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The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I was a ruler who radiated a sense of power and purpose. Her long and successful reign was a Golden Age of wealth, confidence, creativity, Shakespeare's plays and Walter Raleigh's adventures: the apotheosis of the Tudor dynasty.
Across much of Europe, however, Elizabeth was viewed very differently. She was 'Jezebel', the bastard offspring of Henry VIII's illegal second marriage, a woman and a Protestant heretic. The pope denounced her as a heretic schismatic tyrant and the most powerful rulers of Europe conspired to destroy her, their plans most fully realized by the Spanish Armada. If Elizabeth's reign was a golden age, then it was also a precarious one that required constant, anxious surveillance against sometimes overwhelming threats.
The Watchers is a beautifully written, gripping account of the unflagging battle by spies, codebreakers, ambassadors and confidence-men to protect the queen. It was a reign that required endless watchfulness - of the coasts, of the Catholic seminaries, of Elizabeth's own subjects. The stakes could not have been higher: priests coming secretly ashore were hunted down and executed, and assassination plots, real and imagined, sprung up everywhere. Drawing on extraordinary secret files, Stephen Alford brings to life this shadow world, where nobody could be trusted and where a single mistake could have changed England's history drastically. This is a dark, surprising and utterly compelling account of an extraordinary reign.
Across much of Europe, however, Elizabeth was viewed very differently. She was 'Jezebel', the bastard offspring of Henry VIII's illegal second marriage, a woman and a Protestant heretic. The pope denounced her as a heretic schismatic tyrant and the most powerful rulers of Europe conspired to destroy her, their plans most fully realized by the Spanish Armada. If Elizabeth's reign was a golden age, then it was also a precarious one that required constant, anxious surveillance against sometimes overwhelming threats.
The Watchers is a beautifully written, gripping account of the unflagging battle by spies, codebreakers, ambassadors and confidence-men to protect the queen. It was a reign that required endless watchfulness - of the coasts, of the Catholic seminaries, of Elizabeth's own subjects. The stakes could not have been higher: priests coming secretly ashore were hunted down and executed, and assassination plots, real and imagined, sprung up everywhere. Drawing on extraordinary secret files, Stephen Alford brings to life this shadow world, where nobody could be trusted and where a single mistake could have changed England's history drastically. This is a dark, surprising and utterly compelling account of an extraordinary reign.
398 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2012
About the author
Stephen Alford
11 books26 followersStephen Alford FRHistS (born 1970) is a British historian and academic. He has been professor of early modern British history at the University of Leeds since 2012. Educated at the University of St Andrews, he was formerly a British Academy Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge (1997–99) and junior research fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and, between 1999 and 2012, a fellow in history at King's College, Cambridge. He has been a fellow of the Royal Historical Society since 2000.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
October 26, 2012
The golden age of England, underneath, was a time when secrets were a form of currency just a precious as gold.
Stephen Alford's "The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I" was an excellent book about one of my all-time favorite eras of history the Tudor Reign. I've read several books about the Tudors, and this book showed that Elizabeth's rule was a precarious and fragile thing; the Protestant monarch had many enemies at home and abroad, at times her network of spies was all that stood between rule and ruin.
First, you have to like a book with such detailed references. A good sign of a non-fiction book's character (or lack thereof) will be revealed if a book has a strong backbone of source material. I also thought the layout of the beginning of the book was excellent, the author set up the characters like that of a playbill, giving a brief description of the parts each person played-out in this game of spies. This was beneficial, since there was a number of players to keep straight, and having a quick guide to turn back to was helpful.
Although I was aware of Elizabeth's most trusted advisor William Cecil's cunning, and his web of information that was far-reaching, I did not know to what extent and how wide the network of underground information-gathering reached. Alford showcased the inner-turmoil of the country, where Protestants were once again in favor and Catholics fled the country for fear of persecution or worse. Catholics that left the country, however, were not safe for the ever-watchful eyes of England’s spies.
Alford’s book gave in detail a number of entertaining and well-documented accounts of how England’s spies went about procuring their information, and how these spies give evidence against men they had lived with ,worked for, and befriended. The book also described the Throckmorton Plot to overthrow Elizabeth, and place Catholic Mary Queen of Scots on the throne.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Elizabethan or Tudor history, or those interested in reading about the lucrative business of information-gathering. Alford's "The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I" was a well-written and thoroughly researched book that I found very entertaining and informative.
Stephen Alford's "The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I" was an excellent book about one of my all-time favorite eras of history the Tudor Reign. I've read several books about the Tudors, and this book showed that Elizabeth's rule was a precarious and fragile thing; the Protestant monarch had many enemies at home and abroad, at times her network of spies was all that stood between rule and ruin.
First, you have to like a book with such detailed references. A good sign of a non-fiction book's character (or lack thereof) will be revealed if a book has a strong backbone of source material. I also thought the layout of the beginning of the book was excellent, the author set up the characters like that of a playbill, giving a brief description of the parts each person played-out in this game of spies. This was beneficial, since there was a number of players to keep straight, and having a quick guide to turn back to was helpful.
Although I was aware of Elizabeth's most trusted advisor William Cecil's cunning, and his web of information that was far-reaching, I did not know to what extent and how wide the network of underground information-gathering reached. Alford showcased the inner-turmoil of the country, where Protestants were once again in favor and Catholics fled the country for fear of persecution or worse. Catholics that left the country, however, were not safe for the ever-watchful eyes of England’s spies.
Alford’s book gave in detail a number of entertaining and well-documented accounts of how England’s spies went about procuring their information, and how these spies give evidence against men they had lived with ,worked for, and befriended. The book also described the Throckmorton Plot to overthrow Elizabeth, and place Catholic Mary Queen of Scots on the throne.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Elizabethan or Tudor history, or those interested in reading about the lucrative business of information-gathering. Alford's "The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I" was a well-written and thoroughly researched book that I found very entertaining and informative.
June 25, 2016
"The more obsessively a state watches, the greater the dangers it perceives... balance and perspective are lost"
This is a good account of the anti-Catholic paranoia which proliferated during the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603), and the men who simultaneously fed it, feared it and built their power upon it. At its heart sit William Cecil, Lord Burghley; and Francis Walsingham - but Alford also uncovers the spies who worked for these men (e.g. Anthony Munday, Robert Poley, the sinister Thomas Phelippes), their victims (e.g. Thomas Campion, Mary Stuart), and the major conspiracies of the reign (e.g. the Babington Plot, the Throckmorton Plot, the Ridolfi Plot).
Alford has positioned this as a `popular' history book in that there is little here that is being uncovered for the first time, and rather than using footnotes, he confines his extensive primary sources to notes at the back. He keeps his commentary to a minimum but he makes some important points upfront, drawing implicit rather than explicit comparisons with other historical points at which religious groups have become demonised and made complicit with `treason'.
This is a nice antidote to sweeping, idealised ideas of a golden Elizabethan age of prosperity and stability (the Queen's government was frequently near bankruptcy, a state which had important political ramifications in the troubled 1590s), and offers an insight into the way in which this period is being studied in modern academia. The increased use of torture, the forging of confessional documents, the way in which `perfectly loyal English Catholics' were imprisoned and thus alienated all serve to make this both accessible and very relevant to contemporary readers.
This is a good account of the anti-Catholic paranoia which proliferated during the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603), and the men who simultaneously fed it, feared it and built their power upon it. At its heart sit William Cecil, Lord Burghley; and Francis Walsingham - but Alford also uncovers the spies who worked for these men (e.g. Anthony Munday, Robert Poley, the sinister Thomas Phelippes), their victims (e.g. Thomas Campion, Mary Stuart), and the major conspiracies of the reign (e.g. the Babington Plot, the Throckmorton Plot, the Ridolfi Plot).
Alford has positioned this as a `popular' history book in that there is little here that is being uncovered for the first time, and rather than using footnotes, he confines his extensive primary sources to notes at the back. He keeps his commentary to a minimum but he makes some important points upfront, drawing implicit rather than explicit comparisons with other historical points at which religious groups have become demonised and made complicit with `treason'.
