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.’ 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. 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 Review: Elizabeth's Spy Master by Robert Hutchinson | Books | The Guardian Elizabeth's Spy Master: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War that Saved England by Robert Hutchinson 416pp, Weidenfeld, £20 Sir Francis Walsingham was Elizabeth I's secretary of state from 1573 to his death some 17 years later, a tumultuous period that encompassed both the crisis over Mary Queen of Scots and the Spanish invasion; it may rightly be designated the watershed in the survival of Protestant England. Walsingham certainly played his part in that survival, but whether Hutchinson can quite justify his opening boast - that the spymaster is "one of the great unknown heroes of English history" who "by right ... should rank with Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and even Sir Winston Churchill as one of the great patriotic defenders, against all-comers, of this island state" - is to be doubted. To begin with, the historical background is somewhat sketchily presented, with no very clear account of the Reformation.

The book is underpinned by the unexplored assumption that, whatever the merits of this individual adherent or that, Protestant is good, Catholic bad; that what Hutchinson calls the "beliefs and creeds" of Elizabethan England were essentially progressive. Clearly for Walsingham there was no doubt on the matter, but it is fairly crucial to our assessment of him that the issues should be engaged with. Hutchinson is more interested in the mechanics of espionage, and on this he has much of interest to say. In these dealings Walsingham himself, perhaps inevitably, remains shadowy. Certainly the only surviving portrait of him presents an image of one who, in Hutchinson's words, is "cold, cruel and calculating", the deep-set eyes particularly disquieting; there is more than just something of the night here. Hutchinson admits that he knows virtually nothing about Walsingham's first 28 years, though he still feels confident enough to state that when Walsingham left Mary's Catholic England at the age of 22, it was a question of "discretion overcoming his gamecock valour".

He insists on the ardour of Walsingham's Protestantism, but offers no explanation of why he went to Catholic Italy to study civil law during his selfexile. More frustratingly, we have scant knowledge of his rise to power. At the age of 30, he was returned to Parliament, representing two seats; six years later he was employed by William Cecil, the Queen's chief minister, on secret business; the following year he apparently wrote a propaganda leaflet about the alleged match between the Duke of Norfolk and Mary Queen of Scots; and the year after that he was, most reluctantly, made ambassador to France. During his tenure in Paris he witnessed the massacre of Huguenots on St Bartholomew's Day. We have no account of it from his own pen, for the characteristic (and very sensible) reason that he caused his diplomatic messenger to commit it to memory for fear of interception. It is detail of this sort in which Hutchinson excels; less reliable is his tendency to extrapolate from the facts. Walsingham's experience of the slaughter remained with him, Hutchinson says, for life; it may have done, but Hutchinson offers no evidence for it.

In 1573, Walsingham was relieved of his unloved post, and appointed privy councillor and first secretary of state, from which exalted position he began his life's work. This immense elevation can only have come about because Cecil (or Burghley as he now was) had seen exceptional qualities in him. It was clearly not the Queen who had preferred Walsingham; their relationship - richly documented, and vividly portrayed by Hutchinson - was tempestuous and frustrating. She called him, without affection, her "dark Moor". Alternately bloodthirsty and circumspect, often indecisive, always trying to save money, as if England were her personal household (in this as in many ways anticipating Margaret Thatcher), Elizabeth was an impossible mistress. Walsingham, unable to stand firm against her, resorted to arranging things behind her back. Even in personal matters, she made his life difficult, stubbornly refusing to consent to the marriage of his daughter to Sir Philip Sidney (although eventually, typically, she became godmother to their child). Walsingham felt balked and unappreciated, and frequently absented himself from court, lapsing into nameless illnesses for which he took altogether too much medicine.

