The watchers
Subtitle: a secret history of the reign of Elizabeth I
By: Stephen Alford
Publisher: Allen Lane
Published: 2012
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 397
ISBN-13: 9781846142604; 9780141930848
Subjects: Relations with statesmen; Adversaries; Conspiracies; History; Espionage; Foreign relations; Politics and government
Description: "Elizabeth I was a ruler who radiated a sense of power and purpose. Her long and successful reign was the apotheosis of the Tudor dynasty. Her subjects themselves felt that they were living in exceptional times and her reign has always been remembered as an age of unique wealth, confidence and adventure. Across much of Europe, however, Elizabeth was viewed very differently. She was 'Jezebel', the bastard offspring of Henry VIII's illegal second marriage [to Anne Boleyn], a woman and a Protestant. The pope [Pius V] denounced her as a heretic schismatic tyrant, and the most powerful rulers of Europe conspired to destroy her, their plans most fully realized by the [1588] Spanish Armada. If Elizabeth's reign was a golden age, then it was also a precarious one that needed constant, anxious surveillance against sometimes overwhelming threats. [This] is [an] ... account of the unflagging battle by spies, codebreakers, ambassadors an d confidence-men to protect the queen. It was a reign that required endless watchfulness - of the coasts, of the Catholic seminaries, of Elizabeth's own subjects. The stakes could not have been higher: priests coming secretly ashore were hunted down and executed, and assassination plots, real and imagined, sprung up everywhere. ..."--Book jacket.
Notes: Color maps on lining papers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 365-377) and index.