This is a nice antidote to sweeping, idealised ideas of a golden Elizabethan age of prosperity and stability (the Queen's government was frequently near bankruptcy, a state which had important political ramifications in the troubled 1590s), and offers an insight into the way in which this period is being studied in modern academia. The increased use of torture, the forging of confessional documents, the way in which `perfectly loyal English Catholics' were imprisoned and thus alienated all serve to make this both accessible and very relevant to contemporary readers.
February 12, 2013
(This review also appears on The Mad Reviewer.)
[Full disclosure: Bloomsbury sent me a free print copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.]
I don’t read nearly as much nonfiction as I would like, so The Watchers was both a refreshing change from YA novels and a great book in its own right. For someone who knows a decent amount about the Tudors and Medieval England, I was shocked at how big of a role spying played back then. It wasn’t just basic spying either: it was sophisticated and at times, incredibly complicated. Stephen Alford has documented the lives of some of the main players in the spy game, from the talented to the incompetent, the eccentric to the boring.
Although Alford’s writing can get a bit choppy here and there as he jumps from spy to spy, he does tie things up well at the end of the chapters and at the very end of the book. Despite the head-hopping, the writing style itself was very engaging for a nonfiction writer and made The Watchers far more enjoyable.To illustrate his point that spying was very important in Tudor England, he had a very lengthy introduction imagining a scenario in which spies did not exist and Elizabeth I really had been assassinated. I would have liked for the introduction to be cut down slightly, but Alford certainly did make his point well.
One thing I really liked about The Watchers is that Alford isn’t telling a completely one-sided story of the struggle of Protestants to protect their queen from evil Catholics. We get to see how the Protestant agents felt about their missions, but also get to see things from the point of view of Catholic exiles. it’s rare to find such balanced nonfiction these days, but Alford managed it. The political triumphs of courtiers like Lord Burghley are balanced by accounts of the terrible torture captured Catholics faced. Alford does not depict a picture of a Golden Age as most books about Elizabethan England seem to and we get to see that the ugly side of the Golden Age was quite ugly at times. It’s nice to find a more realistic portrayal of the times.
Overall, The Watchers is a great book for both newcomers to history and old hats at it. Personally, I’m looking forward to any future books Stephen Alford publishes.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars for the purpose of Goodreads ratings.
[Full disclosure: Bloomsbury sent me a free print copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.]
I don’t read nearly as much nonfiction as I would like, so The Watchers was both a refreshing change from YA novels and a great book in its own right. For someone who knows a decent amount about the Tudors and Medieval England, I was shocked at how big of a role spying played back then. It wasn’t just basic spying either: it was sophisticated and at times, incredibly complicated. Stephen Alford has documented the lives of some of the main players in the spy game, from the talented to the incompetent, the eccentric to the boring.
Although Alford’s writing can get a bit choppy here and there as he jumps from spy to spy, he does tie things up well at the end of the chapters and at the very end of the book. Despite the head-hopping, the writing style itself was very engaging for a nonfiction writer and made The Watchers far more enjoyable.To illustrate his point that spying was very important in Tudor England, he had a very lengthy introduction imagining a scenario in which spies did not exist and Elizabeth I really had been assassinated. I would have liked for the introduction to be cut down slightly, but Alford certainly did make his point well.
One thing I really liked about The Watchers is that Alford isn’t telling a completely one-sided story of the struggle of Protestants to protect their queen from evil Catholics. We get to see how the Protestant agents felt about their missions, but also get to see things from the point of view of Catholic exiles. it’s rare to find such balanced nonfiction these days, but Alford managed it. The political triumphs of courtiers like Lord Burghley are balanced by accounts of the terrible torture captured Catholics faced. Alford does not depict a picture of a Golden Age as most books about Elizabethan England seem to and we get to see that the ugly side of the Golden Age was quite ugly at times. It’s nice to find a more realistic portrayal of the times.
Overall, The Watchers is a great book for both newcomers to history and old hats at it. Personally, I’m looking forward to any future books Stephen Alford publishes.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars for the purpose of Goodreads ratings.
January 2, 2021
Anyone who has read Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy will know that espionage, intelligence and control of information were a vital part of the armoury of the Tudor state.
In The Watchers, Stephen Alford looks at the role spies, codebreakers and surveillance played in shoring up the reign of Henry VIII's daughter Queen Elizabeth I.
The reputation of Elizabeth's reign as an English Golden Age may be justified in some ways, but Alford focuses on the sense of fragility and insecurity that also pervaded.
Elizabeth's legitimacy would be questioned from the outset, and the lack of an heir, alongside European rivalries and religious tensions, always left questions about how long the final Tudor monarch would or could last.
It became vital then to know what plots were being hatched so as to foil them, but also to flush out potential conspirators.
We are some way from a professional secret service though, and The Watchers is populated with a ragbag cast of chancers and incompetents, as well as the odd skilled spy or codebreaker.
It is then hard to know just how significant espionage was in keeping Elizabeth safe from assassination and England free of invasion or rebellion.
At times England's opponents were also incompetent and ham-fisted, and plots regularly fell apart without much serious intervention. There were also incidences of entrapment as agents provocateurs engineered plots to expose enemies.
Alford's book is well-researched, but always entertaining, with plenty to fascinate and inform. There is also some gruesome detail involving torture and punishment.
It captures a moment when the State was expanding and espionage became an important tool of governments.
At times there is the odd moment of unnecessary repetition that should have been edited out, but this is both an informative and fast-paced history of a momentous era.
In The Watchers, Stephen Alford looks at the role spies, codebreakers and surveillance played in shoring up the reign of Henry VIII's daughter Queen Elizabeth I.
The reputation of Elizabeth's reign as an English Golden Age may be justified in some ways, but Alford focuses on the sense of fragility and insecurity that also pervaded.
Elizabeth's legitimacy would be questioned from the outset, and the lack of an heir, alongside European rivalries and religious tensions, always left questions about how long the final Tudor monarch would or could last.
It became vital then to know what plots were being hatched so as to foil them, but also to flush out potential conspirators.
We are some way from a professional secret service though, and The Watchers is populated with a ragbag cast of chancers and incompetents, as well as the odd skilled spy or codebreaker.
It is then hard to know just how significant espionage was in keeping Elizabeth safe from assassination and England free of invasion or rebellion.
At times England's opponents were also incompetent and ham-fisted, and plots regularly fell apart without much serious intervention. There were also incidences of entrapment as agents provocateurs engineered plots to expose enemies.
Alford's book is well-researched, but always entertaining, with plenty to fascinate and inform. There is also some gruesome detail involving torture and punishment.
It captures a moment when the State was expanding and espionage became an important tool of governments.
At times there is the odd moment of unnecessary repetition that should have been edited out, but this is both an informative and fast-paced history of a momentous era.
December 11, 2016
Elizabeth I reigned for a total of 45 years in England, and the stability she gave as head of state gave us the Golden Age of wealth and greater self-assurance as a nation. The final Tudor monarch saw a cultural advances too, this being the time of Shakespeare and military confidence on the high seas. However, the Europeans saw her very differently; as daughter of Anne Boylen, Henry VIII's second wife, she was considered a bastard and Protestant heretic by catholic Europe. Following her denouncement by the Pope various European rulers prepared plans to dispose her, replacing her with Mary. The event that most people are aware of is the almost invasion by The Spanish Armada, but throughout her reign she was protected by a team of loyal subjects.
These men were a motley bunch of ambassadors, codebreakers, and confidence-men and spies who used all sort of covert and overt methods to counter the catholic threat. Infiltrators were sent to the continent to ingratiate themselves with the church, uncovering conspiracies both real and imagined, identified and followed gentlemen who were plotting the overthrow of their Queen. The network tracked priests entering the country under cover, intercepted and deciphered almost all correspondence between suspects in England and their contacts in France, Spain and Italy and neutered the threat that hung over the crown.
Drawing on documents from archive and collections, Alford shines a light into this dark and shadowy time of history. The narrative details tense searches across the countryside looking for specific people who were perceived to be a threat to the crown. Traitors who were convicted, sometimes only on hearsay and confessions uttered under torture on the rack, were condemned in horrific ways to die. It is an interesting account of those involved in keeping their monarch safe from all the assassination attempts and plots, but at times was fairly complicated as he details all the people involved in these plots. Worth reading though for those that like their Tudor history.