There is comedy and human warmth in the spectacle of this valetudinarian minister and his recalcitrant monarch. There was precious little comedy in the rest of his life. Not unreasonably obsessed by the threat posed by Mary Queen of Scots - "that devilish woman", as he called her - and the many parties, foreign and native, that sought to place her on the English throne, he created his dense web of spies to catch plotters. As with today's spies, Walsingham's agents were recruited from the most unlikely places, and constitute a rum gang of psychopaths, loons and adventurers; a fewwere motivated by ideology but for most, money or advancement was the motive (one lucky fellow, after rendering the state some secret service, was made royal purveyor of poultry). Once apprehended, suspects were immediately tortured. Walsingham told Burghley that "without torture I know I shall not prevail". The rack was the favoured implement, and Walsingham's rack-masters were the stuff of nightmares. Hutchinson gives a particularly vivid account of Richard Topcliffe, "an out-and-out certifiable sadist", who announced himself to his victims with the phrase "you will have heard of me".

There is no doubt, of course, that Walsingham was up against a seriously dangerous situation: Philip II, the spider of the Escorial, plotted day and night to restore the true faith to England; many English nobles were disaffected, to the degree that Sir Thomas Stucley envisaged an independent Catholic state in the north of England. Mary Queen of Scots knew that Walsingham was her mortal enemy; they finally confronted each other when - unbeknown to Elizabeth - she was executed at Fotheringay Castle. To her face Walsingham disclaimed any malice towards her, but he was without question the principal agent of her demise. Hutchinson revisits the well-known scene with a keen sense of dramatic detail. The Armada is equally vividly encapsulated, with Walsingham's rising frustration at the Queen's refusal to spend money on intelligence well conveyed. Walsingham received no special acknowledgment of his part in the victory. He was by now heavily in the red (largely due to having to repay the massive debts of his son-in-law Philip Sidney, who had died heroically in battle).

When, a mere two years after the defeat of the Armada, he died - of testicular cancer and, according to William Camden, "the violence of medicines" - his estate was too poor to afford him a funeral remotely commensurate with the power and influence he had wielded; nor were there any public acknowledgments. Perhaps the most telling testimony to Walsingham's significance is contained in a marginal note written by Philip II on a document from a spy in London reporting his death, at which, the spy notes, "there is much sorrow". "There," His Hispanic Majesty jotted down, "yes. But it is good news here." Hutchinson's book is full of stimulating detail. He fails, however, to bring the spy master himself to life, except in his dealings with his troublesome Queen. Nor does he provide the context by which we might judge Walsingham's activities. But he does give us vivid glimpses of the world of Elizabethan espionage and, in the process, sheds fresh light on that most complex and contradictory figure, the Queen herself. · Simon Callow's Shooting the Actor is published by Vintage.

The Role of Walsingham in the Misnomered Babington Plot of 1586 THE ROLE OF WALSINGHAM IN THE MISNOMERED BABINGTON PLOT OF 1586 By Jacquelyn Lee Borgeson The reign of Queen Elizabeth I was as eventful as it was lengthy. Of the many intriguing conspiracies of that day, the Babington Plot remains the most controversial. It was not just another attempt by Catholic sympathizers to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. This plot was unique due to its origins rather than its nature. Contrary to popular belief, it was Principal Secretary Sir Francis Walsingham, not Anthony Babington, who instigated this scheme, nurtured it to maturity, and then cleverly concealed his involvement. Exactly how and perhaps why Walsingham came to play such an enormous role remains a great debate today. A presentation of this plot from its beginning to its discovery may show the extent of Walsingham's entanglement. The English situation in 1585, one year before even the first inkling of the Babington Plot, was precarious.

The succession of anti-Elizabeth plots like the Throckmorton and Norfolk conspiracies had shown an immense dissention among the English people. (1) It had become apparent to the Protestant faction that a Catholic revival was gaining momentum in their country. (2) Elizabeth was in a rather awkward position. Besides her foreign disputes with both France and Spain, she had the former Scottish Queen Mary, her own cousin, under house arrest. International law forbade the peace-time imprisonment of one monarch by another. (3) Regardless of this fact, Elizabeth had kept Mary confined for over fifteen years. (4) Although there had been more than sufficient evidence to implicate Mary in several treasonous plots against the English Queen, Elizabeth steadfastly refused to have her executed. (5) Basically, the refusal to execute Mary was a political maneuver on Elizabeth's part. Few really know how Elizabeth regarded Mary personally, but she feared a Catholic uprising that would probably follow the beheading of the beloved Scottish sovereign. Also, Elizabeth knew that even the seemingly justifiable execution of another monarch would only weaken her own royal authoritarian status. (() (6)) Elizabeth's reluctance to execute Mary irritated her ministers, particularly Walsingham.

