The dark arts of Elizabeth’s spymaster
The extreme lengths Sir Francis Walsingham was willing to go to protect the Virgin Queen from plotters and foreign powers
The extreme lengths Sir Francis Walshingham was willing to go to protect the Virgin Queen from plotters and foreign powers
“Walsingham was already cultivating the shrewd charisma and persuasiveness”
The Elizabethan era is often seen as a golden age for England. The Virgin Queen offered stability after the bloody reigns of her brother and sister, Edward VI and Mary I. This led to a flourishing of literarure, art and music, with Shakespeare performing regularly in London. England also established its first colony, following Sir Walter Raleigh’s exploration of the New World. However, the truth is that 16th century England was the centre of a web of political intrigue. Elizabeth I was in constant danger of plots to overthrow her, with discontented Catholics who wanted to see an end to Protestant rule. These plotters were often in league with the most powerful nations in Europe, including Spain, France and the Papacy, all of whom had spies in the Queen’s court.
Fortunately, England had its own man in the shadows, a pioneer that would set the standard for secret intelligence for centuries. But like so many spies living on the edge, this man and his agents would blur the line between right and wrong to protect queen and country.
Francis Walsingham was born into a wellconnected family — one of many that who had found their wealth in the capital, then moved out and established themselves as landed gentry in the countryside. His father was a well-connected lawyer but he died when Francis was only two years old. His mother quickly remarried to Sir John Carey, a relation of Anne Boleyn through marriage. His strong familial links placed young Walsingham right in the centre of the most powerful players in England at the time.
Walsingham experienced a privileged education but like many staunch Protestants, he had to flee the country when the zealous Catholic Mary Tudor ascended the throne. During this period he lived in Italy, developing his language abilities and, more importantly, his people skills. This was the first time he had been able to meet and converse with all different kinds of people and he would later comment that it was important to take note of the “manners and dispositions” of people from all walks of life. Walsingham was already cultivating the shrewd charisma and persuasiveness that would see him become one of the most powerful men in England.
When Elizabeth was crowned in 1558, it was finally safe for Walsingham to return to the country. Only a few months later, he was elected
as a member of parliament, though he had very little enthusiasm for this role despite holding it until his death. There was something he did have an interest in, however, and with Elizabeth’s ascension the age of it had begun — espionage.
England’s relationship with Spain had been good under Mary I — she had even attempted a marriage with King Philip — and there was talk of Elizabeth continuing this trend. However, this was not to be. Rather than strengthening the bond between the two nations, the countries drifted further apart. Of course, the very Catholic king of Spain was not overly fond of Elizabeth’s Protestant allegiances and when Protestant rebellions sparked in Spanish-owned countries, England’s calls for Protestant unity were not unheard by Philip.
These tensions eventually mounted into Spanish ships attacking English privateers and any chance of an amicable alliance was lost.
The king himself, Philip II, did little to help relations. He was an infamously suspicious man, untrusting even of his own faithful servants, and he often disgraced men and women loyal to him. He was dubbed the ‘spider king’ due to the many plots he would weave from the shadows.
His own court historian wrote that “his smile and his dagger were very close.” This caused bitter infighting within the Spanish court, which seeped into government and the country itself. This court of distrust and betrayal created the perfect atmosphere for foreign powers to take advantage — and England intended to expose and extort of all of the king’s weaknesses.
Walsingham had already been plucked by William Cecil, Elizabeth’s most trusted secretary, to perform ‘confidential’ tasks. He was a talented linguist and used his skills to spy on foreigners in London who may have borne ill will towards the monarch. Walsingham was not only good at this — his skills were unparalleled. He developed his own resources, recruiting talented men to work for him throughout the country, as well as in the major cities of Europe.
He was already hearing whispers of a plan by Spanish and French Catholics to place the Catholic Mary Stuart — also known as Mary, Queen of Scots — on the throne and he urged Cecil to take these rumours seriously, saying that “there is less danger in fearing too much than too little.” This mantra would follow him throughout his career and see him foil some of the most dangerous conspiracies against a monarch in English history.
Walsingham’s persuasion skills did not go unnoticed and between 1570 and 1573 he served as the ambassador to the French court. Here he tried to obtain a union between Elizabeth and the duke of Anjou, hoping that an alliance between the two old enemies would stop France from siding with Spain against England. However, he merely became convinced that an accord between the two nations with their dividing religious beliefs was now impossible, and that instead it is “less peril to live with them as enemies, than as friends.” Walsingham knew enemies — he knew how to spy on them and how to deal with them. He knew how to be distrustful. What he wasn’t so good at was cultivating friendships. He was dry, dark, sallow and brutally honest with his companions. For many, Walsingham was a difficult pill to swallow and he even had fiery encounters with Elizabeth herself. However, all this was tolerated due to his supreme political and intelligence-gathering skills. Elizabeth knew she faced one of the greatest political schemers in Philip II and she needed her own weaver of plots in order to best him.
Walsingham returned to England towards the end of 1573 and was made a principal secretary, handling domestic and foreign affairs — but his attention was drawn to one person. He knew that all Catholic hope now rested on Mary Stuart and as long as she remained alive, schemes would rise up to put her on the throne. Walsingham was determined to squash every single one of them.
The spymaster concentrated on expanding his ring. Walsingham had eyes not only in every major county of England, but also France, Scotland, Spain, Italy, Turkey and even as far as North Africa. It is rumoured that at one time he had 53 agents in foreign courts and 18 more with undefined roles.
