History Features

So was your ancestor Robert Cecil, involved in the gunpowder plot?

RC: What really happened I think was that the Catholics were very disappointed when James 1st came to the throne in 1603. He made a number of proposals which sounded to them like giving them much more toleration and cutting them a better deal. But by 1604ish, bitter experience made them think he'd broken his word and they resented it, so they resorted to violence. That led to the conspiracy and the great story we know.

Hatfield House

What I think is clear is that my ancestor, like his father, had an extremely well run intelligence service. In fact his father and Sir Francis Walsingham were the fathers of British intelligence. And he, I'm sure, got wind of the plot, but of course like any sensible security man he didn't necessarily spring the trap too soon. Of course, if you spring it at the last minute it's that much more dramatic and you can make that much more political capital out of it, which he duly did. And one of the results of making political capital out of it is the fact that we still celebrate bonfire night to this day.

How did your family come to own Hatfield House?

RC: When Burleigh, who was the father of the builder of this house, became Queen Elizabeth's chief minister, he wanted to prove that he came from a tremendously aristocratic lineage, which of course he wasn't. He built great houses for himself and divided his estates on his death between his eldest son who inherited Burleigh, that great house near Stamford. His southern estates centred on a great house called Theobalds, near Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and he gave them to his second son.

When old Burleigh died, King James 1st came to Theobalds and liked it and said I'll swap Hatfield for it! Even if you were Lord Treasurer, which Robert Cecil was, you couldn't say no to the King, but he still drove a hard bargain. He got 18 manors thrown in, so he couldn't complain too much! But he arrived at what was the old palace and decided that this was too old fashioned, so he pulled down three quarters of it and with the bricks he helped build this enormous place. He built this in four years from 1607 to 1611 and it cost him £40,000. It was a huge sum of money, nearly ten per cent of the revenue of the English crown.

You mention that Cecil was one of the fathers of British intelligence, was it all MI5 not 9-5 in the 1600s?

RC: They were extraordinarily sophisticated people. In the 16th century people loved puzzles. They loved codes. Imagery was important and meanings within meanings, so it was ready made for the world of the spy, which was very much part of England.

Robert Cecil Marquess of Salisbury

England was threatened by Philip of Spain and the Catholics and the government wanted to make sure the Elizabethan settlement could survive. So it's hardly surprising there was a 16th century cold war between the Catholic powers led by Spain and little England who was trying to survive. All sorts of people were embroiled in the toils of this and certainly here we have documents preserved, many of which are in code and are about the shenanigans that were going on in those days.

Have you ever tried to have the code broken?

RC: I used to be in the government in the days when I was in politics. I have come across people who are interested in codes today and have shown a couple of them from time to time and said it would be quite interesting if you cracked that. I understand that some of them are pretty sophisticated.

Throughout your research is there one thing that really surprised you about Robert Cecil?

RC: Yes, his son joined the Parliamentary side during the Civil War. There is a low down reason that he might have done that, and that's because he wanted to preserve Hatfield. The house we have down in Dorset, which was in Cavalier territory, was sacked as a result by Prince Morris.

But there is a more high minded reason he gave for doing that [joining the Parliamentary side] which is more interesting. If you believed absolutely in the legitimacy of the succession of the crown you might find yourself landed with a Roman Catholic monarch, which wouldn't do at all, not if you were him [Cecil]. So you had to find a superior authority which would signify acceptance of the right of the King or Queen to succeed. And this [superior authority] was Parliament. In 1603 this was a new fangled notion.

Think about it, once Charles I exceeded his authority as King, which Parliament felt he had done, you’re beginning to get very close to the supremacy of Parliament which is, I think, the only really important part of the British constitution. I'm not saying he [Cecil] was the originator but I think he was one of the people who encouraged those seeds to grow and I think we should be very proud of that.