, staircase that led to a gallery and perhaps the most remarkable
feature this chapel here which was open at this side
to the rest of the house into the great stair, so that this great Protestant
aristocrat could make sure that his household could hear
prayers being said each day. A chapel that perhaps as
suited a persecutor of papists. The second new building
that Thomas commissioned was on the Burghley estate. And here you see a detailed
from an estate map. It wasn't far from Burghley House itself, only about a mile away. And this was a retreat where Thomas and his friends could stay to
hunt, race horses, play bowls, eat, drink and be married. The building which was
attached to two service ranges. Here are the service ranges
was effectively across, a Greek cross. And these lateral ranges
contained extensive kitchens and cellars to presumably
facilitate the carousing. Its external form was one of the then very fashionable devices where the plan tightly constrained
made a very formal letter or a shape. And the architectural
devices were harvested from architectural treatises. The architect are unknown but Thomas, one of the richest man in England, was surely here having fun himself. Well, Robert who never really
enjoyed very good health, died in 1612 and his elder half
brother Thomas outlived him, dying in 1623. Despite a determined effort in 1611 to '12 to reduce his debts by
selling unwanted estates on his deathbed Robert still owned the colossal sum of £37,000, almost the entire cost of
building Hatfield House. He'd borrowed £61,000 over the previous four years, more than half of it from the city. And this he largely
invested in buying more land at Hatfield and Cranborne
to make them centers of suitably larger estates. Yet, his asset base was enormous and within a couple of years, his executors had cleared his debts and his son William was in possession of one of the largest
landed incomes in the land. Now, handed down from father to son the Salisbury estates at
Hatfield and Cranborne remain in the hands of his successors cherished and enjoyed by the family
and visitors alike. And likewise Burghley in
the hands of a family trust, retains its ancestral
connections with its builder. So this is what the
big picture looks like. William Cecil sets up his property empire. His eldest son inherits
two of them Burghley House in the country and
Burghley House in London, but he builds his own houses as well. The youngest son, Robert
Cecil inherits Theobalds and Beaufort House. He builds Salisbury House and
Cranborne Manor and Hatfield. Well, in my first lecture I showed how the Boleyn's amassed huge land ownings by brilliant marriages to heiress and consolidated them
through royal service and grants of lands and privileges. The story of the Cecils
is just as calculating and systematic but in an
entirely different way. Without the blood to
marry into great wealth, two brilliant men, father and son, systematically invested the fruits of royal service into land. They bought, built,
amassed and consolidated. And on the strengths of
their many offices reinforced by palpable royal favor, they borrowed money to buy still more. Both William and Robert
looked to the future. They were dynasty building. Creating houses and estates that have actually fulfilled
their ambition enduring for 400 years. Their approach to building
was different too, the Boleyns were eager to
stress their ancient lineage, their aristocratic descent, owning property was dynastic affirmation. They wanted their houses to look old. Any modernization was carefully judged to bring modern comforts
within a preexisting structure. Of course, personal preference
may have had an influence, but we should remember that
the Boleyns were rich enough to commission great
houses had they wanted to. The Cecils came from
much more humble stock. A fact that their opponents and detractors were
very keen to point out. But the family was out
to establish itself, not only through architecture but through the totality of an estate with a capital mansion at its heart. These mansions made references
to the ancient feudal rights and obligations of a landowner such as the Great Hall at Burghley. But they were essentially
modern houses built by new men. Yes, they were nouveau riche and they built in styles
that made that clear. And this is an extraordinary
pedigree drawn up for William Cecil which shows his sort of fictional lineage, just demonstrating their desire to create a backstory to their, to their dynasty. Extremely intelligent
and ambitious William and Robert knew they were
laying the foundations of a dynasty and part of their
extraordinary success was that their great houses
became in their lifetime, leaders in style. Without the crown leading, fashion, the Cecils and their
riches contemporaries, themselves made fashion
and didn't just follow it. Well, I made the point in my first lecture that it was two women that the
Boleyns owned their wealth. My last very brief point is that the Cecils were also blessed
with remarkable women. One heiress, but much
more crucially Mildred, William Cecil's second wife, who was one of the most
