William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
© National Portrait Gallery, London
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
by Unknown artist
oil on canvas, 1590s
88 1/4 in. x 55 1/4 in. (2230 mm x 1403 mm)
Purchased, 1972
Primary Collection
NPG 4881
Sitterback to top
- William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (1520 or 1521-1598), Lord High Treasurer. Sitter associated with 45 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Burghley is shown in this portrait holding the white rod of the Lord High Treasurer. He wears a cameo of Queen Elizabeth I on his hat.
Linked publicationsback to top
- MacLeod, Catherine, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery Collection at Montacute House, 1999, p. 15
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 89
Events of 1590back to top
Current affairs
King James VI of Scotland brings his wife Anne of Denmark to Edinburgh for her coronation at Holyrood Abbey.Death of Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's Principal Secretary and spymaster.
The colonial governor John White returns to Roanoke Island (in present day North Carolina, USA) to find the settlement deserted. The lost colonists include his granddaughter Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in America.
Art and science
The courtier, poet and soldier Sir Philip Sidney's pastoral romance Arcadia is published posthumously. It is one of the first English vernacular works to achieve a European readership, with translations into French, German, Dutch and Italian.The poet and administrator Edmund Spenser publishes the first three books of The Faerie Queene, an epic allegorical poem in praise of Queen Elizabeth I.
International
Henry IV of France defeats the Catholic League under Charles, Duke of Mayenne at the Battle of Ivry. The King marches on Paris before being driven back by Catholic forces sent by Philip II of Spain.Abbas I, Shah of Persia makes peace with the Ottoman Empire, allowing him to campaign agaist the Uzbeks.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats the Hojo clan at the Siege of Odawara, Japan. The victory completes Hideyoshi's military reunification of Japan.
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