Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England

by Robert Hutchinson

The incredible real life story of the world's first super spy

'Full of stimulating detail... vivid glimpses of the world of Elizabethan espionage' GUARDIAN

'Walsingham emerges from these pages as a hero of epic stature' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Francis Walsingham was the first 'spymaster' in the modern sense. His methods anticipated those of MI5 and MI6 and even those of the KGB. He maintained a network of spies across Europe, including double-agents at the highest level in Rome and Spain - the sworn enemies of Queen Elizabeth and her Protestant regime. His entrapment of Mary Queen of Scots is a classic intelligence operation that resulted in her execution.

As Robert Hutchinson reveals, his cypher expert's ability to intercept other peoples' secret messages and his brilliant forged letters made him a fearsome champion of the young Elizabeth. Yet even this Machiavellian schemer eventually fell foul of Elizabeth as her confidence grew (and judgement faded). The rise and fall of Sir Francis Walsingham is a Tudor epic, vividly narrated by a historian with unique access to the surviving documentary evidence.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Tudor Period, British Literature, Historical, Espionage

399 pages, Hardcover

First published April 13, 2006

Reviews

[Paul Christensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject, badly organised, clunky prose.

[C.S. Burrough · Rating 4 out of 5]

The icing on the cake for those hooked on Tudor history. This lurking figure has been portrayed as a sinister presence at Elizabeth's court, but one who saved her oft rocky reign from doom and disaster on many occasions. We learn more here about why Gloriana's reign involved such diplomatic intrigue and tightrope walking.

Walsingham's brilliant if callous ensnarement of Mary Queen of Scots, heading her entrapment and setting her up under escalating political necessity, is engrossingly fleshed out to the last detail in this biography. We also read of his intelligence operations penetrating foreign military preparation of the ultimately unsuccessful Spanish Armada.

Walsingham rose from near obscurity, albeit from a well-connected family of gentry. On leaving university aged twenty he travelled Europe before embarking on a career in law. Returning from self-imposed exile in France on Catholic Queen ('Bloody') Mary I's demise, he was elected to Elizabeth's first parliament in 1559. He became ambassador to France in the 1570s, witnessing the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, an experience permanently reinforcing his anti-Catholic stance.

A high profile pro-Protestant in a post-reformation England constantly threatened by reinstatement of Catholicism, he became one of an elite diplomatic inner circle.

His 'cabinet' directed the Elizabethan state and oversaw foreign, domestic and religious policy. As Elizabeth's principal secretary he supported exploration, colonisation, English maritime strength and the plantation of Ireland. He successfully worked towards uniting England and Scotland under one crown.

Readers of all things Elizabethan must surely cherish this book. Neither an especially charismatic nor sympathetic character to document, Walsingham is deftly humanised by the erudite Robert Hutchinson whose less florid narrative style than that of some 'popular historians' rewards the reading effort.

The crucial extra dimension for readers of this period.

[Miles Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Éminence grise - this term really doesn't do justice to someone of Walsingham's stature and ability, although it is a generally accurate one. My mother introduced me to his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery with a muttered 'and that's Elizabeth's hatchet man'. As an impressionable twelve year old looking up at the thin lips and cold eyes I could well believe it.

Of course, if you insist on judging Francis Walsingham using the morals and social mores of today, you are being at best unfair to the man. Robert Hutchinson attempts to place Elizabeth I's spymaster in chief firmly in the context of his time and largely succeeds. The downside is that he cannot resist closely comparing Walsingham's actions to those of today's intelligence services. While there are similarities, the author plays these up a little too enthusiastically for my liking. Yes, Walsingham's intelligence network was run in a way that would be broadly familiar to most MI5/6 desk officers and their counterparts in other countries' security agencies. Occasionally though, the author strays into the realm of direct comparison and it's here that he falls down.

Fortunately, Hutchinson covers himself by highlighting the circumstances under which Walsingham was operating from the late 1560's onwards. He does so with considerable verve and skill, backed up with an impressive array of references and original source material. Today the man would be labelled a politico-religious fanatic, even by the standards of the most extreme Christian fundamentalist. Despite this,he expended his health and a large percentage of his personal wealth in what he believed to be the defence of his sovereign and his country.

The author has crafted a fascinating and absorbing story here - one which should interest those interested in Tudor history and modern politics alike.

[Tububa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a tedious take on an interesting topic. The book is awkwardly organized and seems to lack a point. The introductory chapters attempt to lay out some sort of a summary of the events of Walsingham's life and the reign of Elizabeth I, but I at least did not get a clear picture of the chronology of it all until I consulted other sources (cough Wikipedia cough). The chapters that follow are organized around topics like Walsingham's torture methods, the uncovering of the Babington plot, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

If this sounds interesting, let me assure you that it isn't. Each chapter reads like a collection of loose notes from the author's archive research. Throughout the book there are extensive quotes from archival materials that, to a modern English speaker, are not particularly comprehensible or illuminating. The book cannot even end on a commentary to pull it all together. The epilogue is merely a series of paragraphs on when each of the major characters died, and includes a summary of Walsingham's descendants' lives. I would have wanted to know a bit more about his legacy as the forerunner of the modern intelligence organizations, but the book spends very little real estate on this, compared to a multi-page walk through the man's will and testament.

One of the things that particularly annoyed me about Hutchinson's writing is his remarks about the women of the period. He describes Walsingham's wife as difficult on absolutely no evidence other than something he perceives in the turn of her mouth in the portrait in the central panel. He actually says we know next to nothing about her life, and yet he feels entitled to offer opinions about her personality based on appearance alone. Elizabeth is not a great stateswoman but an indecisive, penny-pinching obstacle to Walsingham's state-serving cause. Mary Queen of Scots is also mostly described in terms of appearance and health--almost as if the author is primarily concerned with her ability to look pretty and bear children, and not her status as a leader of a state. We get relatively little information on Walsingham's daughter, except again her marriage and offspring history. That seems to be all Hutchinson cares about.

I gave the book two stars because it made for excellent bedtime reading. I would normally make it through about 2 pages before passing out. So if you are prone to insomnia, check it out.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best-written nonfiction I've read this year. Hutchinson breathes life into his pages on the shadowy Walsingham, whose official acts were achieved by deception and torture. Hutchinson acknowledges their character, but restrains his emotional reactions to them until the end -- except for one thing, the fact that he clearly dislikes Elizabeth. In his final evaluation of Walsingham's life, Hutchinson compares modern cultural opinions of torture with the everyday use of it by 16th century governments, not making the mistake of judging that culture by today's values. He also recognizes Walsingham's purposeful, well-organized intelligence organization as the root of Britain's current intelligence branches.

Throughout the book Hutchinson complains about Elizabeth's "cheeseparing" ways hindering the effectiveness of Walsingham's organization. At the end of Elizabeth's life he seems surprised that her exchequer is found to be astonishingly empty. There was a reason Elizabeth tried to spend as little money as possible. However, that is nonessential to this excellent study of Walsingham.

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book on Walsingham which was clearly trying to recentre the narrative away from Cecil as Elizabeth’s chief advisor, although I wasn’t fully convinced by this argument.

Felt at times direct quotation was used too often which broke up the flow of the prose, and was also confused as to the amount of the book which didn’t directly involve Walsingham, at times seeming more like a general history of the reign than focusing on Walsingham specifically.

[Rev AJBawtree · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative read, given political and theological concerns quite pertinent today

Definitely worth a read, not just for aspiring spymasters.
Walsingham was a dedicated minister of the Crown, his legacy lives on.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic read by Hutchinson. Walsingham is a rather elusive figure that was hugely instrumental in enacting many of the pivotal events of the Elizabethan period.

Hutchinson delves into this fascinating character, painting a man of religious devotion (Elizabeth I describing him as a "rank Puritan") and intellectual genius (being the powerhouse behind the discovery of the Babington plot and contributing to the defeat of the Spanish Armada through means such as working with foreign banks and monitoring Spanish annual revenue).

This in many respects this is a book of his career although it does also touch upon his family life and personal relationships, particularly his fascinatingly tumultuous relationship with the Queen.

Hutchinson further provides an interesting assessment of his character remarking that "sixty years on he might have felt comfortable in the humourless Puritan Republican Commonwealth of Cromwell".

Overall a very interesting and insightful book worth reading as it provides an insight into one of the most influential politicians of the period. It is particularly refreshing to read about the period without excessive focus on events from Elizabeth I's perspective.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A interesting account of the one of the main pillars of Elizabeth Tudor's reign. Although he was not in any way a sympathetic character being ruthless, very cunning and I suppose almost 20th century in his pursuit of ends regardless of the means, he defended the Queen and country against the Catholic powers' attempts at regime change. Apologists try to play down the dangers presented by Roman catholic Kings, terrorists and agents, egged on by the Papacy but they presented a real threat to the established order and a risk of bringing back the horrors of Mary Tudor's persecution of Protestants.

[Cathal Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

And now, a review that belays any sense of intelligence gained by reading this book:
Omg Walsingham was perf and he is bae.
I legitimately teared up whenever his ill-health was mentioned, and so nearly cried when he died.
In all seriousness though, such a good book, even if it did take me weeks to read. Walsingham is such a fascinating and amazing character, and Robert Hutchinson makes reading about him such a joy

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

A parson's egg. The pursuit and trial of Mary Queen of Scots is well described and insightful, but I wish the author had resisted drawing parallels between the events of Elizabethan England and the present day - it only diminished the sense of objectivity.

[Jessie B.]

Can't bring myself to care about this book.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched history about the role of Francis Walsingham in running Elizabeth I's intelligence network and thwarting countless plots to kill her and return England to Catholicism.

The author tends to dart around in the timeline; for example, telling how a particular man received a lease as a reward for services in fighting the Armada before the actual battle was described, then afterwards commenting that we'd already seen how he was rewarded. I had to look him up in the index to find the earlier reference and refresh my memory. The Armada's defeat is covered in a very perfunctory way after the big build up, but the author is fixed on Walsingham's involvement which stopped short of participation in the fighting.

Some readers will find the gruesome descriptions of torture and executions disturbing, but it was routine in all European countries at the time. The author presents Walsingham as a fervent Protestant, responsible for the deaths of priests and other Catholics, but shows how this was in part due to his being the English ambassador in Paris during the St Bartholomew Day massacre (which persisted in France with the deaths of about 30,000 Protestants) and having to barricade himself, his wife and daughter, and other English people who had taken shelter with them, inside his house while mobs roamed outside (who had killed English people too). He would always have been mindful of the massacres that would have occurred on home soil if the Catholics had come to power - he had wisely gone abroad as a young man during the reign of Queen Mary - and would have viewed this as a matter of self defence for the country as a whole, not just for the Queen's safety. As the author shows to a certain extent, religion was a deadly serious business at the time.

An interesting subject though a little dryly written in places, and I didn't realise till late on that there were appendices about the main characters and the spies, which would have been useful in keeping straight the hundreds of personages mentioned. Overall I would rate it at 3 stars.

[Rhondda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book about Francis Walsingham, the man who was Elizabeth I’s spymaster, saving her and England from the dangers that derived from Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth’s outlawed Catholic subjects, Spain and the Vatican.
This is not a straightforward biography rather it describes the way he developed and controlled a vast intelligence network during Elizabeth's reign. It was a time when Catholic plots, developed by foreign rivals as well as those subjects within the realm, abounded. There were many plots to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots and both the Pope and Phillip of Spain who supported an invasion of England to restore Catholicism.
It is a fascinating and informative book that examines the evolution of the first contemporary approach to spying and intelligence gathering. The author describes the tangle of plots and counter-plots, intelligence and counter-intelligence, secret agents, spies and informants, cryptographers and the dark world of the torturers. Many of these concepts are quite familiar to us today. Francis Walsingham was the brilliant and interesting character who controlled it all. He was a stalwart of the protestant religion and intellectual genius who also had intriguingly tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth I. He was frequently vexed by her reluctance to act on his information and her indecisiveness, especially when it came to her cousin, Mary.
The author writes in a way that makes it all very accessible, without patronising the reader and provides an insight into one of history’s most influential politicians.
The book is well indexed, contains a chronology as well as a vast bibliography and a good appendix that gives the reader a brief biography of many of the major characters mentioned.

