 King James I raised Robert Cecil to the peerage, on 20 August 1603, as Baron Cecil of Essendon in the County of Rutland, before creating him Viscount Cranborne in 1604, and then Earl of Salisbury in 1605.Cecil was appointed to the Order of the Garter as its 401st Knight in 1606.In 1607, James appointed him as Lord Treasurer, succeeding Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset.