was not taken or burnt, that Cadiz was not sacked, and that the treasure-ships were not captured. The superior officers of the expedition, especially the Earl of Essex, did not hesitate to prefer a formal charge of misconduct against the general. It appears to have been cursorily examined by the king in council, but no evidence was taken; the favour of the Duke of Buckingham and Cecil's denial of every point were held to be sufficient to warrant a full acquittal; and thus, far from receiving every censure, his credit at court rose and continued to rise till, a few years later and after the more disastrous failure at the Isle of Ré, even the people began to consider him as an heroic leader of armies. His elevation to the peerage had been announced before the fleet sailed, and he had since been even officially addressed as Lord Wimbledon, though his patent as Baron Cecil of Putney was not dated till 9 Nov., while the fleet was vainly looking out for the treasure-ships off Cape St. Vincent, nor was he actually created Viscount Wimbledon till 25 July 1626. On 18 Dec. 1626 he received a commission as lieutenant of the county of Surrey. In 1627 he held a command at the siege of Groll, and at Bois-le-Duc in 1629. On 30 July 1630 he was appointed governor of Portsmouth, an office which he held till his death, 15 Nov. 1638. During this time he seems to have been recognised as the highest English authority on military affairs. He was a member of numberless committees and councils of war; even Buckingham did not disdain to receive advice from him (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 12 Oct. (?) 1627), and Sir Kenelm Digby wrote (21–31 Jan. 1636–7) to the effect that ‘England is happy in producing persons who do actions which after ages take for romances; witness King Arthur and Cadwallader of ancient time, and the valiant and ingenious peer, the Lord Wimbledon, whose epistle exceeds anything ever done by so victorious a general of armies, or so provident a governor of towns.’
He was three times married, the last only two years before his death (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1636–7, p. 149); but leaving issue only four daughters, all by the first wife, the title became extinct (ib. 1638–9, p. 106). His last wife, Sophia, daughter of Sir Edward Zouch, who was described (27 Nov. 1638) as a rich young widow, lived to a ripe old age, and died in November 1691 (Collins, Peerage (1768), iii. 118).
[Wimbledon's own account of the Cadiz Expedition is his Journal and Relation, &c. (1626, sm. 4to); another account, which must be considered as to a great extent also Wimbledon's, is The Voyage to Cadiz, by John Glanville, edited by Rev. A. B. Grosart (Camden Society, 1883), the introduction to which contains a summary of nearly all that is known as to Wimbledon's life; The charge delivered by the Earl of Essex and nine other Colonels at the Council Table against the Viscount Wimbledon, general of the last Cales voyage, with his answer, containing a full relation of the defeat of the same voyage is printed in Lord Lansdowne's Works (1732), ii. 249. The original manuscript is in the Brit. Mus. Harl. 37, f. 88. Copies of the Journal of the Swiftsure are in Harl. MS. 354, No. 34, and in S. P. Dom. Charles I, xi. 22; see also Gardiner's Hist. of England, vi. 1–24, where there is an excellent map of Cadiz. A Life of Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, by Mr. Charles Dalton, was published in two volumes in 1885.]
CECIL, JAMES, third Earl of Salisbury (d. 1683), was the son of Charles, lord Viscount Cranbourn, and Jane, daughter and coheiress of James Maxwell, earl of Dirleton in Scotland. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where one of his acquaintances was Joshua Barnes [q. v.], author of the ‘Life of Edward III,’ who states that for ‘loyalty, generosity, and affability’ he was most likely to ‘advance the noble name of Cecil to the utmost period of glory.’ On 21 Oct. 1669 he took his seat in the House of Peers, where he was a zealous opponent of the Duke of York's succession. In February 1676–7 he was committed with other noblemen to the Tower for supporting the proposition of the Duke of Buckingham, that ‘the last prorogation of parliament was null and void in law’ (Eachard, History of England, 3rd ed. 928). In January 1678–9 he was sworn a privy councillor and took his seat at the board (Luttrell, Diary, i. 5). In August 1680 he was elected a knight of the Garter. He died in May 1683 (ib. 260). By his wife, Margaret, daughter of John Manners, earl of Rutland, who died in France 30 Aug. 1682 (ib. 215), he left five sons and five daughters.
[Collins's Peerage, 5th ed. iii. 148–9; Luttrell's Diary; Eachard's History of England.]
CECIL, JAMES, fourth Earl of Salisbury (d. 1693), was the eldest son of James, third earl of Salisbury [q. v.], and Margaret, daughter of John Manners, earl of Rutland. He married Frances, one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Simon Bennet of Beechampton, Buckinghamshire, when she was only thirteen years old (Luttrell, Diary, i. 209). ‘Salisbury,’ says Lord Macaulay, ‘was foolish to a proverb. His figure was so bloated by sensual indulgence as to be almost incapable of moving; and this sluggish body was the abode of an equally sluggish mind. He was represented in popular lampoons as a man made to be duped, as a man