These men were a motley bunch of ambassadors, codebreakers, and confidence-men and spies who used all sort of covert and overt methods to counter the catholic threat. Infiltrators were sent to the continent to ingratiate themselves with the church, uncovering conspiracies both real and imagined, identified and followed gentlemen who were plotting the overthrow of their Queen. The network tracked priests entering the country under cover, intercepted and deciphered almost all correspondence between suspects in England and their contacts in France, Spain and Italy and neutered the threat that hung over the crown.
Drawing on documents from archive and collections, Alford shines a light into this dark and shadowy time of history. The narrative details tense searches across the countryside looking for specific people who were perceived to be a threat to the crown. Traitors who were convicted, sometimes only on hearsay and confessions uttered under torture on the rack, were condemned in horrific ways to die. It is an interesting account of those involved in keeping their monarch safe from all the assassination attempts and plots, but at times was fairly complicated as he details all the people involved in these plots. Worth reading though for those that like their Tudor history.
Read
August 30, 2012I really enjoyed this book. The subtitle is "a secret history of the reign of Elizabeth I", but I feel that doesn't actually explain just what an insightful, but accessible, book this one is.
It includes some really fascinating details on spies and spying in Elizabethan Europe, but it also describes the state of almost perpetual paranoia during a period of history which Hollywood likes to glamorize as the "golden age" of monarchy. It wasn't a golden age. Elizabeth maintained a dazzling but strict distance from the majority of her advisors and from the plebs which made her appear all the more awe-inspiring, and she was definitely an extremely intelligent, astute and ruthless individual, who aimed to find outcomes to the issues of the day which put her in the best possible position with little effort on her behalf which I can only admire, but for me the real heroes appear to be the astonishingly clever, worldly, and subtle "administrators". They worked to protect the aura of majesty around the Queen, and keep safe both her, and the hard-won religious freedom of an England surrounded by Catholics. The Great Armada was not the climax in English-Spanish military history I was taught at school, but simply one battle in a long cold war, which occasionally boiled over, and was only extinguished when James Stuart came to the throne, complete with his ready-made heirs, and finally resolved the agonies of the Tudor succession (well, for a generation or two, at least). This almost obsessive passion for maintaining the Protestant religious freedom of England was something which James II, the grandson of James Stuart (nor Charles I, to a lesser extent) never understood, but which Charles II understood to his bones.
I understand the religious history of the age (at least to a certain extent), but this book brought it alive for me. Think of a relatively minor, new religion (or cult) today, and imagine that a president or prime minister decides that for their own expediency this new religion is going to be what everyone in that country must follow. Now imagine after a bloody tussle of a few decades of back-and-forth, all the "non-believers" are essentially persecuted into exile. Some of them will decide to make their homes where they land, but others will do all they can to go home on their own terms (whilst maintaining loyalty to the government) and others will do all they can to destroy the government in the name of the "old" religion. Other countries see this an opportunity to invade and take the heretic country for themselves (it's not particularly wealthy, but its geographic location makes it important for trade, and it has been supporting insurgents/terrorists overseas for years), and they spend money and time and decades trying to do so. That is the picture of Elizabethan Europe you get from this book.
This book is also interesting for its descriptions of how espionage was actually physically carried out in the 16th century. It surprised me how much is resembled modern espionage. It relied upon having well-placed, non-descript individuals, either motivated by overwhelming loyalty or vast wads of money, or threatened into spying. They wrote their reports, encrypted them and shipped them to their handlers, who then pieced them together to try and form an accurate picture of threats, so they could device counterpolicy. Essentially what happens now.
Great book. I could go on for ever about how much I got out of it.. 5 stars. It was amazing.
It includes some really fascinating details on spies and spying in Elizabethan Europe, but it also describes the state of almost perpetual paranoia during a period of history which Hollywood likes to glamorize as the "golden age" of monarchy. It wasn't a golden age. Elizabeth maintained a dazzling but strict distance from the majority of her advisors and from the plebs which made her appear all the more awe-inspiring, and she was definitely an extremely intelligent, astute and ruthless individual, who aimed to find outcomes to the issues of the day which put her in the best possible position with little effort on her behalf which I can only admire, but for me the real heroes appear to be the astonishingly clever, worldly, and subtle "administrators". They worked to protect the aura of majesty around the Queen, and keep safe both her, and the hard-won religious freedom of an England surrounded by Catholics. The Great Armada was not the climax in English-Spanish military history I was taught at school, but simply one battle in a long cold war, which occasionally boiled over, and was only extinguished when James Stuart came to the throne, complete with his ready-made heirs, and finally resolved the agonies of the Tudor succession (well, for a generation or two, at least). This almost obsessive passion for maintaining the Protestant religious freedom of England was something which James II, the grandson of James Stuart (nor Charles I, to a lesser extent) never understood, but which Charles II understood to his bones.
I understand the religious history of the age (at least to a certain extent), but this book brought it alive for me. Think of a relatively minor, new religion (or cult) today, and imagine that a president or prime minister decides that for their own expediency this new religion is going to be what everyone in that country must follow. Now imagine after a bloody tussle of a few decades of back-and-forth, all the "non-believers" are essentially persecuted into exile. Some of them will decide to make their homes where they land, but others will do all they can to go home on their own terms (whilst maintaining loyalty to the government) and others will do all they can to destroy the government in the name of the "old" religion. Other countries see this an opportunity to invade and take the heretic country for themselves (it's not particularly wealthy, but its geographic location makes it important for trade, and it has been supporting insurgents/terrorists overseas for years), and they spend money and time and decades trying to do so. That is the picture of Elizabethan Europe you get from this book.
This book is also interesting for its descriptions of how espionage was actually physically carried out in the 16th century. It surprised me how much is resembled modern espionage. It relied upon having well-placed, non-descript individuals, either motivated by overwhelming loyalty or vast wads of money, or threatened into spying. They wrote their reports, encrypted them and shipped them to their handlers, who then pieced them together to try and form an accurate picture of threats, so they could device counterpolicy. Essentially what happens now.
Great book. I could go on for ever about how much I got out of it.. 5 stars. It was amazing.
May 8, 2023
William Parry: "I'm playing both sides, so that I always come out on top!"
It was alright! Felt much more like a history of the spymasters, their agents, and specific plots than of Elizabethan spycraft more generally - I never really got much of a sense of how the espionage and counter-espionage really worked (what ciphers did they use, how did you go about recruiting an agent etc.). There was a touch more of this in the first third re. Anthony Munday and his ilk, but the narrative still felt more interested in (often inconsequential) movements and events from his letters than what they can tell us about the wider context of early modern spiery (a great archaic term that we should definitely bring back). Somewhat churlish to complain that a book isn't exactly what I'd like it to be, and Alford is clearly very familiar with the rich textual evidence that survives, using it to paint detailed pictures of the ins and outs of various schemes, but it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
It falls into a few of the traps that I'm not too fond of in narrative, individual focused histories: every character gets a slightly reductive adjective/character trait that essentially goes on to colour/explain all their later actions, and there's a fair bit of repetition as we jump between different plots. Has been said before, but a real highlight was the speculative history of the successful assassination of Elizabeth in the introductory chapter. It's all too easy to sometimes forget that history wasn't preordained to the people living though it, and this little section does a great job of getting across the anxiety and paranoia that fuelled so much of the work of the intelligencers (another great word) catalogued in this book.
The Babington Plot was an inside job.
It was alright! Felt much more like a history of the spymasters, their agents, and specific plots than of Elizabethan spycraft more generally - I never really got much of a sense of how the espionage and counter-espionage really worked (what ciphers did they use, how did you go about recruiting an agent etc.). There was a touch more of this in the first third re. Anthony Munday and his ilk, but the narrative still felt more interested in (often inconsequential) movements and events from his letters than what they can tell us about the wider context of early modern spiery (a great archaic term that we should definitely bring back). Somewhat churlish to complain that a book isn't exactly what I'd like it to be, and Alford is clearly very familiar with the rich textual evidence that survives, using it to paint detailed pictures of the ins and outs of various schemes, but it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
It falls into a few of the traps that I'm not too fond of in narrative, individual focused histories: every character gets a slightly reductive adjective/character trait that essentially goes on to colour/explain all their later actions, and there's a fair bit of repetition as we jump between different plots. Has been said before, but a real highlight was the speculative history of the successful assassination of Elizabeth in the introductory chapter. It's all too easy to sometimes forget that history wasn't preordained to the people living though it, and this little section does a great job of getting across the anxiety and paranoia that fuelled so much of the work of the intelligencers (another great word) catalogued in this book.
