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 CHAPTER V

THOMAS CECIL, FIRST EARL OF EXETER

AT the time of Lord Burghley's death he had two children only surviving Thomas and Robert. Of these Thomas was afterwards created Earl of Exeter, while Robert on the same day became Earl of Salisbury. The present Marquesses of Exeter and Salisbury are the descendants of the two brothers.

Thomas Cecil was born at Cambridge on May 5th, 1542. Of his youth and education we have no record, but we know that his father, to use his own words, " never showed any fatherly fancy to him but in teaching and correcting." 1 The reason for this coldness on the part of Sir William lay no doubt in the character of Thomas, who was a sturdy, healthy boy, with strong passions, loving sport, eager for a military career, and hating beyond all things the thought of a studious and sedentary life. He incurred his father's heavy displeasure by his " slothfulness," his extrava- gance, his carelessness in dress, and his " inordinate love of unmeet plays, as dice and cards." That

1 Letter from Sir W. Cecil to Throckmorton, May 8th, 1561 (Cal. S. P. Foreign).

2 Cecil to Windebank, September loth, 1561 (ibid.). The letters quoted in the next few pages are all to be found in the State Papers, Domestic and Foreign.

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