[David Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great concise biography of a pivotal figure in Elizabethan England and in the wider history of protestantism. Robert Hutchinson gets the reader right into the mindset of the dour, workaholic Secretary of State who oversaw a network of spies that provided vital intelligence on Catholic priests proselytising illegally in England - and, crucially, on the Spanish Armanda which unsuccessfully attempted to invade England and overthrow Elizabeth in 1588. I never knew that the word 'deciphering' comes from the craft of translating ciphers - codes often written in invisible ink - that some of Walshingham's agents specialised in. Being the spymaster was a grinding position of great responsibility and not that much financial reward but Walshingham eagerly carried it out to the very best of his ability, as protestant England's very existence hinged on it. He used torture in the course of his duties but, as Hutchinson points out, so did the Spanish Inquisition. And he was a major pusher of Mary Queen of Scots' execution (well she did seem to support a plot to overthrow Elizabeth). Walsingham had other responsibilities as well as the spy network but covertly saving England and Elizabeth was his main focus. As well as providing a useful directory of Walsingham's spies, a dramatis personae and a chronology, Hutchinson impressively uses many primary sources - indeed the listing of them far exceeds his secondary sources. And that's how history should be in my view; I often wonder, when a bibliography consists of pages and pages of secondary sources, whether the historian has really read them all.

[Ubiquitousbastard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I think that this book had a pretty good overview of Walsingham's life and his impact on Elizabethan events. However, the way that the chapters jumped around in time was a little annoying. I got marked down on a community college history paper for not writing chronologically, so I expect more from a professional writer. I think it was especially offputting because the book is mainly concerned with one person's life, so I would expect it for the most part to be in chronological order.

I also had issue with the clear bias throughout the book. Unless I'm reading something that is supposed to be salacious I don't want to know exactly where the author stands on all of the parties involved

There was also the issue of his granddaughter being referred to as "Elizabeth Walsingham" which is weird since he had one daughter who married Sir Philip Sidney. That would make the granddaughter Elizabeth Sidney, not Walsingham.

Lastly, claiming that in the present, that the intelligence communities of western powers would disdain forging documents made me actually burst out laughing.

I think was a decent look at Walsingham's life, but there were some clear flaws that prevent it from being the best of the pack of Walsingham biographies.

[Robbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing light played on a critical time in English history. I doubt it’s easy to nail down all the facts from 500 years past, and some details must be ‘written in’ but all the same I felt comfortable with the author’s depiction. A national security service (an MI5 and an MI6) of yesteryear) is something I had never imagined. I suppose, to the more informed, it was - and still is - the way of things.
It’s an enjoyable read. A bit grisly at times: the ways by which some were disposed of.
The religious fervour governing all back then is disturbing, but ‘some’ truly believed in heaven-earth-hell (Walsingham). I doubt it was everyone, even back then I’d imagine many, secretly, harboured doubts.
With me, when reading this I couldn’t help but conjure up thoughts of the Stasi (the East-German Ministry of State Security). I’m told Stasi interrogation could be somewhat unpleasant and that people, all too often, were picked up and made to endure such simply because they happen to spend more than a few minutes chatting with someone already under suspicion. My too active imagination, maybe, but that whole ‘culture of fear’ they say existed on the other side of the wall emerged from this.
A well-written book that kept my attention.

