Cecil was the third son of
Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, and his wife, Dorothy Neville, daughter of
John Neville, 4th Baron Latimer, by his wife,
Lucy Somerset, daughter of
Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester. He was a grandson of
Queen Elizabeth's great minister
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. Cecil served with the English forces in the
Netherlands between 1596 and 1610, becoming a captain of foot in 1599. In May 1600 he was appointed to a troop of cavalry, which he commanded at the
battle of Nieuport, under
Sir Francis Vere. In 1601 he commanded a body of one thousand men raised in London for the relief of
Ostend,
then besieged by the Spanish, and on his return in September was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. He was elected Member of Parliament for
Aldborough in 1601. In the spring of 1602, he was colonel of a regiment of English horse under
Prince Maurice, and served in the expedition into
Brabant and at the
Siege of Grave. He commanded the English cavalry during the
conquest of Sluis in 1604 during which he played a part in defeating the relief attempt by
Ambrogio Spinola. He continued actively serving during the years immediately following, and made his reputation as a soldier. In 1610 he commanded the British and Irish contingent of four thousand men serving under
Prince Christian of Anhalt in the
War of the Jülich succession, at the siege of
Juliers in July and August. At court, his credit also stood high. In March 1612 he was sent, as the prince's proxy, to stand sponsor at the baptism of
Henry Casimir, son of
Count Ernest of Nassau, and
Sophia Hedwig, niece of
Anne of Denmark, at
Arnhem. Cecil gave gifts of a cupboard of gilt plate, a diamond necklace with a locket, horses, and an embroidered petticoat for Sophia Hedwig. In April 1613 he had a commission to receive and pay all money for the journey of Lady Elizabeth and her husband, and in November he was ordered to request his lady to attend the electress at Heidelberg. In January 1618 he sued in vain for the comptrollership, and in February for the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster. In 1620 he was nominated by
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham to command the English troops in Germany, but was superseded by
Sir Horace Vere on the demand of Count Dohna, the agent of the king of Bohemia in England. A quarrel ensued between Cecil and Dohna, in the course of which Cecil assured his opponent that it was only his character as an ambassador which protected him from a demand for personal satisfaction. He was elected MP for
Chichester in 1621. He supported
Sir James Perrot's call on the
House of Commons of England to commit to military support for the Palatinate in the early stages of the
Thirty Years' War saying "This declaration comes from heaven. It will do more for us than if we had ten thousand soldiers on the march." In 1624 he was elected MP for
Dover. Cecil was given command of Buckingham's military expedition to Spain in October 1625, but so mismanaged the
attack on Cadiz that he entirely missed the treasure ships which were the main objective of the attack. Nevertheless, in the following month, November 1625, he was raised to the peerage as
Baron Cecil of Putney and
Viscount Wimbledon, on the basis of his seat,
Wimbledon House in Surrey. He returned to command the English forces in the Netherlands from 1627 (the
Siege of Groenlo) until 1629 (the
Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch). He served as
Lord Lieutenant of Surrey from 1627 to 1638 and was
Governor of Portsmouth from 1630 to 1638. He remained highly placed in the military establishment. ==Family==