The Babington Plot was an inside job.
August 5, 2026
Heard about this on the rest is history and gave it a go - who doesn't want to read about spies in Tudor times!
Found the story compelling to the extent it didnt really feel like non-fiction. This caused a couple of issues however:
- I was unhappy when major characters died abruptly
- The Spanish Armada was largely skipped over as it was superfluous to a spy story (Heresy!)
Really engaging read and a topic I'd never considered in any depth - well worth it for a Tudor fan
Found the story compelling to the extent it didnt really feel like non-fiction. This caused a couple of issues however:
- I was unhappy when major characters died abruptly
- The Spanish Armada was largely skipped over as it was superfluous to a spy story (Heresy!)
Really engaging read and a topic I'd never considered in any depth - well worth it for a Tudor fan
September 29, 2021
Detta är ett typiskt exempel på en sådan där bok som jag inte hade avslutat innan goodreads. Den innehåller ett axplock av vad vi vet om Elizabeths hemliga polis och underrättelseverksamhet, beskriven genom ett antal karaktärs- och händelsebeskrivningar. Det är definitivt populärhistoria, men så vitt jag kan bedöma, påläst sådan.
January 11, 2013
Sent this book by the publishers, I really looked forward to reading what’s ostensibly a behind the scenes account of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign but from the point of view of the “watchers”: that is, reporters, listeners, spies – the men whose speciality was espionage. Elizabethan times, it turns out, are notorious for their extensive use of spies and networks, all of which were established to protect England and ensure the queen’s successful reign. As Alford writes in the introduction, while Elizabeth and her council worked hard to maintain “clever and persuasive projections of political stability, empire, self-confidence and national myth” there was, in fact, “a darker story… set against a Europe divided and oppressed by religious conflict, civil war and the ambitions of kings and princes.”
Taking the crown after her half-sister “Bloody Mary” tried to purge the Protestant stain, and trying to stabilise an England divided by religious schism and rapidly changing succession, Elizabeth’s job was not easy. Declaring England as Protestant, but claiming that Catholicism would be tolerated, Elizabeth nonetheless was acutely aware of how precarious her position as ruler and religious head of a reeling nation was. Plots to declare her rule invalid, assassination attempts, never mind trying to overthrow Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne abounded. Then there was the job of trying to find Elizabeth a suitable husband, all of which meant that though the kingdom flourished in terms of exploration, the humanities and arts, there was also a seething underbelly that threatened to erupt and destroy everything at any time. The greatest threat was that of the Catholics who, discontent with Elizabeth’s heretical leadership and perceiving it as ungodly, sought to rid themselves of Henry VIII’s daughter and restore the “true religion”. Working from within their homeland, their overseas networks were extensive, travelling across Europe and involving some of the most powerful people abroad as well.
The stage is thus set for espionage, betrayal, treason, propaganda, secrets, torture, faith, martyrdom and lies all of which Sir Francis Walsingham and his successors sought to control.
Carefully researched and very well-written, this book is an eye-opener that also makes the mind boggle. The lengths to which various individuals would go to inveigle themselves into (Catholic) families or communities in order to uncover plots and treasons were phenomenal. Conspirators were discovered frequently, many from noble families. The Throckmorton plot was one of the most famous and this is covered in detail throughout the book. Fascinating in its complexity and the degree of commitment and sacrifice believers were ready to make, uncovering it was to prove an even greater triumph.
The book goes onto explore the stories, derring-do, successes and failures of many spies and traitors, how far they were willing to go (disguise, denying their identities for long periods, sacrificing family and a “normal” life for little reward) and from these we also learn how disposed Walsingham and his men were to use torture to uncover secrets and plots and how brutal their interrogation methods were. Some of the spies, or intelligencers, were gentleman and even poets, others were criminals, but many were chameleons, able to shift, camouflage themselves and change with subtlety. There was William Parry, Thomas Phelippes, Gilbery Gifford, Chrales Sledd, Sir Robert Cecil, Burghley, simply to name a few (forgive my memory) - names both known and unknown to history buffs. Perhaps, for those names less familiar, it’s testimony to how well they performed their roles – they disappeared not simply into the woodwork, but became lost in the pages of history and time until Alford recovers them. Uncovering the plots and deeds of desperate men, these watchers brought many to trial and death and, in doing so, ensured Elizabeth’s long reign.
Utilising surviving records, Alford has done an amazing job and recreated in detail a tumultuous but fascinating period. Almost akin to a Renaissance version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I found this book fascinating, challenging (to keep track of the different names and roles), but also a wonderful insight into what occurs behind the doors, under the tables and in the shadows and whispers of a colourful and deceptively confidant queen’s reign. Like an ice-berg, it was the seven-eights we didn’t see that ensured the topmost part remained afloat. Alford has given us access to that which we don’t normally witness and exposed the intricacy and deadly seriousness of spying in Elizabethan times.
A great read for history buffs, writers, anyone who loves tales of espionage and appreciates solid research delivered in an entertaining and engaging manner.
4.5 stars
Taking the crown after her half-sister “Bloody Mary” tried to purge the Protestant stain, and trying to stabilise an England divided by religious schism and rapidly changing succession, Elizabeth’s job was not easy. Declaring England as Protestant, but claiming that Catholicism would be tolerated, Elizabeth nonetheless was acutely aware of how precarious her position as ruler and religious head of a reeling nation was. Plots to declare her rule invalid, assassination attempts, never mind trying to overthrow Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne abounded. Then there was the job of trying to find Elizabeth a suitable husband, all of which meant that though the kingdom flourished in terms of exploration, the humanities and arts, there was also a seething underbelly that threatened to erupt and destroy everything at any time. The greatest threat was that of the Catholics who, discontent with Elizabeth’s heretical leadership and perceiving it as ungodly, sought to rid themselves of Henry VIII’s daughter and restore the “true religion”. Working from within their homeland, their overseas networks were extensive, travelling across Europe and involving some of the most powerful people abroad as well.
The stage is thus set for espionage, betrayal, treason, propaganda, secrets, torture, faith, martyrdom and lies all of which Sir Francis Walsingham and his successors sought to control.
Carefully researched and very well-written, this book is an eye-opener that also makes the mind boggle. The lengths to which various individuals would go to inveigle themselves into (Catholic) families or communities in order to uncover plots and treasons were phenomenal. Conspirators were discovered frequently, many from noble families. The Throckmorton plot was one of the most famous and this is covered in detail throughout the book. Fascinating in its complexity and the degree of commitment and sacrifice believers were ready to make, uncovering it was to prove an even greater triumph.
The book goes onto explore the stories, derring-do, successes and failures of many spies and traitors, how far they were willing to go (disguise, denying their identities for long periods, sacrificing family and a “normal” life for little reward) and from these we also learn how disposed Walsingham and his men were to use torture to uncover secrets and plots and how brutal their interrogation methods were. Some of the spies, or intelligencers, were gentleman and even poets, others were criminals, but many were chameleons, able to shift, camouflage themselves and change with subtlety. There was William Parry, Thomas Phelippes, Gilbery Gifford, Chrales Sledd, Sir Robert Cecil, Burghley, simply to name a few (forgive my memory) - names both known and unknown to history buffs. Perhaps, for those names less familiar, it’s testimony to how well they performed their roles – they disappeared not simply into the woodwork, but became lost in the pages of history and time until Alford recovers them. Uncovering the plots and deeds of desperate men, these watchers brought many to trial and death and, in doing so, ensured Elizabeth’s long reign.
