William Cecil Lord Burleigh, by John Goldar (1784)

John Goldar was a line and stipple engraver. During the 1760s, he engraved at least fourteen humorous paintings by John Collet, an artist dubbed 'the second Hogarth', eleven of which were commissioned by the publisher and picture dealer Thomas Bradford. He engraved copies of other comic paintings by a variety of artists including Herbert Pugh, Philip Dawes and Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, for the printsellers and picture dealers Henry Parker, John Wesson and Robert Sayer. Goldar exhibited with the Society of Artists from 1769 to 1772. He produced numerous portraits and views of naval battles for James Harrison's edition of Paul de Rapin-Thoyras's History of England. William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley KG PC (13 September 1520 4 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (15501553 and 15581572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1572. In his description in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Albert Pollard wrote, "From 1558 for forty years the biography of Cecil is almost indistinguishable from that of Elizabeth and from the history of England." Cecil set as the main goal of English policy the creation of a united and Protestant British Isles. His methods were to complete the control of Ireland, and to forge an alliance with Scotland. Protection from invasion required a powerful Royal Navy. While he was not fully successful, his successors agreed with his goals. In 1587, Cecil persuaded the Queen to order the execution of the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, after she was implicated in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth. He was the father of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and founder of the Cecil dynasty (Marquesses of Exeter and of Salisbury) which has produced many politicians including two Prime Ministers.