The Cecil Papers

ProQuest has teamed with The Hatfield House Archives to digitize their privately held collection of almost 30,000 documents gathered by William Cecil (1520-1598), Lord Burghley and his son Robert Cecil (1563-1612), First Earl of Salisbury. This important collection includes many sixteenth- and seventeenth-century state papers, grants from the Crown, legal documents, treaties, correspondences, and political memoranda.

One of Elizabeth I’s closest advisors, William Cecil was both Lord High Treasurer and Secretary of State – a position also held by his son, who continued to serve Elizabeth’s successor, James I. Occupying some of the highest offices of state in the land, these men were at the heart of events during one of the most dynamic periods in western history.

Key events covered in this collection include:

• The clandestine plans for James’ accession to the English throne
• Mary Queen of Scots’ imprisonment and execution
• Tudor re-conquest of Ireland
• The Spanish Armada
• Military events in the Low Countries
• Gunpowder Plot
• The Main Plot and imprisonment of Sir Walter Raleigh
• Early English settlement of America

All the documents, which include a number of contemporary hand-drawn maps, tables, and letters, have been reproduced as full-color, high-quality images directly from original documents. These images can be examined using a dynamic viewing tool or downloaded as PDFs of JPEGs.