Francis Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster - British Heritage Travel Manage Subscription You are at: Home » Elizabeth I »Francis Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster Francis Walsingham's two great hates were Spain and Mary, Queen of Scots. Spain as a threat to his country and Mary as a threat to his Queen. Francis Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster Elizabeth I , Francis Walsingham , Mary Queen of Scots , Military Leaders Throughout Elizabeth I’s reign England was in constant danger both from external and internal threats. Spain and France looked north and regarded the country as heretical and a potential enemy to their expanding empires. At home, the supporters of Mary Tudor, the late Queen, looked to another Mary, the Queen of Scots, as a Catholic heir to replace the Protestant Elizabeth. In times of crisis a government needs good, accurate and reliable intelligence. That came from one man, Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster.

Walsingham was the only son of William Walsingham of Footscray in Kent, by his wife Joyce, Daughter of Sir Edmund Denny, William died the year following Francis’ birth and his mother married Sir John Carey, a distant relation by marriage of Anne Boleyn’s family. Francis went to King’s College, Cambridge, in 1548, but left two years later having failed to take his degree. From 1550 to 1552 he traveled abroad and succeeded in becoming fluent in both French and Italian. Soon after he returned to England, Mary Tudor ascended throne and Francis found himself on the wrong side of the religious tracks. Fearing arrest for his outspoken Protestant views, he decided it prudent to return abroad. His mother’s family were strong Protestants and most of his tutors at Cambridge were of the same denomination, so he was a natural target for Mary and an equally natural supporter of her sister, Elizabeth. He is even thought to have been involved in a minor way in the anti-Catholic plots of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Over the next nine years he traveled extensively in Italy and central Europe, studying law and politics.

The methods he learned at the various Italian Courts served him well in the years to come. By 1560, with Elizabeth as Queen, he was back in England and in 1562 was returned as Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis. That same year he married a widow, Ann Carteill but she died two years later, leaving him without children. In 1566 he married the widow of Sir Richard Worsley and by her he had a daughter, Frances. She later married Sir Philip Sydney and, after his death, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. At the age of 36, Francis came to the attention of Elizabeth’s first minister, William Cecil, who offered him a position at Court. He took charge of the small network of secret agent Cecil had established and so started 22 years of loyal, unswerving service to the Queen. Elizabeth nicknamed him her ‘Moor’ because of his swarthy complexion and habitual black clothing. She was occasionally his guest at his home in Surrey and although they did not always agree on policy, she trusted him implicitly.

In 1570 Cecil sent him as ambassador to Paris where he was involved with the negotiations for several treaties. He was in the city when the Hugenots were murdered in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew on 24th August 1572, which reinforced his hatred of foreign Catholic regimes. He was recalled from Paris in 1573 and appointed Secretary of State, a post he held until his death. The modern-day equivalent would be Foreign Secretary and head of MI5 and 6. He was the Elizabethan ‘M.’ Walsingham’s two great hates were Spain and Mary, Queen of Scots; Spain as a threat to his country and Mary as a threat to his Queen. He was convinced that England could only be safe with the complete defeat of Spain and the removal of Mary. To this end he expanded the network of spies to more than 50 agents, many of them paid out of his own pocket. He soon had agents in the courts of France, Spain, the Low Countries, Germany, the United Provinces, and even Turkey. He was like a black spider at the center of a great web.

Elizabeth was reluctant to move against her cousin, but Walsingham had no such qualms. Late in 1585 a trainee priest named Gilbert Gifford was intercepted coming from France through the port of Rye. He was taken to Walsingham who learned that Gifford was to act as messenger between Mary and her supporters on the Continent. Walsingham turned Gifford and persuaded him to work for the Government. He was to tell Mary that a system for smuggling letters and papers between her and Europe had been set up. In fact, the spymaster himself constructed this route so that all correspondence passed through his hands before it crossed the Channel. Walsingham’s secretary, Thomas Phelipps, was an expert code breaker so all Mary’s communications were monitored. In May 1586 Mary sent two letters, one to the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, giving her support to an invasion of England. The other was to a supporter, Charles Paget, asking him to remind Phillip of Spain of the urgency for invasion. Both passed through Walsingham’s hands. The following month Sir Anthony Babington and a Catholic priest, John Ballard, were heard discussing the proposed Spanish invasion and the plot to murder Elizabeth.