Utilising surviving records, Alford has done an amazing job and recreated in detail a tumultuous but fascinating period. Almost akin to a Renaissance version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I found this book fascinating, challenging (to keep track of the different names and roles), but also a wonderful insight into what occurs behind the doors, under the tables and in the shadows and whispers of a colourful and deceptively confidant queen’s reign. Like an ice-berg, it was the seven-eights we didn’t see that ensured the topmost part remained afloat. Alford has given us access to that which we don’t normally witness and exposed the intricacy and deadly seriousness of spying in Elizabethan times.
A great read for history buffs, writers, anyone who loves tales of espionage and appreciates solid research delivered in an entertaining and engaging manner.
4.5 stars
October 13, 2017
“The Watchers” gives us a very different view of Elizabethan England than we (or at least I) are used to. Instead of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Ben Jonson and the university wits there is the constant threat of invasion and the first stirrings of a centralized police state. Elizabeth is not the Gloriana of Spenser’s “Faerie Queen” but a headstrong monarch who put her kingdom at risk by refusing to name a successor. While the arts flourished, voyages of discovery sent out and everyone went to the theater—except when they were closed by the plague—there were undercurrents of treachery, perfidy and treason. The queen might be assassinated, Phillip of Spain’s armies might embark from the Low Countries and cross the narrow sea to land on English beaches and the horror of religious civil war could be imminent. Mary, Queen of Scots and cousin of Elizabeth would be freed from house arrest to rule as a Catholic monarch. None of this happened; Stephen Alford does his best to show that it was due to the machinations of two men, William Cecil and Francis Walsingham, the queen’s spymasters, directors of the watchers of the title and the employers of spies, turncoats and torturers. Alford knows the sources, has a firm sense of narrative and tells the story well.
Three actions had to occur for the plot to succeed. The queen had to die, preferably at the hand of a man claiming to be a loyal Englishman and devout Catholic (Elizabeth had already been condemned as a heretic, schismatic and bastard), Mary, her cousin, had to be proclaimed the new queen, soon to marry a Catholic monarch from the continent, either Phillip of Spain or the Duke of Guise of France, and the army of a Catholic country had to invade while Catholic nobles from the north of England and Scotland raised a rebellion. The plots were constant and Alford shows how Cecil and Walsingham’s spies in France and Italy kept track of them while their operatives in the ports kept watch for seditious literature produced by the émigré community and for priests trying to sneak into the country.
Alford begins with a counterfactual account of a successful assassination plot against the queen in 1566 with the chaos and strife that would follow. It sets up his thesis, that all the spying, torturing and killing that took place to keep Elizabeth safe was both necessary and proper. He ends with the queen dying in her bed and James IV of Scotland, soon to be James I of England, ready to accept the crown. He was the son of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots sent to the block by Elizabeth in 1567. The peaceful succession was quietly arranged during Elizabeth’s last illness by Robert Cecil, son of William Cecil and the new spymaster of the realm.
Note on the kindle edition--it is necessary to use the Kindle Cloud app to actually see the illustrations. As is always the case the kindle device is too small to render drawings and images of 16th century text legibly.
Three actions had to occur for the plot to succeed. The queen had to die, preferably at the hand of a man claiming to be a loyal Englishman and devout Catholic (Elizabeth had already been condemned as a heretic, schismatic and bastard), Mary, her cousin, had to be proclaimed the new queen, soon to marry a Catholic monarch from the continent, either Phillip of Spain or the Duke of Guise of France, and the army of a Catholic country had to invade while Catholic nobles from the north of England and Scotland raised a rebellion. The plots were constant and Alford shows how Cecil and Walsingham’s spies in France and Italy kept track of them while their operatives in the ports kept watch for seditious literature produced by the émigré community and for priests trying to sneak into the country.
Alford begins with a counterfactual account of a successful assassination plot against the queen in 1566 with the chaos and strife that would follow. It sets up his thesis, that all the spying, torturing and killing that took place to keep Elizabeth safe was both necessary and proper. He ends with the queen dying in her bed and James IV of Scotland, soon to be James I of England, ready to accept the crown. He was the son of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots sent to the block by Elizabeth in 1567. The peaceful succession was quietly arranged during Elizabeth’s last illness by Robert Cecil, son of William Cecil and the new spymaster of the realm.
Note on the kindle edition--it is necessary to use the Kindle Cloud app to actually see the illustrations. As is always the case the kindle device is too small to render drawings and images of 16th century text legibly.
July 23, 2013
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2207951.html[return][return]this is a study of how the leadership of the English government maintained an intelligence service to protect the realm, in particular the Cecils and Sir Francis Walsingham. I'll say up front that I had a couple of disappointments - there is very little about Ireland, and I'd hoped for at least a passing mention of John Bossy's Giordano Bruno theory and didn't get one. But I was very satisfied with the overall detailed picture of the Queen's advisors, determined to preserve her rule at all costs, much more ruthless than she would have been (as witness her dithering over the execution of Mary Queen of Scots) and also somewhat more anti-Catholic. [return][return]It's easy to overlook two very important facts about the historical situation: first, that nobody knew that Elizabeth would live to 1603, and the uncertainty about her succession, which she deliberately fostered to some extent, was profoundly destabilising to those who wanted to think ahead to the next reign; and second, that information just did not really flow between countries - there were no newspapers, statesmen did not give interviews, official communications between rulers and magnates had to be supplemented by intelligence gathered by agents in important centres abroad. One of the tools of statecraft therefore was to have a widespread network of contacts, who would demand regular payment in return for information; this still happens today, of course, but unlike today there was almost no OSINT to check the HUMINT against. Another important point is that most of the information was channeled to the principals directly, and never shown to anyone else except, if really necessary, the Queen.[return][return]Given these two factors, Alford makes it almost uncontroversial, though of course potentially very dangerous, that Walsingham essentially framed Mary Queen of Scots for execution through the Babington Plot; although Babington himself, who was only 24, was clearly a rather slender reed for the restoration of Catholicism, Mary was an ever present temptation for someone more competent while she lived. Walsingham and Cecil were ruthless, but they had seen the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and indeed had perpetrated plenty of sectarian violence themselves; they knew perfectly well what awaited them in the event of a further change of official ideology. Elizabethan England, providing security at home for economic stability and some encouragement of culture, at the cost of repression of the surviving loyalists to the former regime and paranoia about their foreign allies, seems not so very different from Pinochet's Chile, or the less corrupt Eastern European countries under Communism.
March 2, 2018
For some reason I randomly became obsessed with Elizabethan spycraft in the last week, so of course I had to read this. And, for the most part, this book had what I wanted. There is an insane level of detail here; many, many documents get referenced. I also liked how the author explained all of the broader concepts at work as well, for those of us who don't know off the top of our head the politics of Philip's Spanish court. Yes, there is an obvious bias, but it's so mundane that it didn't really affect my reading. (Alford may be in love with Phelippes, just saying).
But anyway. I think this book gave a very comprehensive overview of the state of espionage in Elizabethan England, as well as a pretty good idea of what the political climate was like. It would probably be a great source (that leads to MANY great sources), but I really did read it for fun. And, I do have to say that Alford makes his subject very accessible, so that reading it wasn't a chore and was actually enjoyable.
My only slight annoyance was how much he would focus on one particular person, and then completely forget them later on. If you're going to give me someone's life story, you have to finish it. Other than that, there is very little to complain about here.
But anyway. I think this book gave a very comprehensive overview of the state of espionage in Elizabethan England, as well as a pretty good idea of what the political climate was like. It would probably be a great source (that leads to MANY great sources), but I really did read it for fun. And, I do have to say that Alford makes his subject very accessible, so that reading it wasn't a chore and was actually enjoyable.
My only slight annoyance was how much he would focus on one particular person, and then completely forget them later on. If you're going to give me someone's life story, you have to finish it. Other than that, there is very little to complain about here.
March 28, 2021
I spotted this on my mum's bookshelf (she's always been obsessed with Elizabethan England) and was intrigued, so I borrowed it the last time I was allowed to see her, covid permitting.
It's a really interesting book, and starts out by painting a powerful picture of what might have happened if Elizabeth had been assassinated or overthrown in any of the many plots against her - positing an alternative history in which we might now all be speaking Spanish here in the UK.
