Mildred Cooke

Mildred Cooke
Effigies of Mildred, Lady Burghley, and her daughter, Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford, in Westminster Abbey.
Born	1526
Died	4 April 1589 (aged 62–63) Cecil House, Strand, London
Burial place	Westminster Abbey, London
Known for	translator
Title	Lady Burghley
Spouse(s)	William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
Children	William Cecil William Cecil (again) Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury Francisca Cecil Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford Elizabeth Cecil
Parent(s)	Sir Anthony Cooke Anne Fitzwilliam

Mildred Cooke, Lady Burghley (1526 – 4 April 1589) was an English noblewoman and translator in the 16th century. She was the wife of Elizabeth I's most trusted adviser, William Cecil, 1st Lord Burghley, and the mother of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, adviser to James I.

Mildred Cooke, born in 1526, was the eldest of the five daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke (d. 11 June 1576), son of John Cooke (d. 10 October 1515), esquire, of Gidea Hall, Essex, and Alice Saunders (d. 1510), daughter and coheiress of William Saunders of Banbury, Oxfordshire by Jane Spencer, daughter of John Spencer, esquire, of Hodnell, Warwickshire. Her paternal great-grandparents were Sir Philip Cooke (d. 7 December 1503) and Elizabeth Belknap (died c. 6 March 1504). Her paternal great-great-grandparents were Sir Thomas Cooke, a wealthy member of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and Lord Mayor of London in 1462–3, and Elizabeth Malpas, daughter of Philip Malpas, Master of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and Sheriff of London.

Mildred Cooke's mother was Anne Fitzwilliam, the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors and Sheriff of London, by his first wife, Anne Hawes, daughter of Sir John Hawes.

She had four brothers, Anthony, Sir Richard, Edward and William, and four sisters, three of whom were also known for their scholarship: Anne Cooke, who married, as his second wife, Sir Nicholas Bacon; Katherine Cooke, who married Sir Henry Killigrew; Elizabeth Cooke, who married firstly Sir Thomas Hoby and secondly John, Lord Russell (c.1553–1584), second son of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford and first wife Margaret St John (1533 - 1562), daughter of Sir John St John (great-grandson of Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso) and Margaret Walgrave.