All this evidence still did not implicate Mary directly in a plot against Elizabeth. On 17th July Walsingham received what he had been waiting for–a letter, in reply to one from Babington, written by Mary and giving her approval to the plot to murder the Queen. Walsingham moved quickly. Ballard and Babington were arrested and placed in the Tower of London. Others implicated in the plot were rapidly placed under lock and key. On 13th September the conspirators were tried and condemned and a week later Babington, Ballard, and five others were dragged on hurdles to St. Giles Field, Holborn, where, in front of a large crowd, they were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Despite Walsingham’s proof, Elizabeth was still reluctant to take action against Mary. In October both Houses of Parliament demanded Mary’s head but Elizabeth would not sign. She even pleaded that some way be found to deal with Mary without the need for execution. Both Cecil, by now Lord Burghley, and Walsingham were determined that this should not happen.

Together, with the support of the Council of State, they brought constant pressure on the Queen until she eventually signed the warrant on 1st February 1587. Her intention seems to have been to hold the signed warrant as a threat against Mary, but Walsingham would have none of it. At 8 o’clock on the morning of Wednesday, 8th February 1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle. On Walsingham’s orders the body was stripped of all clothing–which was burned so that no relic survived–and encased in lead. When told of the execution, Elizabeth was furious. Both Walsingham and Cecil were in extreme danger from their monarch’s temper. She refused to see them and, for a while, Cecil dared not go to Court. Walsingham, meanwhile, was hard at work preparing for the inevitable invasion by Spain; an invasion that through the skill of English seamen and the luck of the weather, never came.

Cecil acknowledged the debt England owed this worker behind the scenes when he said, ‘you have fought more with your pen than many here in our English navy with their enemies.’ Elizabeth was notoriously sparing with honours for her public servants. Only one, William Cecil, received a peerage. Francis Walsingham was knighted in 1577 and he received the honourary appointments of Chancellor of the Order of the Garter and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. When he died on 6th April 1590, the news was carried to Philip II of Spain via a letter from one of his agents in England. The agent wrote: ‘Secretary Walsingham has just expired, at which there is much sorrow.’ Philip commented in the margin of the letter, ‘There, yes. But it is good news here.’ Sir Francis Walsingham | English statesman | Britannica.com Sir Francis Walsingham Sir William Temple, Baronet Sir Francis Walsingham, (born c.

1532, Kent , England —died April 6, 1590, London ), English statesman and diplomat who was the principal secretary (1573–90) to Queen Elizabeth I and became legendary for creating a highly effective intelligence network. He successfully thwarted England’s foreign enemies and exposed domestic plotters who sought to unseat Elizabeth and return a Roman Catholic monarch to the throne. Anticipating methods that would become routine only centuries later in the world’s intelligence services, Walsingham employed double agents, covert propaganda and disinformation, code breaking, and agents provocateurs to advance English interests. His efforts culminated in the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots , in 1587. Sir Francis Walsingham, detail of a panel painting attributed to John de Critz the Elder, last … Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London Early life and career Walsingham came from a family that held a number of minor offices at court. His father, a lawyer, died when Walsingham was about two years old.

In 1548 Walsingham enrolled at King’s College , the most ardently Protestant and reformist college of the University of Cambridge , and then in 1552 he was admitted to Gray’s Inn in London to study law. Walsingham, along with hundreds of other zealous Protestants, fled England upon the accession to the throne of the Catholic Mary Tudor ( Mary I ) in 1553. He lived abroad for five years, studying Roman civil law in Padua, Italy, and becoming fluent in Italian and French. In advice he wrote to his nephew years later, he stressed the importance of both formal and informal education: besides studying ancient and modern history, classics, and languages, a young man should take careful note of the “manners and dispositions” of people from all walks of life whom he met in his travels and seek to understand the actual avenues of power within the state . After Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in November 1558, Walsingham returned to England and was elected to the Parliament that met in January 1559. He continued to serve as an MP, though with little apparent enthusiasm for the duties, until his death.

In 1568 Walsingham bought a house in London and began performing confidential tasks for Sir William Cecil , Elizabeth’s principal secretary. At Cecil’s behest he cultivated French and Italian émigrés in London from whom he gleaned hints of a plot by Catholic France and Spain "for the alteration of religion and the advancement of the Queen of Scots to the crown." Acknowledging that the reports were vague, Walsingham nonetheless urged that they be taken seriously, writing Cecil that “there is lesse daynger in fearinge to much then too lyttle," a phrase that would become his personal watchword throughout his career. During this time he appears also to have been the anonymous author of a brilliantly poisonous propaganda pamphlet denouncing a rumored intended marriage between Mary Stuart and Thomas Howard, the fourth duke of Norfolk . Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent In a significant early failure, Walsingham missed a chance to uncover Norfolk’s far more treasonous intentions. A Florentine banker in London, Roberto Ridolfi , had come under suspicion for plotting on Mary’s behalf, and Walsingham interrogated him under house arrest in the autumn of 1569.