The Principal Secretary had worked extremely hard at gathering enough evidence to convict Mary of treason, but Elizabeth kept putting him off. His frustration caused Walsingham to direct his anger towards Mary herself. He concluded that Mary was far too much of a menace to Protestantism and that as long as she lived, this "bosom serpent" would never cease her traitorous scheming. (7) Conspiracy was second nature to Mary, so Walsingham swore that the next time Mary gained the opportunity to plot, he would have knowledge of her internal strategy. Walsingham was not above using the same techniques as the conspirators to complete this "curious ambition" to dispose of Queen Mary. (8) This time, Walsingham was confident that the fruit of his labor would be the execution of Mary. Now when Walsingham, aided by fellow minister William Cecil, decided that Mary had to be eliminated, a historical controversy over the moral foundation of this action began. Many historians condemned Walsingham for what they perceived as his underhanded tactics. (9) Other sources applauded the Secretary's devotion to duty.

(10) One supporter of Walsingham justified the Minister's actions by proclaiming that since Walsingham was a man "whose job it was to frustrate plots against his sovereign, we can hardly expect him to be more scrupulous than his adversaries." (11) Regardless of these moral issues surrounding the initiation of the Babington Plot, there was little doubt that Walsingham played a leading role in it. His first step was to gain absolute control over Mary. He had her moved from Tutbury, her prison for the last fifteen years, to the home of the Earl of Essex in Chartley. This sudden move did not raise Mary's suspicions because for years she had been practically begging for just such a transfer. Walsingham did not grant Mary's appeals out of the mere goodness of his heart. It was his belief that Mary had become too settled at Tutbury and had far too much contact with the outside world. From the secluded Chartley estate, Walsingham was assured of total access to all of Mary's communication. (12) Walsingham's next action was to convince Elizabeth to remove Lord Shrewsbury as Mary's guardian.

Walsingham then hand-picked Sir Amias Paulet as the replacement warden. While Walsingham was quite pleased with this "precise fellow," he became alarmed when Paulet went above and beyond his expectations as jailer. (13) Paulet had guards posted day and night, had all leaves taken from Mary's staff, and even forced Mary to stop doling out food to the poor because he saw this as an opportunity to bribe them. (14) Although Walsingham did want Mary under close observation, he did not want her totally removed from her agents. If she had remained unable to actively conspire, Walsingham would never have obtained grounds for her execution. Thus the Secretary had to find a way that enabled Mary to have a monitored communication with her Catholic supporters. (15) To find a Machiavellian means to such an end, Walsingham called in his primary agent, Thomas Phelippes. (16) This man was an expert in penmanship and deciphering in Latin, French, Italian, as well as his native English. Walsingham sent him to Chartley with the mission of finding a means in which a controlled mail route could be established.

(17) While Phelippes was groping about the dark passages of Chartley, Walsingham was enlisting another agent for his anti-Mary scenario. On rather trumped-up charges, Walsingham had a known Catholic sympathizer, Gilbert Gifford, arrested. (18) With persuasion, Walsingham convinced Gifford to work as a spy for him on the behalf of Elizabeth. Since Gifford had been an active Catholic spy for several years, Walsingham was wary of the man. To secure his loyalty, the Secretary had Gifford move onto Phelippes manor. This way, the Catholic double agent would be under surveillance at all times. He was sent shortly thereafter to Chartley to assist Phelippes. (19) Walsingham was always very concerned with having knowledge of what went on about him. He had an extensive spy network at his disposal long before he had launched plans for Mary into motion. (20) There was no place too sacred or too vile for Walsingham's business. He had either bought or placed spies in such diverse localities as the Roman Catholic Seminary at Rheims, France to the alcohol-drenched pubs of London.

