Ultimate Tudor Spy-Master: Robert Cecil

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

Robert Cecil, statesman and spymaster, stood at the heart of the Tudor and then Stuart state, a vital figure in managing the succession from Elizabeth I to James I & VI, warding off military and religious threats and steering the decisions of two very different but equally wilful and hard-to-manage monarchs.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Stephen Alford, author of All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil, about a man who became supremely skilled in the arts of power, making many rivals and enemies.

This episode was edited by Tean Stuart-Murray and produced by Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Suzanne Ellipscombe, and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit,
0:07.0	the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Berlin to the Aztecs,
0:11.0	from Holbine to the Huguenoes, from Shakespeare to
0:14.7	samurai. Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and
0:20.1	witchcraft. Not in other words just the tutors, but most definitely also the tutors. As the son of Elizabeth the first chief minister Lord Burley, Robert Cecil was always
0:41.6	destined to enter the Queen's service, though few could have predicted either the heights to which he would descend or his longevity.
0:49.0	Joining the Queen's Privy Council in 1591, he gained the titles of Secretary of State and Lord Privy Seal, serving
0:55.8	Elizabeth until her death in 1603 and continuing under her successor James A 6th and 1st,
1:02.0	where he rose once more to Lord High Treasurer.
1:05.0	Beyond a stolid political exterior, lay a man whose political acumen, skills and networks helped
1:10.9	him steer through a period of English history marked by war and
1:14.3	questions of succession. Many of the events which shaped his life and career, the
1:18.8	union of the crowns, the gunpowder plot among them, will be well known to
1:22.3	listeners. Though the name Robert
1:24.4	Cecil may be slightly less familiar. Returning to the podcast today to reclaim Cecil's
1:29.8	legacy is Stephen Orford, professor of early Modern British History at the University of Leeds and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
1:37.0	His books include a masterful work on Elizabethan spies, The Watchers, and London's Triumph, and The Watchers and Money in Shakespeare City.
1:46.4	And his new book.
1:47.7	All his spies, The Secret World of Robert Cecil, is released this month. I'm Professor Suzanne Lipscomb. This is not just the tutors.
1:57.9	Stephen, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you. It is a very great pleasure to be here.
2:03.2	Now it's impossible to discuss Robert Cessor without first talking about the influence of his father,
2:09.2	Lord Burley.
	...

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