But Walsingham was naively taken in by Ridolfi’s protestations of innocence. It would only later come out that Ridolfi was passing letters and money between the Spanish ambassador , the pope, the bishop of Ross (Mary’s ambassador in London), and a group of English Catholic lords who were seeking to raise troops to free Mary, now held in confinement in the English Midlands . Norfolk was convicted of treason and was executed in June 1572. Ambassador to France and the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day British Culture and Politics In 1570 Walsingham was appointed ambassador to France. His experiences there would affirm his growing conviction that, with religion now the dominating political fault line in post-Reformation northern Europe, England could no longer trust its long-term security to a rapprochement with any of the Catholic powers. Cecil, however, believed that an alliance with France would prevent it from joining forces with Spain and sought to promote a marriage of Elizabeth with a member of the French royal family and to enlist French support for Protestant rebels in the Spanish Netherlands . Elizabeth’s vacillations on both propositions greatly complicated Walsingham’s negotiations in Paris.

During this time he suffered a debilitating attack of what was probably kidney stones. The ailment would plague him for the rest of his life, frequently leaving him in severe pain and bedridden for months at a time. The massacre of Protestant noblemen in Paris on St. Bartholomew’s Day (August 24/25, 1572) left Walsingham’s diplomatic initiatives in ruins, and it was a personally searing ordeal, as English residents in Paris along with a number of French Protestants took refuge in his house. Although, at the start of his appointment, he had professed himself “utterly unacquainted with that skill that the dealings in Prince’s affairs requireth,” Walsingham displayed considerable professional adroitness and diplomatic sangfroid in the aftermath of the massacre as he sought to gather the truth of what had taken place. He coolly confronted the French queen, Catherine de Médicis , in a series of tense audiences.

Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Acknowledging the failure of his negotiations for an alliance with the French, he informed the Privy Council , “I think less peril to live with them as enemies, than as friends.” Walsingham also concluded that Mary Stuart would be a focal point for Catholic intrigue against England as long as she remained alive. Principal secretary and spymaster Walsingham was recalled to England at the end of 1573 and was appointed to the Privy Council and named a principal secretary. The post was one of pivotal responsibility, handling both domestic and foreign affairs , including all correspondence with ambassadors, but its largely undefined powers depended wholly on the secretary’s personal relationship with the sovereign . Elizabeth at times derided Walsingham’s sober demeanour and dress and his Protestant zeal (calling him a rank Puritan and nicknaming him her "Moor" for his dark appearance) and could be irked by his importuning directness. She nonetheless clearly valued his trustworthiness, industry, unvarnished counsel , and occasional acid humor.

Elizabeth’s habitual refusal to commit herself, as well as the convoluted internal politics of Scotland, France, and the Netherlands, resulted in several frustrating and unsuccessful diplomatic missions Walsingham undertook to those countries over the following 10 years. His strident opposition to a renewal of the French proposal of a marriage between Elizabeth and François, duc d’Anjou , led Elizabeth to angrily dismiss Walsingham from the court for several months in 1579. Like Cecil before him, Walsingham made a point of accumulating and mastering a vast array of information and statistics concerning government administration, economics, and practical politics. Walsingham assembled a far-flung network of spies and news gatherers in France, Scotland, the Low Countries , Spain, Italy, and even Turkey and North Africa . Using prison informants and double agents whose services he secured through bribery, veiled threats, and often subtle psychological gambits , he worked to penetrate English Catholic circles at home and abroad, particularly among Mary’s friends and agents in Scotland and France and at the Catholic seminaries established in Rome and Douai for training English priests. He eventually was provided £2,000 a year by the government to pay for these secret activities.

Walsingham also employed experts on codes and ciphers and in the art of lifting the wax seal of a letter so that it could be undetectably opened and read. Catholic conspiracies and the Spanish Armada Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Those secret efforts would lead directly to the exposure of two more serious plots to depose Elizabeth and restore Catholicism to England. A spy in the French embassy in London—who has plausibly been identified as Giordano Bruno (writing under the pseudonym Henry Fagot), a lapsed Dominican friar who would later achieve renown as a freethinking philosopher of the Italian Renaissance—alerted Walsingham to clandestine correspondence with Mary that was being routed through the embassy. The plot was broken with the arrest of the chief go-between, Francis Throckmorton , in November 1583. In his possession were incriminating documents, including a map of invasion ports and a list of Catholic supporters in England. Under torture, Throckmorton revealed a plan for the invasion of England by Spanish and French troops in concert with a rising by Mary’s followers. The Spanish ambassador was expelled and diplomatic contacts with Spain severed.