(21) It was from this bloated espionage organization that Walsingham selected several more skilled men to aid in his endeavors. The Secretary had just engaged Arthur Gregory, an expert at resealing opened letters, and Thomas Rogers, a master letter-stealer, when Phelippes and Gifford returned victorious from their Chartley quest. (22) They had jointly conceived of the perfect route which would allow Mary to smuggle her correspondence. (23) Their idea was to use the weekly beer deliveries to the castle as Mary's mail route. Phelippes had invented a waterproof tube in which letters could be concealed in the barrel's cork. (24) This crafty method appealed greatly to Walsingham, but he had trouble convincing the pious jailer Paulet of its advantages. Paulet only agreed to this plan after much persuasion by his friend Phelippes and grand assurances from Walsingham that none of his own men would have to be corrupted to complete the scheme. (25) With the warden's approval, Walsingham set about hiring men to enact this plan. The first employee was a brewer from Burton.

This man, known only by the code name "The Honest Man," had previously run deliveries at Tutbury and held Mary's confidence. (26) The brewer was easily bought. Every week he was paid three times: once for his beer, once by Mary for his postman services, and yet again by Walsingham for that same duty. (27) Since Paulet refused to allow his people to contribute to Walsingham's plot, the Secretary was forced also to employ a man servant, simply known as "The Butler," whose job it was to take the letters from the keg to Mary's secretaries, Claude Nau and Lord Curll. (28) Through this mail circuit, Nau and Curll delivered the letters directly to Mary, aided her in ciphering replies, and returned these to the man servant. The letters were then sent to Walsingham. The Secretary read each letter, instructed Phelippes to make duplicates, and then sent the communications off on their true destinations. In this way Walsingham observed from the safety of his office, the birth of yet another conspiracy against his queen.

(29) This mail system was officially established on January 12, 1586, when the French Ambassador to England, Chateaneuf, sent a harmless test letter to Mary. The Ambassador had been informed of the mail route by Gifford, who was financially rewarded for his duty to the Catholic cause. The Scottish Queen was overjoyed by the unexpected communication. Mary had been cut off so long from friends that she had begun to lose hope. After Mary's reply, Chateaneuf deemed the system secure enough to send Mary a two-year accumulation of various letters. Walsingham carefully inspected this surplus mail and found a letter that would suit his purpose. (30) The letter was from Thomas Morgan, Mary's personal agent in Paris. (31) In it he commended a young gentleman named Anthony Babington to Mary and insisted he would be loyal. Babington was an esquire in his mid-twenties who had been a known Catholic supporter since his early teens. The letter provoked Mary into writing Babington who had just returned from France to his Dethycke estate. This was precisely what Walsingham had intended.

Even though she did not explicitly state her wish for the instigation of another Catholic plot, she did inform Babington that she would be grateful for his assistance in her escape. (32) Quite by chance, at the time Babington received Mary's letter, he was already composing one to her that outlined plans for her rescue. (33) Mary's letter added inspiration to his letter that blatantly hinted at the execution of Elizabeth by himself and six of his followers. With Elizabeth dead, Mary would have inherited the throne and the English people may have been returned to Catholicism. As incriminating as the letter was, Walsingham knew it would not be enough to convince Elizabeth that Mary's death was necessary. Hence Walsingham proceeded to add some fuel to the fire he had previously kindled. (34) Walsingham sent his spies to Paris and had them warn Morgan that Babington would not act until he had Mary's full approval. They thus instilled in Morgan the belief that it would be vital that Mary send written authorization before Babington would have the nerve to dispose of Elizabeth and place Mary on the English throne.

(35) Morgan was very suspicious by this turn of events, but he knew that Mary would want to take the risk. Mary was so desperate by this time that nothing--not even the chopping block--would deter her from making plans to escape. Morgan therefore drafted a letter that Mary should write to Babington and sent it to her in early July of 1586. Mary copied this letter word for word and sent it on to Babington. (36) This was the letter Walsingham had been anticipating. Unfortunately for the Secretary's purposes, Morgan had produced a letter that would be sufficient to incite Babington, while at the same time avoiding direct implication of Mary. Babington had requested Mary's blessing for his so-called "tragical execution" of Elizabeth and for her solemn promise to reward him once she became Queen of England. (37) Mary's reply simply stated however, that while she wanted to have nothing to do with the murder, she would reward anyone who helped her escape, regardless of how said escape was enacted.

