Family / house

Cecil

Family / cadet branch

Cecil of Burghley; Lord Burghley

Armiger / bearer

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

Entity type

individual

Social rank / class

peer

Heraldic authority

Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms; later College of Arms tradition

Record basis

confirmation

Issued / first recorded

1569

Until / superseded

1598-08-04

Historical period

Tudor; Elizabethan

Grant / record reference

Recorded or confirmed in association with the Visitation of Herefordshire of 1569; the arms were subsequently used by William Cecil as Baron Burghley.

Blazon

Barry of ten Argent and Azure, over all six escutcheons Sable, three, two and one, each charged with a Lion rampant Argent, armed and langued Gules.

Plain-English description

Ten alternating horizontal bars of silver and blue, with six black shields placed over them in a three-two-one arrangement; each small shield bears a silver rampant lion with red claws and tongue.

Tinctures

Argent; Azure; Sable; Gules

Charges / ordinaries

six escutcheons; six lions rampant

Crest

On a chapeau Gules turned up Ermine, a garb Or supported by two Lions, the dexter Argent and the sinister Azure; contemporary depictions vary in the precise treatment of the supporting lions.

Motto

COR UNUM VIA UNA

Exterior ornaments

As a baron and Knight of the Garter, Cecil could display a baronial coronet and the Garter; the simple shield is also found without the full achievement.

Source reference

Burghley House, History of the Family

Linked historical person

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

Source

Open source

Genealogical context

Father

Sir Richard Cecil

Mother

Jane Heckington

Spouse(s)

Mary Cheke, daughter of Peter Cheke and sister of Sir John Cheke; Mildred Cooke, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall

Children / next generation

Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter; Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury; Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford; Elizabeth Cecil; Frances Cecil

Documented depiction

Open depiction source

Notes / sources