brilliant women of her age and who played a crucial role
in partnership with William and in the education of Robert. What ties the Boleyns and the
Cecils together is their faith in the value of landed
estates and property to secure long-term security and achieve upward social mobility. What separates them is the
methods they used to achieve it. In my next lecture, on the 17th of March, we look at the Duke of
Monmouth and his descendants. And we ask, when you start at
the top, is the only way down? - Thank you very much Simon for a really interesting lecture. We do have a few questions
from the audience. We don't have much time,
but we'll try to get through a couple of them if that's okay. You mentioned that William
Cecil built his grand houses as status symbols dynastic seats, but he was regularly at court. So did he spend less time
in his country houses than the average Great Lord and did this mean that he
spent long periods away from his family or did they
stay with him at court? - Well, one of the
important things to remember and it isn't, it is a
really crucial fact is that, of course, Cecil had lodgings
in every single royal palace. So anywhere that the queen went to any of her own houses, Cecil had not just one room,
but a whole suite of rooms. And he spent a great deal of time there and a great deal of time
in his house on the Strand. Going to Burghley was a major operation and he spent very little time there. And of course, that was the
reason why he built Theobalds because you could get there,
you could get there in a day and the invention of the coach, which is absolutely vital
to the whole geography of, of Elizabethan and Jacobean
London enabled the Monarch and these aristocrats to
quite quickly get out of town to these, there's these ring
of houses outside the city which included Theobalds, which allowed him to spend time there. So the answer to the question is a lot of time spent in royal palaces, quite a lot of time spent in the Strand, a bit of time spent at Theobalds and getting further out
than that was a rare luxury. - Since Burghley House was too
far for Elizabeth to visit, do you suppose one of the
reasons Cecil made Theobalds so extravagant was to entice
her to visit more often and did he have to pay for the vast expense of her
progress to Theobalds? - Yes, well, I mean, Theobalds he started not as
a vast palace for the queen, he started it for himself and for his son but it very quickly became a
place that Elizabeth liked. And of course, what one
has to remember is that the vast majority of
Elizabeth's houses were houses that were started by her grandfather and completed by her father. In other words, they were
houses that had had their heyday in the 1530s. And they were actually
really rather old fashioned. Quite a lot of them had
quite small windows. The, the, the, the plan and the
layout was quite complicated because they were accreted structures. What she loved about Theobalds,
the new house at Theobalds, was that it was, it was, it
was large, it was well-planned with big windows, it was a convenient and comfortable place to live. Much more comfortable
actually than her own houses. And when she stayed there her
Chief Minister paid for her, so it was free. - And there's one last question that I'm afraid I can't resist asking, this one comes in from Valerie and says, "Do you have any
comments on the interesting links between Cecil and Sir Thomas Gresham? For example Gresham sent
William Cecil many gifts including materials for the
building of one of his houses." - Well, I really, I really
ought to be able to answer that question really well, oughtn't I? I think that, that when the Cecils were center, when William Cecil sent his son abroad, he did ask Thomas Gresham
to keep an eye on him. And if I remember rightly
he might've even asked him to stop his son from playing
quite so much tennis, but I might've got that slightly wrong. (laughing) It's about right. - And the last, last question is it known when Somerset place was destroyed? Was it destroyed in the
Great Fire of London? - No, Somerset place absolutely
was not destroyed then, it became the palace of English Queens and it was lived in by Anne
of Denmark, by Henrietta Maria and after the civil war was handed on to the Queens. And in fact, remained
property of English Queens until the reign of George III by which stage it was
terribly old-fashioned. And a swap was done whereby the government
was given the old house, the Somerset House, it was knocked down and turned into government offices whilst George III got the building that we now know as Buckingham palace. - I think that's all we
have time for this evening. Thank you very much Simon,
again, for a wonderful lecture. And thank you to our
audience for attending. I want to assure you that we will be continuing
with our lectures during the period of increased
national restrictions. So please do join us
next week when we have the first lecture from
our visiting professor of Economic History,
Professor Martin Dauton and also the Nailor
Memorial Lecture on Defense, presented by Dr. Sophy Antrobus. Thank you very much and good evening.
