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William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

6 of 45 portraits of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

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William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

by Unknown artist
oil on panel, after 1587
44 1/2 in. x 35 7/8 in. (1130 mm x 911 mm)
Purchased, 1873
Primary Collection
NPG 362

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Unknown artist, Artist. Artist or producer associated with 6580 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This portrait of Burghley differs from most others in its fine modelling of his features. Burghley wears his robes of a Knight of the Garter, with the splendid collar, or 'Greater George', of the Order around his neck., he also holds the white wand of office.

Linked publicationsback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1587back to top

Current affairs

Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots for conspiring to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth signs the death warrant of her cousin with considerable misgivings.
Queen Elizabeth I forces Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester to resign his post as Governor-General of the Netherlands.
Sir Francis Drake sacks the Spanish port Cadiz thereby forcing Philip II of Spain to postpone his planned invasion of England by a year.

Art and science

First performance of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great.
The property developer Philip Henslowe builds the Rose Theatre in Southwark, London.
The Protestant reformer John Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland is published posthumously.

International

Birth of Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in America. She is granddaughter to John White, the governor of the second colony to be established on Roanoke Island (in present-day North Carolina, USA).
Pope Sixtus V calls for a Catholic crusade against England to depose the Protestant Queen Elizabeth.

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