(38) While this letter was not exactly what Walsingham desired, after thorough examination, he was able to find a phrase that could make it appear as though Mary was in direct violation of the Bond of Association. This bond, including the Act for the Security of the Queen's Royal Person, and the Continuence of the Realm of Peace that shortly followed it, were the edge Walsingham had over Mary. Under these pieces of legislation, anyone who participated in or merely sanctioned an attack upon Elizabeth could be tried for treason, regardless of royal status. (39) All Walsingham had to do was prove that Babington and his cohorts were bent on regicide and then show the connection between them and Mary. The phrase Walsingham plucked from Mary's letter was her suggestion that once the foreign troops had been prepared, "then shall it be time to set the six gentlemen to work." (40) Since the only work these bored noblemen had planned was the assassination of Elizabeth, Walsingham was positive he could ensnare Mary with his technicality. In this way, guilt by association would be the end of Mary and her death would have little or no effect on Elizabeth's royal power.

(41) While Walsingham was weaving his web, Babington was quite caught up in the romantic fantasy he had conjured in his youthful head. Babington failed to see the risk of his exploits. He saw only the fame, fortune, and even the Catholic satisfaction that would follow Mary's ascent to the throne. As Walsingham gleefully sifted through every incriminating document Phelippes had produced from the conspiratorial correspondence, Babington and his accomplice were sitting for a portrait that they believed would one day serve "as a memorial of so worthy an act." (42) Having shuffled soundly through his collection of evidence, Walsingham discovered that one detail was missing. He needed the names of the conspirators written on paper. (43) Such printed evidence would have held up nicely in a court of law. The method in which Walsingham intended to gather this damning testimony was such that even his most ardent supporters could not pass off as mere duty to the crown. Walsingham instructed Phelippes to attach a post-script to Mary's letter to Babington which requested him to provide all the names of his fellow conspirators.

Walsingham was banking on Phelippes superb forgery to present him with what would be as good as a written confession from these men. (44) Babington received the altered version of Mary's letter on July 29, 1586. Before he was able to reply, the plot became common knowledge and Walsingham was forced to order the arrests of the conspirators. It is unclear how news of the plots detection leaked, but Babington fled on August 4, moments after witnessing the arrest of his foremost partner in the conspiracy, John Ballard. (45) Before fleeing, Babington burned all his personal and public correspondence. He was discovered and arrested ten days later in St. John's Wood. (46) By the end of August, seventeen men and one woman had been arrested and sent to the Tower. (47) Mary was not arrested, but she was sent from Chartley to reside at the estate of a hunting acquaintance while all her private papers were confiscated. The secretaries Nau and Curll were quietly taken into custody following Mary's departure.

(48) With the arrests completed and the confessions pouring out of the prisoners, it was time for Walsingham to do the most ingenious of all his plotting. It was essential that Walsingham's part in this scheme not be discovered. If the general public had been aware that Elizabeth's minister, with her full consent, had a hand in this plot, sympathy for Queen Mary would have been generated. Elizabeth would not have been able then to order her execution for fear of a civil war erupting. Elizabeth commanded Walsingham "to keep to himself the depth and mannor [sic] of the discovery." (49) To follow the orders of his Queen, Walsingham had to use more deceitful tactics to conceal his earlier questionable actions. His major concern was the discrepancy that would arise in the confessions due to Phelippes frauded postscript. (50) Babington had already been asked to write Mary's reply as best he could. He did a remarkable accurate job. Too accurate for Walsingham because his statement included the post-script. There was no way Walsingham could use Babington's confession in this form.

Nau, Curll, and Mary would have cried forgery the moment they saw it at the trial. Some type of alteration was definitely deemed necessary here by the Principal Secretary. (51) Forging the entire confession was out of the question. Although Phelippes possessed the finesse required of the task, the risk of discovery while carrying out the swap was just too high. (52) Walsingham concluded that it would be safer to help Babington forget the post-script. Walsingham went personally to compliment Babington on his "exceptional" memory. However, Walsingham implied that the court would be much more pleased if he could only recall those first passages in more detail. Babington, ecstaticjust to be off the painful rack and now given hope forjudicial leniency for his cooperation, promised to try and remember every word of the mentioned sections. (53) It was in this manner that Babington played squarely into Walsingham's hand. He concentrated so hard on the details of the first few paragraphs, that Babington hastily wrote the remainder, this time excluding the post-script. Here was Walsingham's golden opportunity to corrupt the authenticity of evidence and absolutely clear his involvement.