The second conspiracy , the Babington Plot (named for conspirator Anthony Babington ), was exposed in August 1586 with the aid of Walsingham’s double agents and code experts, who, unbeknownst to Mary’s agents, were actually supplying their means of communicating with Mary via coded letters smuggled inside a beer barrel. The letters established Mary’s complicity in the effort to depose Elizabeth, leading to Mary’s trial, conviction, and execution. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano Walsingham’s intelligence work would also prove instrumental in the coming war with Spain. He helped to mask the preparations for Sir Francis Drake ’s surprise raid on Cádiz Harbour in April 1587 by feeding a deliberately false report about Drake’s plans to the English ambassador in Paris, who Walsingham had correctly surmised was in the pay of the Spanish. Walsingham’s numerous spies provided detailed reports of Spanish preparations for the sailing of the Armada against England in July 1588.

Walsingham was married twice (both times to widowed women): to Anne Barnes Carleill (sometimes spelled Carlyle) in 1562 and, after her death, to Ursula St. Barbe Worseley in 1566. His daughter Frances (1567–1632) married in succession two of the most prominent figures of Elizabeth’s inner circle: the poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney (1583) and Robert Devereux, the 2nd earl of Essex (1590), a favourite of Elizabeth’s who was executed for treason in 1601 following an abortive coup attempt. (Her third husband was Richard Burke, 4th earl of Clanricarde.) Walsingham was granted a number of lucrative preferments and estates from the crown, including the manor of Barn Elms, near Richmond Palace. But he apparently died in considerable debt, in part from having assumed the debts of Sidney’s estate. Assessment Walsingham is rightly seen as a seminal figure in the history of the British secret services.

Although he closely guarded his own methods and secrets and thus left little in the way of a direct legacy for his immediate successors to follow, he was a pioneer in intelligence methods that would later become staples of professional government spy agencies throughout the world.

His wide-ranging education and experience and his psychological shrewdness were admirably suited to this role; William Camden (1551–1623), an English chronicler, described Walsingham as “a most subtle searcher of hidden secrets, who knew excellently well how to win men’s minds unto him.…He saw every man, and none saw him.” His chief maxim was said to be “Knowledge is never too dear.” Although Walsingham’s detractors over the years have accused him of having resorted to brutal methods, the evidence suggests that only on a handful of occasions did he condone the use of the rack , and then only to extract information in the most serious cases of treason where proof of guilt had already been established; he strongly objected to the torture of Catholic priests caught infiltrating the country (arguing that doing so would only generate sympathy for them), and his secretary Robert Beale, likely acting on his approval, published a pamphlet denouncing torture altogether as cruel, barbaric, and contrary to English law and liberty. As principal secretary Walsingham was a paramount example of the new breed of professional politician and civil servant that emerged in this period of England’s transition from feudal monarchy to modern bureaucratic state.

He was an unflagging advocate of a kind of Protestant realpolitik that identified England’s national interests with the Protestant cause, and throughout his career he promoted a vigorous foreign policy in which propaganda, disinformation, dirty tricks, and espionage reinforced overt diplomatic and military policy to counter rival nations whose military strength, population, and wealth greatly surpassed England’s. In his private life he was a significant patron of the arts and sciences, supporting the search for the Northwest Passage and other voyages of discovery as well as writers, scholars, and musicians. His contributions to securing the safety of Elizabeth’s crown, establishing the union of Scotland and England, and neutralizing the threat of foreign invasion remain his most-enduring legacies . After the defeat of the Armada, Vice Adm. Lord Henry Seymour wrote him in appreciation, "You have fought more with your pen than many have in our English navy." An arguably greater tribute was the one paid by his archenemy King Philip II of Spain. A Spanish spy in London sent word to Philip of Walsingham’s death: "Secretary Walsingham has just expired, at which there is much sorrow." Upon receiving the letter, the king added in the margin, "There, yes!

But it is good news here." More about Sir Francis Walsingham 6 References found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference Francis Walsingham - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) (1532?-90). English statesman and diplomat Francis Walsingham was secretary of state from 1573 to 1590 under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Walsingham exposed the Babington plot to murder the queen and influenced Elizabeth to sign her Catholic rival Mary Stuart’s death warrant. He established an extensive spy network in Europe, putting agents in high places in Spain, France, and Italy. Through his agents, he received full data on the Spanish Armada before it sailed, thus enabling England to prepare to meet it. Walsingham was knighted in 1577. (See also espionage.) Article Contributors Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster - Tudors Dynasty Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster Guest article written by: Alan Freer Francis Walsingham Throughout Elizabeth I’s reign England was in constant danger both from external and internal threats. Spain and France looked north and regarded the country as heretic and a potential enemy to their expanding empires.

