What caused the death of William Cecil, Baron Burghley, in 1598?

In this Series:

• A Brief Bio of William Cecil Until his Creation as Baron of Burghley.
• The Baron Burghley's Lifelong Struggle, Home Remedies and Quack Cures.
• The Decline of William Cecil, Baron of Burghley.
• What caused the death of William Cecil, Baron Burghley, in 1598?

We have been following the progress of William Cecil's chronic malady, referred to as gout, through the last 35 years of his life. The first reference of which I am aware to a symptom of his disease is in a letter from Bishop Edmund Grindal dated October 15, 1563. The bishop refers to an incident from a year earlier that might also have been the same issue.

It is said your pain is in your back … I do remember one morning, a year and more agone, ye shewed me your doublets cut and voided in the back, and that ye feared the stone.¹

Cecil seems never to have experienced kidney stones but they were dreaded by everyone in the English world. The famous French essayist, Montaigne, for one example, would arrange his life around avoiding attacks of “the stone”.

The more persistent problem of which Cecil complained was neuropathy in his legs and feet. It was ever more pronounced as he grew older. By 1571, it had begun to affect his hands and arms.

The discomfort and weakness was sometimes better, sometimes worse. When worse, Cecil ̶ in 1572 created Baron of Burghley ̶ tried to spend as much time as possible in retirement at his favorite country seat Theobalds.

The Queen's administration depended heavily on Burghley for its many successes. Her compassion for his suffering on several particular occasions is touching. He was the only courtier permitted to be seated in her presence. By 1591 matters had gotten so bad that the old counselor craved the pleasure of Theobalds almost continuously and we have a remarkably understanding and playful record of her sympathy.

It is described in Strype's Annals as follows:

The Queen's charter of Quietus Est with her broad seal appendant, to the lord treasurer Burghley, discharging him from attendance on her, and to enjoy his beloved Theobalds, anno 1591 . Drawn up by the queen herself in a facetious style, to cheer the said treasurer, who was, it seems, melancholy, and desirous to retire to a private life at his seat at Theobalds.²

The mock charter was carefully crafted in formal “old text hand” but in Elizabeth's own English. It begins as follows:

ELIZABETHA Angiorum id est, a nitore angelorum, regina formosissima et felicissima:

To the disconsolate and retyred spryte, the heremite of Tyboll, and to al oother disaffected sowles, claiming by, from, or under the said heremit, sendeth greting.³

And commands, among several playful commands:

Wee upon advised consideration have commanded you heremit, to yoor old cave, too good for the forsaken, too bad for oour worthily belooved coouncillour. And becauz we greatly tender yoor comfort, we have given [power] to oour chauncillour, to make oout such and so many writs, as to him shal be thought good, to abjure desolations and mourning (the consumer of sweetness)...

The Queen's Principle Secretary, Francis Walsingham, having died in 1590, however, Burghley would continue both to perform the duties of that office and as the Lord High Treasurer from Theobald's, as among histories first remote workers. His son, Robert Cecil, would represent him and the offices at Court.

In 1597, Burghley keeps his letters to Robert short “...for lack of a strong hand”. Longer letters and records are dictated to secretaries except for the occasional few lines added by the old Treasurer as a personal touch for old friends. His mind remains clear and capable.

A letter to his son, of June 10, 1598, he signs off to his son, from Theobalds, with “And so I end, with an ill stomach to write of these matters, as I have tormente...”. Another of July 10, 1598, tells of a visit from the Queen to attend him in his sick-bed at his London house in the Strand. In all he is self-effacing to the end, calls his son diligently to serve the Queen.

In the end, we have the loving description of an anonymous servant of the old Lord.

Complayninge onlie of a paine in his breſt. Which was thought to be the humor of the gowte (wherewith he was so long [troubled &] possessed) falling to that place. Without anie ague, fever, or signe of [any other] distemper or daunger. And that paine not greate, nor contynuall, but [coming] by fitts. And so [it] contynued, till within one night before his death.

At [which] night, at six of the clock, the phisitions, finding no distemper in his pulse, or bodie, [assured] his life. Affirming it was impossible he should be hart-strike [he should be having a heart-attack], that had so good a temper, & so perfect [a] pulse & senses.

A stabbing pain had started again in his back.

Next he lost the power of speech on and off and them completely.

So he contynnued speechles & senceles, lyeing still, as it weare in a sleepe, without paine, tyll it was eight of the clocke in the morning, & then died.

Wherein one thinge was observed most straunge, [viz.] That, though manie watched to see when he should die, he laie looking so sweetlie, and went away so myldlie, as in a sleepe, that it could scarce be perceaved when the breth went out of his bodye!

William Cecil, Baron of Burghley, died at 8:00 in the morning of August 4^th, 1598.

While persistent thirst and frequent and sweet urine was known in ancient times, the nature of the underlying disease was not. Many causes were theorized but having no means to study internal chemical operations of the body meant that all were wrong. Little progress was made in the 17^th century although 'in 1675 the word "mellitus," meaning honey, was added to the name "diabetes," meaning siphon.'⁴

The first effective analyses of the source of the disease were begun in an informal manner during the late-to-mid 18^th century. Dr. Francis Home seems to have made the best guess as to the cause, attributing it to “a defect of the animal or assimilatory process, by which the aliment is converted into the nature of our body.” Still, the means to understand further did not yet exist.

Some have said that diabetes was not common even in the 18^th century but I submit that the disease was somewhat common during the Middle Ages, due to high alcohol consumption, diets heavy in red meats and rich sauces, and much moreso after the introduction of sugar into the western diet. In the West, at this time, it was the most common disease that went under the name “gout,” especially “intestinal gout”. This largely because pain in the big toe was the determinant at the time for the diagnosis of gout. Further symptoms were simply used to determine what type of gout.

William Cecil, the Baron Burghley, displayed classic symptoms of diabetes milletus: neuropathy in legs and feet, spreading into arms and hands and deteriorating eye-sight. He experienced better and worse phases as he blindly changed his diet and daily routine in hopes of improvement. No other treatment was possible.

If he suffered thirst and frequent urination ̶ and he is likely to have experienced those symptoms ̶ he probably did not wish to write of such private matters to his correspondents. Wasting and lack of appetite, as he approached the end, was mentioned.

The pain in his back, in 1563, is surely a reference to an attack of pancreatitis. Such attacks are extremely painful and often mistaken for a heart-attack. The repeat of the symptom, immediately before he lapsed into a diabetic coma, was probably the final crisis that brought about his death at the then advanced age of 78 years.

1 Nicholson, William. The Remains of Edmund Grindal, D.D. Successively Bishop of London, and Archbishop of York and Canterbury (1843). 280-2. Citing Lansdown MS. 6. No. 77.

2Strype, John. Annals (1824). IV.108. No. LIV.

3Ibid.

4McCoy, Krishna. The History of Diabetes (2009). https://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/understanding/diabetes-mellitus-through-time.aspx.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Catherine Gray Elopes and Honeymoons in The Tower. June 15, 2023. “The Queen went one morning to Eltham to hunt, when Lady Jane and Lady Catherine,...”
• Seeking Out the Elusive Tudor Masque. June 4, 2023. “...for new making of divers garments & altering & translating of sundry other garments for the furnishing of a mask...”

• The Stanley Family Papers on the Earl of Derby's Mysterious Death. April 8, 2023. “Strange events, of course, occurred at Lathom, according to statements later given under oath.”

• Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador. March 21, 2023. "The reason to delay his first audience under this pretext would soon be known."

• A Brief Introduction to the Tudor Inn. February 5, 2023. "A London inn was homey enough, it would seem."

• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

• Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.