He quickly had the statement processed and it became officially documented as an exhibit in the trial. (54) Another deception Walsingham employed, for the sole purpose of completing his goal of leading Mary to the block, was convincing Mary's secretaries that the court had possession of all Mary's and Babington's correspondence. He used Babington's sworn confession as well as several of Phelippes copies to pull off this charade. Once Curll and Nau believed the originals were intact, they were more willing to confess to Mary's involvement in the conspiracy and less concerned with asking questions that Walsingham was not quite prepared to answer. (55) Babington, Baliard and five others were put to death in rather cruel fashion on September 18, 1586. (56) Elizabeth had ordered the unusually drawn out ordeal of execution mainly because she held no respect for those men whose project it had been to kill her. Rather than simply hanging the men until they were dead, she had requested that the traditional method of executing traitors, the disembowelment and burning of the visceral organs, come before the hanging.

The English people were so disgusted by this act of barbarism, that Elizabeth ordered the remaining seven to be dealt with more swiftly. (57) Even with all the evidence Walsingham laid before Elizabeth, she still resisted the notion of bringing Mary to trial. The English Queen had hoped that her subjects would be content with the deaths of the other conspirators and that perhaps once more the burden of issuing Mary's execution would be lifted from her. Elizabeth was still fearful of the repercussions the execution of another monarch could have on her kingdom. (58) Walsingham was as determined, as Elizabeth was reluctant, to have Mary tried. After carefully persuading Elizabeth that it was the people's wish that justice be served, Walsingham was finally able to bring Mary to a public trial on October 14, 1586. It was at this trial that Walsingham publicly announced his personal view of his accomplishments.

As Mary charged him with trickery and foul play, Walsingham straight-facedly proclaimed "I call God to record that as a private person I have done nothing unbeseeming an honest man, nor as I bear the place of a public person, have I done anything unworthy of my place." (59) Mary was accused of treason, a verdict of guilty was read, and a sentence of death was placed on the Scottish Queen. Elizabeth had specifically ordered that the court was to find Mary not guilty, but the Council went against her wishes. Even with this decision, Elizabeth continued to delay the execution. Finally, Walsingham and William Cecil, the chief judge at Mary's trial, went behind Elizabeth's back and pushed her signed death warrant through the Council. (60) Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded on February 8, 1587. (61) Outwardly this action infuriated Elizabeth. She temporarily banished both ministers and several councilmen from her presence, but she began receiving them again as soon as it became clear that there would be no Catholic revolt in Mary's honor. (62) Walsingham's flair at second guessing the opposition made him an indispensable minister in Elizabeth's court.

Walsingham had received the position of Principal Secretary in 1573. From that time, he was able to defeat every plot that formed against his Queen. (63) While Walsingham's motives and doubtful morality still raise strong controversies among historians, there is no question that he played a larger role in the Babington Plot than did the gentleman for which it has been named. Although Babington and Mary were both very conspiratorial, full credit for the concoction of this particular plot rests solely with Sir Francis Walsingham. ENDNOTES 1. The Throckmorton and Norfolk plots of the early 1580's were highly complicated undertakings. Francis Throckmorton was a young, romantic Catholic supporter who had been caught up a bit too strongly in the spirit of revival. He was captured with an incriminating letter suggesting his part in a plot to murder Elizabeth. He was submitted to the rack and confessed to the Scottish Queen's involvement. He was put to death while Mary was not even tried. Lord Norfolk was involved in a plot with Mary, but more for political reasons than religious. When the plot was detected, Norfolk was hanged and once more Mary avoided prosecution. See. J.E.

Neale, Elizabeth I and Her Parliament: 1584-1601 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1957), 106. 2. Herbert Sherman German, The Scottish Queen New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1932), 448. 3. Stefan Zweig, Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles (New York: Viking, 1935), 358.

Question: Francis Walsingham was the spy-master of which monarch?
Answer: Elizabeth I