St Martin's is perhaps most famous as the resting place of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the most enduring English statesman of the Tudor state. Apart from the five years of Mary I's rule, 1553-8, Cecil was at the heart of power for nearly half a century from 1550 to his death in 1598. Other Cecil family tombs also feature prominently in St Martin's, which itself was rebuilt in the late 15th century.