At home, the supporters of Mary Tudor, the late Queen, looked to another Mary, Mary, Queen of Scots, as a Catholic heir to replace the Protestant Elizabeth. In times of crisis a government needs good, accurate and reliable intelligence. That came from one man, Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster. Walsingham was the only son of William Walsingham of Footscray in Kent, by his wife Joyce, daughter of Sir Edmund Denny. William died the year following Francis’s birth and his mother married Sir John Carey, a distant relation by marriage of Anne Boleyn’s family. Francis went to King’s College, Cambridge in 1548, but left two years later having failed to take his degree. From 1550 to 1552 he travelled abroad and succeeded in becoming fluent in both French and Italian. Soon after he returned to England, Mary Tudor ascended the throne and Francis found himself on the wrong side of the religious tracks. Fearing arrest for his outspoken, Protestant views, he decided it prudent to return abroad.

His mother’s family were strong Protestants and most of his tutors at Cambridge were of the same denomination, so he was a natural target for Mary and an equally natural supporter of her sister, Elizabeth. He is even thought to have been involved in a minor way in the anti-Catholic plots of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Over the next nine years he travelled extensively in Italy and central Europe, studying law and politics. The methods he learnt at the various Italian Courts were to serve him well in the years to come. Elizabeth, 1560 By 1560, with Elizabeth as Queen, he was back in England and in 1562 was returned as Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis. That same year he married a widow, Ann Carteill but she died two years later, leaving him without children. In 1566 he married the widow of Sir Richard Worsley and by her he had a daughter, Frances. She would later marry Sir Philip Sidney and, after his death, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

At the age of 36 Francis came to the notice of Elizabeth’s first minister, William Cecil, who offered him a position at Court. He soon took charge of the small network of secret agents Cecil had established and so started twenty-two years of loyal, unswerving service to his Queen. Elizabeth nicknamed him her “Moor” because of his swarthy complexion and habitual black clothing. She was occasionally his guest at his home in Surrey and although they did not always agree on policy, she trusted him implicitly. In 1570 Cecil sent him as ambassador to Paris where he was involved with the negotiations for several treaties. He was in the city when the Huguenots were murdered in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (August 24, 1572) which reinforced his hatred of foreign Catholic regimes. He was recalled from Paris in 1573 and appointed Secretary of State, a post he held until his death. The modern-day equivalent would be Foreign Secretary and head of MI5 and 6. He was the Elizabethan “M”.

Walsingham’s two great hates were Spain and Mary, Queen of Scots; Spain as a threat to his country and Mary as a threat to his Queen. He was convinced that England could only be safe with the complete defeat of Spain and the removal of Mary. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots To this end he expanded the network of spies to over fifty agents, much of it paid for from his own pocket. He soon had agents in the courts of France, Spain, the Low Countries, Germany, the United Provinces and even in Turkey. He was like a black spider at the centre of a great web. Elizabeth was reluctant to move against her cousin, Mary, but Walsingham had no such qualms. Late in 1585 a trainee Catholic priest named Gilbert Gifford, was intercepted coming from France through the port of Rye. He was taken to Walsingham who learnt that Gifford was to act as messenger between Mary and her supporters on the Continent. Walsingham turned Gifford and persuaded him to work for the Government. He was to tell Mary that a system for smuggling letters and papers between her and Europe had been set up.

In fact the Spymaster himself constructed this route so that all correspondence passed through his hands before it crossed the Channel. Walsingham’s secretary, Thomas Phelipps, was an expert code breaker so all Mary’s communications were monitored. In May 1586 Mary sent two letters, one to the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, giving her support to an invasion of England, while the other was to a supporter, Charles Paget, asking him to remind Philip II of Spain of the urgency for invasion. Both passed through Walsingham hands. The following month Sir Anthony Babington and a Catholic priest, John Ballard, were heard discussing the proposed Spanish invasion and the plot to murder Elizabeth. William Cecil All this evidence still did not implicate Mary directly in a plot against Elizabeth. On 17 July Walsingham received what he had been waiting for – a letter, in reply to one from Babington, written by Mary giving her approval to the plot to murder the Queen. Walsingham moved quickly. Ballard and Babington were arrested and placed in the Tower of London. Others implicated in the plot were rapidly placed under lock and key.

