June 1

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, was born in England on the 1st in 1563. He was a diplomat and minister to Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. He had a rather striking appearance. Whenever you are involved in public service, you have to expect that not everyone is going to like you. Cecil’s contemporaries described him as being “a slight, crooked, hump-backed young gentleman, dwarfish in stature, but with a face not irregular in feature, and thoughtful and subtle in expression, with reddish hair, a thin tawny beard, and large, pathetic, greenish-coloured eyes, with a mind and manners already trained to courts and cabinets, and with a manner almost ingenuous, as compared to the massive dissimulation with which it was to be contrasted, and with what was, in aftertimes, to constitute a portion of his own character" Even his own boss, the Queen, often referred to him as “my elf” and “my pygmy”. He dealt with the attitude of his adversaries as best he could but I am certain did not particularly care for Elizabeth’s comments. And I’ll bet that he was never asked what bridge he lived under, like someone I know.
It was widely believed by his contemporaries, that Robert was the prime mover behind the Gunpowder Plot, in which Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament on the notorious Fifth of November in 1605.