THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 147
Northumberland and Bacon failed, could have prospered except by the most unscrupulous treachery." It is certain that the sympathy naturally felt for such splendid figures as Essex and Raleigh, and the suspicion that Cecil was in some way responsible for the tragedies of their careers, has involved him in undeserved odium.
The date of Robert Cecil's birth is always said to be uncertain, but one of Burghley's many memoranda of family events preserved at Hatfield, gives it as June ist, 1563, a date which on other grounds may be accepted as probable. He was a sickly youth, and was educated at home under private tutors, until he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1581. Three years later he went to Paris, where he acquired an excellent knowledge of French.
" He was his father's own son," says Sir Robert Naunton, 1 adding, " he was a courtier from his cradle, and had his sufficiency from the instructions of his father, the tutorship of the times and Court, which were then the academies of art and cunning." He early gained the favour of the Queen, and in 1588 he accompanied the mission sent by Elizabeth to treat with the Prince of Parma, and headed by Lord Derby. From Ostend, Cecil and a young Spencer were despatched to Ghent to announce their arrival, and were received by the Prince with elaborate politeness. Writing to his father, Robert mentions that
1 Fragmenta Regalia, p. 138.
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