On 13 September the conspirators were tried and condemned and a week later Babington, Ballard and five others were dragged on hurdles to St. Giles Field, Holborn where, in front of a large crowd, they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Despite Walsingham’s proof, Elizabeth was still reluctant to take action against Mary. In October both Houses of Parliament demanded Mary’s head but Elizabeth would not sign. She even pleaded that some way be found to deal with Mary without the need for execution. Both Cecil, by now Lord Burghley, and Walsingham were determined that this should not happen. Together, with the support of the Council of State, they brought constant pressure on the Queen until she eventually signed the warrant on 1st February 1587. Her intention seems to have been to hold the signed warrant as a threat against Mary but Walsingham would have none of it. At 8 o’clock on the morning of Wednesday, 8th February 1587 Mary, Queen of Scots was executed in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle.

On Walsingham’s orders the body was stripped of all clothing which was burnt, so that no relic survived, and encased in lead. When she was told of the execution, Elizabeth was furious. Both Cecil and Walsingham were in extreme danger from their monarch’s temper. She refused to see them and, for a while, Cecil dare not go to Court. Walsingham, meanwhile, was hard at work preparing for the inevitable invasion by Spain; an invasion, as we all know, through the skill of English seamen and the luck of the weather, never came. Cecil acknowledged the debt England owed this worker behind the scenes when he said, “you have fought more with your pen than many here in our English navy with their enemies.” Cecil, Queen Elizabeth & Walsingham Elizabeth was notoriously sparing with honours for her public servants. Only one, William Cecil, received a peerage. Francis Walsingham was knighted in 1577 and he received the honorary appointments of Chancellor of the Order of the Garter and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

When he died on 6th April 1590, the news was carried to Philip II of Spain via a letter from one of his agents in England. The agent wrote, “Secretary Walsingham has just expired, at which there is much sorrow.” Philip commented in the margin of the letter, “There yes. But it is good news here.” About the Author: I am Alan Freer and live in the small village of Byfleet, Surrey, England. Edward, the Black Prince, spent much of his final years in Byfleet. I have been an amateur “historian” since the age of seven, when I purchased my first history book in 1955. Indeed, it was anticipated that I would become a history teacher, but a brief conversation just before I was due to go to university directed me to the banking industry – more lucrative but, perhaps, not so satisfying! History lead me into genealogy and I have my own website detailing the Descendents of William the Conqueror ( ). A never-ending project! When I retired from the bank in 1999 I started to write and have had a number of articles published in US history magazines or on magazine websites.

Primarily I wrote for the amusement of my colleagues in my second occupation as a civil servant. I count myself most fortunate to have been born in England and would not wish it otherwise – except, possibly, Italy!! BBC - History - Elizabeth's Spy Network Elizabeth's Spy Network By Alexandra Briscoe Last updated 2011-02-17 As a Protestant Queen, Elizabeth was forced to live with the threat of assassination from Catholics throughout her reign. But there was an army of men working in secret to protect the Queen. These were her spies, her secret service, and they were overseen by the most ruthless spy master of them all: Francis Walsingham. On this page Print this page The Queen in danger The long and successful reign of Elizabeth I proved that a woman could be as effective and popular a monarch as any King. But there existed around the Queen a critical support structure which was made up almost exclusively of men. This was her network of spies supervised by Walsingham, one of Elizabeth's most loyal ministers, and their aim was to safeguard the life of the Queen. The efficiency of this network unearthed a series of plots to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots.

It is a testament to the success of this secret service that Elizabeth died peacefully of old age and not at the hands of an assassin. ...the threat to her life was growing ever more serious. In the early years of her reign William Cecil (later Lord Burghley) had been overseeing the gathering of intelligence, but once Mary Queen of Scots arrived on English soil things moved up a gear. She was a magnet for conspiracy, the perfect focus for discontented Catholics who refused to conform to Elizabeth's Protestant faith. A number of plots came to light, such as the Northern Uprising of 1569 and the Ridolfi Plot two years later, which centred on rescuing Mary. So far, the plots had been uncovered in time and disaster had been averted. But the threat to her life was growing ever more serious. Realising the scale of the task ahead he called upon the man who was to become known as Elizabeth's spy master, Francis Walsingham. Top Walsingham and his spies Walsingham had studied as a lawyer and was intelligent, serious and disciplined. He held strong Protestant beliefs, and had gone to live abroad during the reign of the Catholic Mary I.

