Under Elizabeth In 1584, Cecil sat for the first time in the House of Commons, representing his birthplace, the borough of
Westminster, and was re-elected in 1586. He was a back bencher, never making a speech until 1593, some time after having been appointed a
Privy Counsellor. In 1588, he accompanied
Lord Derby in his mission to the Netherlands to negotiate peace with Spain. He was elected for
Hertfordshire in 1589, 1593, 1597, and 1601. The 1591 appointment as a Privy Counsellor came to fruition when by 1597 he became the Council's leader. In 1597, he was made
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in February 1598 dispatched on a mission to
Henry IV of France, to prevent the impending alliance between that country and
Spain. Cecil became the
leading minister after the death of his father in August 1598, serving both Queen Elizabeth and King
James as Secretary of State. Whether Essex intended that Cecil should actually die is unclear. It is to Cecil's credit that the Queen, largely at his urging, treated the rebels with a degree of mercy, which was unusual in that age. Essex himself and four of his closest allies were executed, but the great majority of his followers were spared: even Essex's denunciation of his sister
Penelope, as the ringleader of the rebellion, was tactfully ignored. This clemency did Cecil, on the other hand, no good in the eyes of the public, who had loved Essex and mourned him deeply. Cecil, who had never been very popular, now became a much-hated figure and was viciously attacked in
ballads like ''Essex's Last Good Night''. has been seen as reflecting Cecil's role as spymaster after the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, due to the eyes and ears in the pattern of the dress. Cecil was extensively involved in matters of state security. As the son of Queen Elizabeth's principal minister and a protégé of Francis Walsingham (Elizabeth's principal spymaster), he was trained by them in spy-craft as a matter of course. The "
Rainbow Portrait" of Queen Elizabeth at
Hatfield, decorated with eyes and ears, may relate to this role. Cecil, like his father, greatly admired the Queen, whom he famously described as being "more than a man, but less than a woman". Despite his careful preparations for the succession, he clearly regarded the Queen's death as a misfortune to be postponed as long as possible. During her last illness, when Elizabeth would sit motionless on cushions for hours on end, Cecil boldly told her that she must go to bed. Elizabeth roused herself one last time to snap at him: "Little man, little man, 'Must' is not a word to use to princes. Your father were he here durst never speak to me so"; but she added wryly "Ah, but ye know that I must die, and it makes you presumptuous".
Under James I Sir Robert Cecil now promoted James as successor to Elizabeth. Around 1600, he began a
secret correspondence with James in Scotland, to persuade James that he favoured his claims to the English throne. An understanding was now effected by which Cecil was able to assure James of his succession, ensure his own power and predominance in the new reign against Sir
Walter Raleigh and other competitors, and secure the tranquillity of the last years of Elizabeth. Cecil demanded as conditions that James stop his attempts to obtain parliamentary recognition of his title, that absolute respect should be paid to the queen's feelings, and that the communications should remain a secret. and chancellor of the
University of Cambridge, between 1601 and 1612. In 1603, Cecil's brothers-in-law,
Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham and George Brooke, along with Sir
Walter Raleigh, were implicated in both the
Bye Plot and the
Main Plot, an attempt to remove King James I from the throne and replace him with his first cousin,
Lady Arbella Stuart. Cecil was one of the judges who tried them for
treason: at Raleigh's trial, Cecil was the only judge who appeared to have some doubts about his guilt (which is still a matter of debate, although the prevailing view now is that Raleigh was involved in the Plot to some extent). Though they were found guilty and sentenced to death, both Cobham and Raleigh were eventually reprieved; this may have been due in part to Cecil's pleas for mercy, although the King kept his intentions a secret until the last minute. This was a personal triumph for Cecil which reflected well on James, who wanted to be styled as a European peacemaker between the Protestants and the Catholics. Cecil accepted a pension of £1,000 that year, which was raised the following year to £1,500. The King also rewarded Cecil further creating him
Viscount Cranborne soon after the treaty had been signed and then
Earl of Salisbury the following year. As a result, the whole conduct of public affairs was solely in his hands, although the king often interfered. The Venetian ambassador,
Nicolò Molin, described Cecil as short and "crook-backed", with a noble countenance and features. Cecil was the principal discoverer of the
Gunpowder Plot of 1605: at what point he first learned of it, and to what extent he acted as an
agent provocateur, has been a subject of controversy ever since. On balance, it seems most likely that he had heard rumors of a plot, but had no firm evidence until the Catholic peer,
William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, showed him the celebrated anonymous letter, warning Monteagle to stay away from the opening of Parliament. The Gunpowder Plot itself was a belated reaction to what was seen as the King's betrayal of a pledge to repeal, or at least mitigate, the
Penal Laws. Cecil was undoubtedly among those who advised King James I not to tamper with the existing laws. However, his attitude to
Catholics was not, for the time, especially harsh: he admitted that he was unhappy with the notorious
Jesuits, etc. Act 1584, by which any Catholic priest who was found guilty of acting as a priest in England was liable to the death penalty in its most gruesome form. Like most moderate Englishmen at the time, he thought that exile, rather than death, was the appropriate penalty for the priests. In another letter he wrote that if a certain man failed to gain a place in Prince Henry's household, he should be sent to "Tom Dyrry or to me". Although the applicant was poor he could become rich by charging a fee to all the girls in England who wished to meet the Prince. In 1611 Cecil disapproved of the proposed marriage between the Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spain. He may have also received a pension from France. ==Lord Treasurer==