Almost all of these spies were Catholics willing to betray each other and he obtained his men by any means necessary. Walsingham used prison
informants and double agents sourced through bribery and even threats. At home, men were trained to decipher correspondence, feigning handwriting and even in the art of repairing seals so nobody would ever know they had been tampered with.
It was the vastest and arguably most successful spy ring of the Elizabethan age and a model that would be replicated and expanded on into the 20th century. Walsingham was eventually given an annual stipend of £2,000 a year — a huge amount for the era — in order to fund his secret activities. He wasn’t the only person employing and using spies at this time, far from it, but his ring was so extensive and deployed so expertly that no one else could hope to rival it.
Walsingham’s efforts did not go unrewarded. In 1583, one of his spies in the French embassy in London caught wind of secret documents being passed through the embassy itself. The man suspected of being involved was Francis Throckmorton, and Walsingham placed him under increased surveillance. He was arrested six months later and on his person was a map of invasion ports and a list of Catholic supporters.
After some persuasive torture techniques, the details of the plan were confessed. Throckmorton was involved in a planned invasion of England by combined French and Spanish troops, as well as a planned assassination of the queen that would end by placing Mary Stuart on the throne in her place.
Not only was Throckmorton convicted of treason and executed, but the Spanish ambassador, found to be involved in the plot, was expelled from the country. The conspiracy revealed plainly that Spain was never going to be an ally to an England ruled by Elizabeth and diplomatic relations with the country were severed — no more Spanish ambassadors would be welcome in the London court. Spain was now officially an enemy.
The Throckmorton plot only served to increase Walsingham’s concerns about growing support for Mary within England itself and he was right
“He was a talented linguist and used his skills to spy on foreigners in London”
to be suspicious. Cut off from correspondence for nearly a year, Mary was eager to take advantage of a chance to send and receive her mail through beer barrels. Little did Mary know, her letters were falling right into the hands of Walsingham and his men, decoded and read in London, then sent on their way.
During this infiltration, messages were received from Anthony Babington, a wealthy Catholic gentleman who had recruited his own team with one aim in mind — assassinate Elizabeth.
This society also had links with Europe and, of course, Spain. Before the plot, or the queen, could be executed, Walsingham tricked the men into revealing themselves and they were promptly rounded up and arrested. Many of the conspirators were tortured, most notably a priest, Ballard, who had to be carried to his execution in a chair as he was unable to walk.
However, the biggest success was that it directly implicated Mary herself in the scheme. Elizabeth finally had reason to act and Mary was arrested, sent to trial and found guilty. The queen then signed her own cousin’s death warrant and she was beheaded. The Catholic threat, from within England at least, was, for now, eliminated and it was all thanks to Walsingham’s eyes and ears across the nation.
Although Walsingham was successful with foiling plots from within the nation, the threat from outside was still very real. Philip the spider king had given up all pretence of allying with England and instead set about making sure Spain would be the most powerful nation in Europe.
His most alarming action was his move to conquer Portugal by force, claiming the land was his as the recently deceased king was his childless nephew. Elizabeth, however fiery, did not wish to go to war with the nation but found herself with no option but to send troops to the Protestant rebels in the Netherlands, who were revolting against the Spanish king’s hegemony. To Philip, this move was unacceptable — he believed that only by defeating England could he continue his quest for power and control over Europe.
Philip had a plan and it was a huge one. He would create an armada large and powerful enough to put a stop to England’s meddling once and for all — and conquer it in the process. He did everything he could to gain Catholic support for this mission against the Protestant nation,
“Philip the spider king had given up all pretence of allying with England”
although quite a few of these allies showed doubt if Philip’s interests were truly to Catholicism or purely to Spain. However, for all intents and purposes, things were going to plan. As he rapidly built up his numbers, Philip secretly schemed the downfall of his most persistent thorns — Elizabeth and England.
England, however, was not oblivious to the spider king’s plans. Walsingham had already been informed by his many spies, expertly placed in foreign courts, that Spain planned to launch an invasion of the country. He wasn’t powerful enough to stop it completely but his intelligence meant he could certainly prepare the country and lessen the threat.
Dover Harbour was rebuilt so it was ready for an invasion and he urged his agents across the world to promote more aggressive strategies by attacking Spanish holdings in the hope that this would distract Spain, giving him more time to prepare. In particular, he ensured that Francis Drake’s surprise raid on Cadiz would remain just that, which he did by feeding false information to the England ambassador in Paris.
Walsingham already suspected the ambassador was working for the Spanish and, as usual, his hunch was correct. Drake’s raid was a success — it wreaked havoc with the Spanish logistics and set the launch of the Armada back considerably.
When the Armada finally set sail in 1588, Walsingham already knew how many ships to expect, how many men were on board and what they were carrying. Not only was the ‘moor’ given frequent updates from the English Navy, but he even raised his own land defence, should it get that far, with 260 men at his command.
When the Armada was vanquished in August 1588, the naval commander Lord Henry Seymour wrote to Walsingham, “You have fought more with your pen than many have in our English navy fought with their enemies.” For now, at least, the Spanish threat was crushed but Philip would continue to set his sights on England for years to come. However, as long as Walsingham and his spies were listening in the shadows, Elizabeth would be one step ahead of the spider king’s ploys.