But when Protestantism was re-established under Elizabeth I, he returned to England and became Secretary of State in 1568. Quick-witted and ruthless, he was soon playing a critical role in intelligence-gathering operations. Without the other commitments which had taken up much of Cecil's time, Walsingham could devote himself to overseeing Elizabeth's secret service. This he did with zeal. He was strict, almost Puritan in his religious beliefs, and passionate about protecting the country from Catholic threat. Spies were posted to live abroad who could supply him with intelligence on the politics and attitudes of Catholic countries towards England. This information enabled Walsingham to piece together, for example, the policy of the Pope towards Elizabeth. Armed also with information from spies based in this country, Walsingham could trace lines of communication between Catholics here and abroad, and keep track of any plots. The world of a spy was not, however, one of glamour and intrigue. The world of a spy was not, however, one of glamour and intrigue. Many spies were ambitious undergraduates recruited from Oxford and Cambridge who saw this as a route to fame and fortune. But the reality was quite different.

Long journeys, low pay and the logistical difficulties of delivering information meant that, unless involved in a high-profile success, the work of a spy was often thankless and mundane. More challenging was the area of intelligence-gathering. This kind of work included travelling abroad to gather information on national security. Top Coded letters Intelligence work also involved learning how to break the different codes used by plotters in their correspondence. Often, letters of the alphabet were shuffled in a certain sequence and, once the key was worked out, the message could be read and understood. Alternatively individual letters could be substituted with numbers, symbols or signs of the zodiac. But spies had to learn not only how to decipher code but also how to write it themselves. This was frustrating and time-consuming work, paid off only by the satisfaction of finally cracking a difficult code. ...spies had to learn not only how to decipher code but also how to write it themselves. Some codes could only be understood by placing a sheet of paper punched with holes over the top so that just the relevant letters making up the message could be read. Success therefore depended on calculating the exact sequence of thousands of holes. Also popular was the practice of conveying information in invisible ink.

Written in milk or lemon juice, the secret message could be read as the page was warmed over a candle and the letters appeared. Innocent text in normal ink was often written alongside the hidden message in order to throw a spy off the scent. Walsingham knew that this work was critical to his success, and established a spy school to provide formal training for recruits. The security of the country was at stake, after all. Mistakes were unthinkable. Top The Babington plot For reasons of security Mary, Queen of Scots was regularly moved from one residence to another. She still had her entourage and spent her days sewing, reading or hunting, but in reality Mary was a prisoner. She did not, however, realise the level of scrutiny she was under. Walsingham loathed Mary and everything she stood for, and vowed to bring her down. It was to take him almost 20 years. But when he discovered in 1586 that she was corresponding with a group of Catholics led by the young Anthony Babington, he seized his chance. For the first stage of his plan, Walsingham used a spy named Gifford to act as a double agent.

Gifford persuaded the local brewer to encourage Mary to use him as a secret means of communicating with the outside world. By establishing a system whereby Mary's personal letters were carried in and out of Chartley (her current residence) hidden in a beer barrel, Walsingham was able to intercept and decode her correspondence. The relatively simple code used by Mary was quickly deciphered, and translations were provided for Elizabeth. These letters were then resealed and sent on to their destination or delivered to Mary in prison. And so the plot progressed. Walsingham could now move in for the kill. Walsingham, meanwhile, was biding his time. Luckily for him, Babington and his friends were enthusiastic but inexperienced plotters and were happy to discuss their plans in public. It was therefore not difficult for the authorities to keep track of their movements. Having outlined his plans to Mary, Babington now tried to secure her participation in the plot. This was the moment Walsingham had been waiting for. When the vital letter from Mary asking for details was intercepted, a postscript was forged in her hand asking for the identities of the plotters. The names were duly supplied, and their fate was sealed.

Mary's involvement in the plot had been proven, and a gallows was drawn on the page by the decoding expert. Walsingham could now move in for the kill. By now Babington and the others, realising something was wrong, had gone into hiding. But Walsingham was one step ahead and they were quickly captured and tried. Elizabeth, keen to signal a warning against further plots, ordered that their executions be public and brutal. The men were hung, drawn and quartered. Top Mary's downfall Mary realised that she had fallen into the trap set by Walsingham, and launched a personal attack on him during her trial. 'Spies are men of doubtful credit,' she said, 'who make a show of one thing and speak another.' But there was to be no escape and, found guilty of treason, Mary was sentenced to death. Mary realised that she had fallen into the trap set by Walsingham... The execution took place on 8 February 1587 in the Great Hall at Fotheringhay, but even now events did not go according to plan. The executioner, understandably nervous, missed his aim and it took three blows of his axe to sever her head.