[Robert Craven · Rating 2 out of 5]

By midway, I gave up on this book. There is a tendency in some English historians - David Starkey springs to mind, that the English are naturally superior to other nations. Walsingham is an interesting figure, and the era in which he operated too is fascinating.

But this is somehow overshadowed by Hutchinson's viewpoint, which becomes rapidly tiresome and tinged too with that oddity of the English character, a fawning to royalty.

It could have been a better book, but sadly let down by a lack of objectivity, bordering dangerously close to jingoism.

( You can bet your bottom dollar Hutchinson voted for Brexit.)

To get a better overview of this era and how the agents operated, watch "Elizabeth I's Secret Agents" - the excellent BBC documentary.

[Quentin Feduchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading some historical works can be difficult, if only because of often onerous detail.
But persevering with this narrative is well-worthwhile as the detail and ultimate success of maintaining England as a Protestant nation, suppressing all assassination plots against the life of Elizabeth 1, and the developing the early parliamentary system really does work out.
There is no doubt that in the current UK, as it is today, we owe a lot to Sir Francis Walsingham, Spy Master & Security Specialist.

[Laitentier · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some unremembered reason I have always known about Sir Francis Walsingham. This book certainly puts meat, if somewhat cruesome, to the imagination. It is a history book, very good of its type I'm sure. But I prefer fact based fiction. Over a week I read most it, skipping here and there. The spy network, chronology and dramatis personae sections are well worth a look. It lacked photos, images, sketches, maps to liven up the rather dull text. It's now on my reference shelf.

[Alayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting story of the man who was Elizabeth the First's spymaster, saving her and England from threats from Mary Queen of Scots, the outlawed Catholic majority and also the Spanish Armada. Some fascinating history that I had no idea about and also much more in depth as to why Mary was such a threat to Elizabeth. I would have appreciated a time line and a family tree of the Tudors, but it was good just the same.

[Dave Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read, and informs on how the sophisticated use of intelligence networks in the 1st Elizabethan age was accomplished,and how Walsingham and others kept these Isles and Elizabeth I reasonably safe. As the author describes, this was no mean feat in an era of great change and upheaval. The politics and religion of the age are well known, but the author also gives good insight into the lives of people involved both at home and abroad.

[Katrina Warman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, particularly the background of the threat posed by Mary Queen of Scots and Catholic Europe. Not an awful lot about Francis Walsingham’s background or upbringing but presumably there is no record of this. I found the descriptions of the spy networks across Europe and beyond fascinating and also the portrayal of Elizabeth as quite an insecure figure.

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While certainly a thorough look at the life of Francis Walsingham, its a rather dry book that sometimes seems to wander rather far afield from its purported focus. However, if one is interested in an indepth look at what intelligence gathering was like in England in the 1500s, look no further.

[Matthew Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fascinating subject dulled to death by the authors almost constant use of boringly long quotes. I gave up before Mary had even had her head lopped off.

[Sally Perkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Struggled with the seemingly random way in which this was written. The leaps in chronology, as well as the switching between different events/figures had the effect of a rambling account.

[Robert LoCicero · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading about the CIA spooks in the Kinzer book on the Foster brothers, I ran down a citation in that book about this Elizabethan spy named Sir Francis Walsingham. My library had it so I am reading it now.