The author shows how Francis Walsingham's (and later, Robert Cecil's) secret network operated to try to catch wind of these plots and to avert them before they had a chance to manifest. It's truly impressive stuff, especially that these men managed to keep tabs on such an enormous international web of eyes and ears in a time before phones and email. Mind-boggling, logistically, and in terms of admin. To know about the Spanish Armada weeks and weeks before it came to pass would certainly have given Elizabeth an edge (but not as much as the Great British weather did in the end, of course!).
There are a few moments of personal judgement or sensationalism from the author, but as this is written for a general (rather than an academic) audience, this is understandable. I really enjoyed it, especially the human element of the stories and characters that he presents. Sir Francis Walsingham lived his final years, and eventually died, in a house not ten minutes from where I grew up! Definitely interested to find out more, and I'm glad I picked this book up on a whim!
It's a really interesting book, and starts out by painting a powerful picture of what might have happened if Elizabeth had been assassinated or overthrown in any of the many plots against her - positing an alternative history in which we might now all be speaking Spanish here in the UK.
The author shows how Francis Walsingham's (and later, Robert Cecil's) secret network operated to try to catch wind of these plots and to avert them before they had a chance to manifest. It's truly impressive stuff, especially that these men managed to keep tabs on such an enormous international web of eyes and ears in a time before phones and email. Mind-boggling, logistically, and in terms of admin. To know about the Spanish Armada weeks and weeks before it came to pass would certainly have given Elizabeth an edge (but not as much as the Great British weather did in the end, of course!).
There are a few moments of personal judgement or sensationalism from the author, but as this is written for a general (rather than an academic) audience, this is understandable. I really enjoyed it, especially the human element of the stories and characters that he presents. Sir Francis Walsingham lived his final years, and eventually died, in a house not ten minutes from where I grew up! Definitely interested to find out more, and I'm glad I picked this book up on a whim!
December 9, 2012
This is a gossipy romp through Elizabethan spying. The best part of the book is in the very beginning, when the author describes a scenario where Elizabeth is assassinated and what might have happened as a result. This is the terror the government lived with. The fear that her spymasters felt becomes palpable and, as a result, I had a very good sense of why they acted as they did.
The book needs editing. It's redundant in many places, repeating information about individuals, plots, and basic history. (I am fine if, say, information is repeated from one chapter to the next, but not from page to page or within the same chapter.) This is my main gripe with the book, because of all the sins for an author to commit, wasting my time is the absolute worst. Rereading the same tidbits over and over again makes me stabby.
It reads as if it's cobbled together from lectures. (This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but to a minister's daughter, who grew up with sermons delivered with the slightly dramatic cadence of a university lecture, it was as if my father were reading the book to me. I doubt that's going to be an issue for most readers, but it was definitely odd.)
In reality, I'd give this book 3.5 stars. I'd subtract one for the redundancies and one-half for the somewhat haphazard organization.
The book needs editing. It's redundant in many places, repeating information about individuals, plots, and basic history. (I am fine if, say, information is repeated from one chapter to the next, but not from page to page or within the same chapter.) This is my main gripe with the book, because of all the sins for an author to commit, wasting my time is the absolute worst. Rereading the same tidbits over and over again makes me stabby.
It reads as if it's cobbled together from lectures. (This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but to a minister's daughter, who grew up with sermons delivered with the slightly dramatic cadence of a university lecture, it was as if my father were reading the book to me. I doubt that's going to be an issue for most readers, but it was definitely odd.)
In reality, I'd give this book 3.5 stars. I'd subtract one for the redundancies and one-half for the somewhat haphazard organization.
January 26, 2013
Deadly danger and intrigue, love of money, monarch and God and a bizarre cast of players make up the incredible melange that is The Watchers. The author takes us on an unforgettable "Grand Tour" of Elizabethan Period Europe. We visit Rome, Rouen, Paris, Madrid and Lisbon. We frequent London's taverns and lodging houses. We study in Douais, Rouen and Rome, and we hide in priest-holes in the English Midlands. Alford spins the tales of Sir Francis Walsingham's vaunted spy network in the days when to be a Catholic was to live under suspicion of treason. Walsingham and his right hand man Thomas Phelippes were masters of the art of "turning" a spy into their service. Phelippes was as well a mathematical prodigy, a genius level cypher cracker and a fair forger. Together they patiently gathered information, studied the patterns and protected the Queen from dangers imagined and very real.
The Watchers is densely packed with fascinating information. It is told from a slightly unusual point of view, as we are given sympathetic POV's of Catholic exiles, English courtiers and politicians and a motley crew of "intelligencers." Alford writes smoothly and jumps us nimbly through complex plots and counterplots. His erudition is impressive and his ability to share his knowledge with us is the stuff of great teachers.
The Watchers is densely packed with fascinating information. It is told from a slightly unusual point of view, as we are given sympathetic POV's of Catholic exiles, English courtiers and politicians and a motley crew of "intelligencers." Alford writes smoothly and jumps us nimbly through complex plots and counterplots. His erudition is impressive and his ability to share his knowledge with us is the stuff of great teachers.
October 20, 2015
I found this book to be a very interesting and well researched probe into the Elizabethan birth pains of our present MI5 and MI6. A fascinating history of Walsingham and Burghley's dark and secret intelligence networks, established in England and throughout Europe during the second half of the sixteenth century.
Stephen Alford has brought out of the shadows many of the agents employed, through British and Bodleian Library documents, Cecil Papers, State manuscripts and printed sources.
'The Watchers-A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I' is a recommended read. A scholarly investigation into the many plots and threats faced by the Protestant government, standing alone and surrounded by a hostile Catholic world. Against all odds, the ship of state was steered for more than four decades through the storms of Spanish military might, religious propaganda and the many and various attacks, domestic and foreign, faced by the crown.
A good companion to Derek Wilson's biography of Walsingham. I was hoping that Christopher Marlowe's name would turn up in this book, having read Park Honan's biography of Marlowe, but he remains hidden. Still, there are enough agents and double agents revealed in 'The Watchers' to match anything concocted by Ian Fleming. The secret sign of Dr.John Dee was 007.
Stephen Alford has brought out of the shadows many of the agents employed, through British and Bodleian Library documents, Cecil Papers, State manuscripts and printed sources.
'The Watchers-A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I' is a recommended read. A scholarly investigation into the many plots and threats faced by the Protestant government, standing alone and surrounded by a hostile Catholic world. Against all odds, the ship of state was steered for more than four decades through the storms of Spanish military might, religious propaganda and the many and various attacks, domestic and foreign, faced by the crown.
A good companion to Derek Wilson's biography of Walsingham. I was hoping that Christopher Marlowe's name would turn up in this book, having read Park Honan's biography of Marlowe, but he remains hidden. Still, there are enough agents and double agents revealed in 'The Watchers' to match anything concocted by Ian Fleming. The secret sign of Dr.John Dee was 007.
July 31, 2021
This was a very intriguing read largely regarding the secret network of spies and informants built up around Elizabeth I, with William Cecil, Baron Burghley, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Robert Cecil at its heart. It explores in detail the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 and the Babington Plot of 1586 where the use of spies and ciphers really came into their own.
It was well-written and clearly a lot of research had been done, much of which I hadn't read about before. However, I felt that in places it also seemed overly complicated and I couldn't wrap my head around some of it until I'd read it at least three times. I also had to keep going back to check on the people involved in various plots.
There were detailed endnotes and a comprehensive bibliography, easy to track down the research used. The book plate section in the centre I also felt was well-chosen and linked to what was written about in the text. It was nice to also have some images spread throughout the text when they were particularly appropriate, it made a nice change actually.
This was a very helpful book to read for my own writing on Elizabethan Rebellions, but I did have to make a lot of notes and then go back through them to make sure I understood it. Not an easy read, but a very informative one nonetheless.
It was well-written and clearly a lot of research had been done, much of which I hadn't read about before. However, I felt that in places it also seemed overly complicated and I couldn't wrap my head around some of it until I'd read it at least three times. I also had to keep going back to check on the people involved in various plots.