Horrified onlookers said that, for fifteen minutes afterwards, her lips continued to move in silent prayer. With Mary dead, Walsingham's life work was now complete and he died just three years later. Throughout Elizabeth's reign he had done more than anyone else to ensure her personal safety. But the Queen, though appreciative of his actions, was never close to Walsingham in the way that she was to Cecil or Leicester. She distrusted his Puritan leanings and was wary of his manner and intellect. Reluctant as always to spend money, the Queen had never provided proper funding for his work. Walsingham, devoted to the Queen and determined to protect the country's Protestant faith, had put most of his own money into making sure his spy network was a success. He left as his legacy the most advanced and efficient secret service of its time. Find out more Books Invisible Power: The Elizabethan Secret Services 1570 - 1603 by Alan Haynes (Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1992) On The Trail of Mary Queen of Scots by J.

Keith Cheetham (Luath Press Ltd, 1999) The English Captivity of Mary Queen of Scots by Patrick Collinson (Sheffield History Pamphlets, 1987) Mary Queen of Scots by Rosalind K Marshall (HMSO, 1991) Elizabeth the Queen by Alison Weir (Pimlico, 1999) The Virgin Queen by Christopher Hibbert (Viking, 1990) The Word of a Prince by Maria Perry (The Boydell Press, 1990) Top About the author Alexandra Briscoe has a background in documentary programme-making. She is Assistant Producer on Simon Schama's A History of Britain, specialising in the reign of Elizabeth I for the programme entitled The Body of the Queen.

The Queen’s Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I by John Cooper: review - Telegraph The Queen’s Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I by John Cooper: review A Tudor tale of cloak-and-dagger intrigue By Ian Thomson 8:00AM BST 11 Oct 2011 Sir Francis Walsingham, the spymaster extraordinaire and priest-hunter at the court of Elizabeth I, was devoted to the defence of the Tudor realm and its anti-Catholic cause. With Machiavellian adroitness, he infiltrated Papist cells in England and abroad, and subjected “Romish” suspects to a brutal and insistent Protestant dogma. Hundreds were hanged or burned alive in post-Reformation England; perceived Spanish attempts to dethrone Elizabeth redoubled the persecutions. The Queen’s Agent, a superb new account of Walsingham and the Tudor age, paints a John le Carré-like world of double-dealing and intrigue, where moles were planted in Catholic seminaries and loyalties were seen to shift opportunely. In the looking-glass war of Elizabethan diplomacy, traitors were never far away.

Walsingham was so subtle an operative, according to John Cooper, that he was able to turn priest against priest and extract confessions with ease. Central to Cooper’s book is the question of whether English Catholics really conspired to undermine the Elizabethan regime. Through circles of informants and spies, Walsingham was able to disrupt a number of plots against his patron-monarch. But how serious were they? Post-Reformation England was jittery with fears of recusant Catholicism; in the eyes of Walsingham and his enforcers, Jesuits especially were seen as sinister types bent on popish intrigue. With a fanatic’s heart, Walsingham spread fear (the most important weapon in his armoury) among Jesuits and their followers. In this paranoid climate, almost anyone could be smoked out of hiding and sent to the gallows. Walsingham had been in Paris in 1572 during the St Bartholomew’s massacre of Protestants, and was left with a lifelong loathing of Catholicism. His finest hour was the discovery of a plot to put Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne and depose her cousin Elizabeth.

Having established Mary’s involvement in the Catholic plot, Walsingham authorised her beheading without Elizabeth’s knowledge. Outwardly, at least, Elizabeth was devastated. Related Articles Edison, New Jersey About Francis Hi, my name is Francis Walsingham. I lived from 1532- April 6, 1590. I attended two institutions of higher learning. Under Queen Elizabeth of England I held the position of Secretary of State. I also held the position of Spymaster. I am remembered best in ym role as the 'Spymaster' during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. I am seen as one the earilest pepople to use modern intelligence in order to achieve domestic security. I was also involved in gathering information from Spanish military operations. I was heavily in favour of English involvement in affairs across Europe. I was sucessful in stopping many plots against Queen Elizabeth. I was able to secure the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Through my work, I was able to bring England and Scotland closer together. England emerged as a martime power under my influence. I was also able to bring Protestant thinging into the world economy. I was the construct behind English foreign policy during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Favorite Quotes "I too can command the wind sir" by Queen Elizabeth. "The forecast for tomorrow, a sprinkle of geninous with a chance of doom" by Stewie Griffen. "The names Bond, James Bond" by 007 James Bond. "I'll be back" by Arnold S. Favorites

Question: Francis Walsingham was the spymaster for which monarch?
Answer: Elizabeth I