Burghley

He was certainly in a position of influence longer than any other royal councillor who could possibly claim to rival him. At the age of twenty-eight he was already a member of the inner circle that ran the country on behalf of Edward VI. He was still advising Elizabeth I half a century later. Simply to survive during such a period of violently competing ideologies was in itself an achievement. To head the governmental machine throughout the greater part of Elizabeth’s reign demanded political acumen of the highest order.