There were detailed endnotes and a comprehensive bibliography, easy to track down the research used. The book plate section in the centre I also felt was well-chosen and linked to what was written about in the text. It was nice to also have some images spread throughout the text when they were particularly appropriate, it made a nice change actually.
This was a very helpful book to read for my own writing on Elizabethan Rebellions, but I did have to make a lot of notes and then go back through them to make sure I understood it. Not an easy read, but a very informative one nonetheless.
August 28, 2014
I so enjoy academics -- especially historians -- who can write about topics in a way that is both knowledgeable and accessible. Alford is one of those writers and this one of those books.
Alford shows how the time period of Elizabeth I's reign, saw the origins of both the modern state and international espionage. Indeed, they seem to have been born and grown up together. Beginning with a dramatic what-if episode that serves to highlight just how precarious England's situation was during the latter half of the 16th century, Alford goes on to reveal the characters that were involved in the shadowy intrigues of the day. Swirled around these men were issues of loyalty, trade and "true religion." The stakes were quite high -- and only a few seemed to be truly aware of just how perilous England's future was.
Interestingly, although much of this book discusses issues surrounding the personal safety of the queen and her ability to hold her crown, she exists on the outer edges of these books. The really interesting subjects of this book are the men who risked careers, life and limb to keep her alive and in charge. And those who sought to destroy her.
Alford shows how the time period of Elizabeth I's reign, saw the origins of both the modern state and international espionage. Indeed, they seem to have been born and grown up together. Beginning with a dramatic what-if episode that serves to highlight just how precarious England's situation was during the latter half of the 16th century, Alford goes on to reveal the characters that were involved in the shadowy intrigues of the day. Swirled around these men were issues of loyalty, trade and "true religion." The stakes were quite high -- and only a few seemed to be truly aware of just how perilous England's future was.
Interestingly, although much of this book discusses issues surrounding the personal safety of the queen and her ability to hold her crown, she exists on the outer edges of these books. The really interesting subjects of this book are the men who risked careers, life and limb to keep her alive and in charge. And those who sought to destroy her.
June 10, 2019
A book on espionage during the reign of the Tudors. The author uses found evidence to detail the workings of the Elizabethean system, specifically the threats and plots against queen Elizabeth. He competently merges the lives and schemes of the main characters into the timeline using a combination of historical facts and the available evidence to explain the behind the scenes espionage at key Elizabethian events, from the execution of Mary queen of Scots to the Spanish Armada. The level of detail he provides for 16th century spies is impressive, however, unfortunately, there is a sense that the author is imposing his own very modern English views on the personalities of the spies and seems to struggle with the idea that both sides in espionage are being patriotic. A good spy book, more historical than exciting, if ultimately a very english history written by a very english historian.
October 17, 2012
I thought the history covered in this book was really fascinating, and it was nice to get a book set during Elizabeth's reign that talks about what was going on behind the scenes and abroad instead of focusing solely on her and her own choices and actions.
What keeps me from giving the book a higher rating is that the prose is very choppy and repetitive, and included so much jumping around from one point in time to another and back again that I found it very hard to get engrossed in the narrative. I would still recommend it to Tudor history fans, though!
What keeps me from giving the book a higher rating is that the prose is very choppy and repetitive, and included so much jumping around from one point in time to another and back again that I found it very hard to get engrossed in the narrative. I would still recommend it to Tudor history fans, though!
November 26, 2012
This showed how delicate the balance of power was to just maintain.
April 19, 2022
'The Watchers' is the behind-the-scenes story of Elizabethan politics. It follows the lives and deeds of secret agents and their masters in their struggle against the 'Catholic threat', bringing into the light those who always kept to the shadows. It is, therefore, a novel approach to the international and domestic politics of Elizabeth's reign, and one that adds considerable insight to the subject.
The very topic of secret agents does, however, have its drawbacks for a straightforward history. The most obvious of these is the lack of source material for many of the men under scrutiny. Given the issues, we are lucky that so much evidence has survived, and that Stephen Alford has managed to ferret so much of this out. Yet, regardless of the high standards of research, there are gaping holes in the story and these have to be skipped over or imagined. Despite best efforts, Alford can never provide anything close to a complete picture.
The other related problem is that the source material more likely to have survived is that relating to the Catholic threat, and the importance of this particular motive is therefore perhaps falsely inflated in the narrative. The final chapter does broaden the scope of the book somewhat, but otherwise the focus is very firmly upon Catholicism, despite there being plenty of other 'threats' to the nation, including everything from the Marprelate Tracts to the factionalism at court and the 'sedition' of certain politicians. The counterfactual history of the first chapter does a fantastic job of reminding the historian that those living in Elizabethan times did not have the benefit of hindsight, but I do still feel that the weighting is somewhat off.
Elizabeth herself would have felt the same, and this is the other problem with the book: as the focus is on the men of the privy council and their clients, Elizabeth recedes into the background. Elizabeth, however, often did not like her councillors' enthusiasm nor their decisions. The implication, though, is that these men represented the concerns of the queen and her subjects. But to misquote Francis Bacon, Elizabeth never liked to make windows into men's souls and was happy to have simply the outward show of conformity, so long as the stability of the state was preserved. And generally, the state did shuffle along, despite the sizeable portion of crypto-Catholics and church papists in the population. It was actually the privy councillors and their servants who, in seeking to preserve and advance themselves, could become the greater threat to the political nation, and the question of 'Who watches the watchers?' is not explored to the full.
Despite these quibbles, the book is entertaining, well-written and well-researched, and brings to life many men of whom few would otherwise have heard. For a different take on Elizabethan politics, it is definitely worth a read.
The very topic of secret agents does, however, have its drawbacks for a straightforward history. The most obvious of these is the lack of source material for many of the men under scrutiny. Given the issues, we are lucky that so much evidence has survived, and that Stephen Alford has managed to ferret so much of this out. Yet, regardless of the high standards of research, there are gaping holes in the story and these have to be skipped over or imagined. Despite best efforts, Alford can never provide anything close to a complete picture.
The other related problem is that the source material more likely to have survived is that relating to the Catholic threat, and the importance of this particular motive is therefore perhaps falsely inflated in the narrative. The final chapter does broaden the scope of the book somewhat, but otherwise the focus is very firmly upon Catholicism, despite there being plenty of other 'threats' to the nation, including everything from the Marprelate Tracts to the factionalism at court and the 'sedition' of certain politicians. The counterfactual history of the first chapter does a fantastic job of reminding the historian that those living in Elizabethan times did not have the benefit of hindsight, but I do still feel that the weighting is somewhat off.
Elizabeth herself would have felt the same, and this is the other problem with the book: as the focus is on the men of the privy council and their clients, Elizabeth recedes into the background. Elizabeth, however, often did not like her councillors' enthusiasm nor their decisions. The implication, though, is that these men represented the concerns of the queen and her subjects. But to misquote Francis Bacon, Elizabeth never liked to make windows into men's souls and was happy to have simply the outward show of conformity, so long as the stability of the state was preserved. And generally, the state did shuffle along, despite the sizeable portion of crypto-Catholics and church papists in the population. It was actually the privy councillors and their servants who, in seeking to preserve and advance themselves, could become the greater threat to the political nation, and the question of 'Who watches the watchers?' is not explored to the full.
Despite these quibbles, the book is entertaining, well-written and well-researched, and brings to life many men of whom few would otherwise have heard. For a different take on Elizabethan politics, it is definitely worth a read.
October 23, 2026
Up to a point, an interesting account of the extraordinary machinations that went on behind the scenes in Elizabeth’s England. It was a revelation to me to discover how much of a hotbed Elizabethan England was, and how much of a tension there was between Catholics and Protestants. Obviously enough, Catholic Europe was horrified by the emergence of Protestant England – the Armada for starters – but I was unaware how plot after plot against the queen’s life was hatched by her enemies.
That said, I got less out it than I had hoped. Unrealistically probably, I picked the book up hoping to learn more about the life and techniques of Francis Walsingham, the original spymaster. In fact, whilst he is mentioned quite often, he is largely a peripheral character in this tale. The story revolves around the many people who actually did the spying, the motley bunch of people who were there to spy on the Catholics and determine who was trying to assassinate the queen at a given time.
