ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book states that the years 1588 and 1591 brought about a significant generational and political change with the deaths of senior members of the Elizabethan entourage that had formed the inner circle of power in the first part of the reign. When the clerk of the signet Charles Yetsweirt died in 1595, he was immediately succeeded by Nicholas Faunt; after the death of principal secretary Walsingham, however, his place remained nominally vacant for six years. Robert Cecil and Robert Devereux officially began their careers through appointment to the Privy Council in 1591 and 1593 respectively, and although both were involved to varying degrees in the secretarial work of the household administration, neither officially held any such office for several years. The secretariat of the 1590s was thus a mixture of bureaucratic and household elements, of established officials and private secretaries.
