Queen Elizabeth I; Sir Francis Walsingham; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Queen Elizabeth I; Sir Francis Walsingham; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

by William Faithorne
line engraving, 1655
11 1/4 in. x 6 1/2 in. (286 x 165 mm) paper size
Given by Sir Herbert Henry Raphael, 1st Bt, 1913
Reference Collection
NPG D19080

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

  • William Faithorne (circa 1620-1691), Engraver and draughtsman. Artist or producer associated with 720 portraits, Sitter associated with 4 portraits.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D21165: Queen Elizabeth I; Sir Francis Walsingham; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (from same plate)
  • NPG D21065: Queen Elizabeth I; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley; Sir Francis Walsingham (from same plate)
  • NPG D22722: Queen Elizabeth I; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley; Sir Francis Walsingham (from same plate)

Events of 1655back to top

Current affairs

Secretary of State, John Thurloe, implements a highly efficient intelligence service and thwarts plans for a series of royalist uprisings which produced only Penruddock's revolt.
Following ineffectual royalist riots, Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, appoints nineteen Major-generals to manage regional government and prevent future challenges to the protectorate.

Art and science

Publication of the controversial work De corpore, by philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, prompts mathematician, John Wallis to scornfully refute the work in Elenchus geometriae Hobbianae, starting a bitter, long-running polemical dispute between the two men.



International

General Robert Venables and Admiral William Penn lead an expedition to the Caribbean to threaten Spanish trade routes and weaken Catholic influence in the New World. An integral part of Cromwell's foreign policy to curb Spanish power, the campaign, Cromwell's 'western design', fails leading to war in Europe.

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