“Where Cecil was sober and careful, [Robert] Dudley was fun and exciting and brought with him a circle of soldiers and poets, including the courtly Sir Christopher Hatton (ca. 1540-91), who served her as lord chancellor and parliamentary "mouthpiece"; and the cunning Sir Francis Walsingham (ca. 1532-90), who, as secretary of state from 1573, oversaw her spies and espionage. These men tended to favor an aggressive foreign policy in support of Protestant causes abroad.”
“Cecil had been trained as a lawyer, was associated with the Commonwealthmen, and had served as secretary to Lord Chancellor Somerset. He had proved himself an able and industrious administrator and di...”
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
“Because many of the men in both Cecil's and Dudley's circles also held local offices ranging from lord lieutenant down to JP, theirs were truly national networks of patronage, Elizabethan counterparts...”
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