Yikes, what a book. This exhaustive work by author Hutchinson is an Elizabethan lover's dream or maybe nightmare. The citations listed and the references to extant letters and diplomatic cables and their actual reproductions in the text of the volume are mind boggling. And most of them written in the language of the time which is the kind you find in Shakespeare. Thank God, the author puts in parentheses the more modern meaning of the archaic language found therein. It makes the going easier. The protagonist Walsingham, Secretary of State and spymaster to Queen Elizabeth, was a brilliant, complex and hardworking Protestant fanatic. The bloody work he is remembered for including the torture and executions of hundreds of Catholic priests and "recusants". Most notably he set up the charges and found the evidence (or forged some evidence) which ultimately led to the trial and execution of Queen Elizabeth's half-sister, Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic pretender to the English crown. What a time that must have been. Mayhem and gruesome slaughter on both sides of the religious and political sides in Europe in that Tudor age. Friendships and kinship meant nothing if safety and security were being sought by one side or another. Protect the Queen at all costs was the mission of Frances Walsingham as well as safeguarding his precious Protestant religion from the furor of the deported and despised "Popists". His major accomplishment in setting up spy systems and innovative spy techniques finds continuing use in some forms in today's espionage world. He provided vital information to allow the Spanish Armada invasion of 1588 to be turned back with grievous losses to the Spain of Philip II. For all his work for Queen Elizabeth he found difficulties in his relationship and dealings with this Virgin Queen. He became impoverished in his work for England and his Queen due to heavy out of pocket expenditures for family debt paying and for covering business expenses which his parsimonious Majesty was slow to reimburse. His physical health also suffered for decades during his service to the crown. In all, an amazing life. The author did a masterful job, well covered with extensive notes and biographical information regarding all the major players. A bit heavy for regular reading but if you are interested in history this one should give you pause in considering the real Queen Elizabeth while watching some Hollywood or BBC production. There were no grays in this Tudor age, it was all Black and White and you were either all in or ripe for the gallows.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping for a more straightforward biography of Francis Walsingham than this book proved to be, but it was a good read nonetheless. It is less about the man himself than the vast intelligence network he controlled during Elizabeth's reign, when Catholic plots abounded: to assassinate Elizabeth and set up Mary Queen of Scots in her place, to invade England, to restore Catholicism.

The Protestant religion was by no means secure in England, and Walsingham was a fanatic; as Hutchinson argues, almost a forerunner of the later Puritans. His work was not always appreciated fully by Elizabeth, and Walsingham frequently chafed against her reluctance to act, havering behaviour and parsimony. It was fortunate for England that he was prepared to expend his own health and wealth in the service of his queen and country.

Walsingham and his spy network employed methods which would obviously be frowned upon today - although I'm not so naive as to believe that they aren't still practised - but as always, one cannot whitewash history. And I suspect Walsingham was quite easily recognise his legacy see in the forms of M15 and M16, the CIA, the NSA, the KGB.

Hutchinson writes clearly and concisely, and he manages to make sense of the ridiculous tangle of plots and counter-plots, intelligence and counter-intelligence, informants, spies, torturers and cryptographers. Luckily there's an appendix at the back with a brief biography of the major players, as I still got a little confused! One only wonders how Walsingham managed.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, I found this book surprisingly inacessible. I had hoped for an understanding of Walsingham's life and work - which I got - but I was not expected the author to assume that I was so steeped in modern warfare and espionage to understand that a "dead letter" was a person who received correspondance on your behalf, or any number of other troubling assumptions about my knowledge of such things.

Additionally, I'm chagrined to admit that the archaic English in Walsingham's correspondances was difficult for me to distinguish, though that was helped along by the author's attempt to be helpful. Almost every sentence contained bracketed words intended to indicate what was missing, or to put the term into modern parlance. I found these frustrating and not at all helpful, as I would have been better able to understand the text had it retained some semblance of flow.

Still, I did get what I was looking for: much of the book does concern Walsingham's life.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed in this book. It's rather uneven in depth, and has some very incongrous passages justifying or praising Walsingham's behaviour and motives. Without doubt Walsingham was a talented and dedicated man, but he hardly needs a modern apologist - at a distance of four centuries we can observe his actions with reasonable objectivity, and surely no reader of Elizabethan history needs to be reminded that the standards of the time were much different to our own.

An interesting aspect of the book is Hutchinson's rather dismissive treatment of Elizabeth. One can't help suspecting that he is dulling her a little so that Walsingham might shine more brightly, but as there are any number of authors over-hyping the Virgin Queen, that is perhaps understandable.

Readable, and has some useful information, but far from the definitive work on the subject.