That tends to reduce the book to a Who’s Who of spy names, without actually saying what they did. An extract illustrates the point:
Quite so. The theme of the book is none the worse for that, but anyone (like me) who might be looking for specifics on what the substance of the spying actually was: will be disappointed. You get the impression these men just romped around sending letters in code from time to time, saying – not very much.
That said, Stephen Alford is obviously an accomplished writer, and his prose certainly bowls along. There may not be much meat on the bones he describes, but he makes the process of discovering it quite agreeable.
That said, I got less out it than I had hoped. Unrealistically probably, I picked the book up hoping to learn more about the life and techniques of Francis Walsingham, the original spymaster. In fact, whilst he is mentioned quite often, he is largely a peripheral character in this tale. The story revolves around the many people who actually did the spying, the motley bunch of people who were there to spy on the Catholics and determine who was trying to assassinate the queen at a given time.
That tends to reduce the book to a Who’s Who of spy names, without actually saying what they did. An extract illustrates the point:
… It was the couriers Cloudesley and Bisley, who went abroad with letters to his émigré contacts. Phelippes grimly soldiered on in a lacklustre operation. With the plague ‘hot in London’ in the first week of July he wrote to Sterrell, safely out of the city, with instructions for what he should write to his enemy contacts abroad. Letters in cipher were duly dispatched to the continent, but for all of these efforts no information of any value was uncovered. It was a masterclass in the futility of technique over substance.
Quite so. The theme of the book is none the worse for that, but anyone (like me) who might be looking for specifics on what the substance of the spying actually was: will be disappointed. You get the impression these men just romped around sending letters in code from time to time, saying – not very much.
That said, Stephen Alford is obviously an accomplished writer, and his prose certainly bowls along. There may not be much meat on the bones he describes, but he makes the process of discovering it quite agreeable.
September 13, 2020
From necessity the Elizabethan state saw the birth of what, in a Le Carré world, would be called tradecraft. Once it became clear that Elizabeth was not going to return her country to Rome, and moreover threw such limited financial and military resources as she had into supporting the Protestant Dutch rebels, she became, in Catholic eyes, a legitimate target for assassination and overthrow. Protecting the Queen and the Tudor Protestant state required information gathering, intelligence and spies.
Sir Francis Walsingham will be well known to everyone with a cursory knowledge of Elizabeth's court. Alford brings to light a range of others, from the cryptographer Phellipes, to the spies who infiltrated English Catholic networks in Rome and Paris. The uncovering of the Babington Plot will be well known to many; many other stories and characters in here, less so.
Alford begins his account with a counter-factual history of the assassination of Elizabeth half way through her reign, and the subsequent invasion and conquest of England. It is necessary that he does so because as we read of a succession of brave, misguided and naive young men each gruesomely tortured to death in public, sympathy is hard to maintain. The deliberate fabrication of Mary Stuart's letter to her supporters that directly led to her death is well known, but still shocking in a modern light.
The book therefore raises the question that has been around at least since Machiavelli, namely what moral limits are there on preserving a state. We would certainly answer differently, not just because we are modern but because we do not live in daily fear of invasion and conquest.
Alford does at the end deal with the most famous Elizabethan spy of all, Christopher Marlowe. It appears that it is highly unlikely that he was engaged in espionage. He was, prosaically, murdered in Deptford in a quarrel over an unpaid bar bill.
Sir Francis Walsingham will be well known to everyone with a cursory knowledge of Elizabeth's court. Alford brings to light a range of others, from the cryptographer Phellipes, to the spies who infiltrated English Catholic networks in Rome and Paris. The uncovering of the Babington Plot will be well known to many; many other stories and characters in here, less so.
Alford begins his account with a counter-factual history of the assassination of Elizabeth half way through her reign, and the subsequent invasion and conquest of England. It is necessary that he does so because as we read of a succession of brave, misguided and naive young men each gruesomely tortured to death in public, sympathy is hard to maintain. The deliberate fabrication of Mary Stuart's letter to her supporters that directly led to her death is well known, but still shocking in a modern light.
The book therefore raises the question that has been around at least since Machiavelli, namely what moral limits are there on preserving a state. We would certainly answer differently, not just because we are modern but because we do not live in daily fear of invasion and conquest.
Alford does at the end deal with the most famous Elizabethan spy of all, Christopher Marlowe. It appears that it is highly unlikely that he was engaged in espionage. He was, prosaically, murdered in Deptford in a quarrel over an unpaid bar bill.
September 24, 2023
A study of the spycraft and intrigue of Elizabethan England, when the Pope and Catholic Europe were hell-bent on bringing down the 'bastard heretic' Protestant Elizabeth and her government. Much like the WWII Bletchley Park codebreakers, English spymasters broke codes and used them to create misdirection and misinformation that helped keep the combined force of Catholic Church and imperial Spain at bay. At a time when communication was as fast as a horse could travel, the complex web of spies, double-agents, ciphers and intrigues is unravelled by the author; showing the political fraud behind some murder plots, and the very real deadly conspiracies that were uncovered; and most stunningly, the forgery created to push Elizabeth to murder her cousin Mary Stuart, the Scottish Queen. Fascinating.
June 30, 2024
Is an interesting and well-researched book. It is not a comprehensive account of the secret diplomacy of the Elizabethan years. It seems to stick very closely to some very interesting formerly secret records, which is very interesting in itself. I would have liked the author to bring the focus out a bit from time to time, to provide more context. We learn a lot about a few of the agents, but not as much as I would have liked about the overall organization and financing of the clandestine activities of the period. The author seems to take it "as read" that we know about Walsingham and both Cecils. I, like most readers have some idea of who these men were, but I would have liked a quick recap in each case: where did they come from, how were they educated, how did they find their way into Elizabeth's circle. Still, an unusual and interesting read.
October 11, 2026
From the day Elizabeth I acceded to the throne of England in 1558, her life was in danger. Catholic Europe would not abide a monarch whom they considered "a bastard heretic." Conspiracies to assassinate her, invade her realm and restore the Catholic Faith abounded among her enemies: the Kingdom of Spain, Jesuit reactionaries, and Catholic recusants at home and abroad. This fascinating book tells the story of the network of spies, secret agents, informants, and code-breakers led by Elizabeth's principal ministers who kept Elizabeth alive until she died of natural causes in her bed in 1603. The deviousness of Elizabeth's ministers, spies and spymasters made sure the same natural end did not come for Elizabeth's cousin and rival to England's throne--Mary, the Tudor Catholic Queen of Scots. They took her head at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587. They would not abide a Catholic monarch.
June 14, 2026
Alford has a preternatural ability to make exciting historical events incredibly boring. The beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots and the fortunes of the Spanish Armada are reduce to one sentence “the Spanish fleet was dispersed before it could do any harm”. The focus of this book seems to be on the ohysical description of spies, but there is no real development of any of the characters. Alford gives a spirited defence of Elizabeth’s motives, completely dismissing the idea that she wanted Mary dead and there is practically no exploration of Walsingham as a character. Instead this is just a list of people moving between London and Paris an talking to one another over obviously imagined events, not even in a logical or chronological order.
December 22, 2018
A very well accomplished book on the secret battle to make Elizabeth I and her reign the glorious ‘golden age’ that we talk of now.
I was personally so surprised that figures like Walsingham and Burghley were assisted greatly by other lesser known individuals. Spying was it’s own form of currency in Elizabethan times. I feel the author writes his subject in an easily understood book, which flows quite nicely.
Also, not being excessively long, it’s a nice, easy read for those (like me) who are not professional historians yet enjoy reading about history for their own amusement. It is written in a nice, clear format, that is easily read.
An overall enjoyable experience.
I was personally so surprised that figures like Walsingham and Burghley were assisted greatly by other lesser known individuals. Spying was it’s own form of currency in Elizabethan times. I feel the author writes his subject in an easily understood book, which flows quite nicely.
Also, not being excessively long, it’s a nice, easy read for those (like me) who are not professional historians yet enjoy reading about history for their own amusement. It is written in a nice, clear format, that is easily read.
An overall enjoyable experience.
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