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    The Queen's Agent
    The Queen's Agent
    The Queen's Agent
    Ebook458 pages7 hours

    The Queen's Agent

    By John Cooper

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Elizabeth I came to the throne at a time of insecurity and unrest. Rivals threatened her reign; England was a Protestant island, isolated in a sea of Catholic countries. Spain plotted an invasion, but Elizabeth's Secretary, Francis Walsingham, was prepared to do whatever it took to protect her.

    He ran a network of agents in England and Europe who provided him with information about invasions or assassination plots. He recruited likely young men and 'turned' others. He encouraged Elizabeth to make war against the Catholic Irish rebels with extreme brutality and oversaw the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

    The Queen's Agent is a story of secret agents, cryptic codes, and ingenious plots, set in a turbulent period of England's history. It is also the story of a man devoted to his queen, sacrificing his every waking hour to save the threatened English state.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPegasus Books
    Release dateNov 15, 2021
    ISBN9781639361151
    The Queen's Agent
    Author

    John Cooper

    John Cooper is an author and historian of the Tudor period. He studied at Merton College Oxford for his BA and doctorate, and is now based at the University of York. The author of Propaganda and the Tudor State and The Queen's Agent, John has worked as a historical consultant for the BBC and Starz, and is a popular public lecturer on the history, art and architecture of Tudor England. Most recently, he has led a series of projects investigating the Palace of Westminster, the lost chapel of St Stephen and the House of Commons. John is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, joint editor of the journal Parliamentary History and became Director of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2021.

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    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      This was an interesting description of the life and times of Francis Walsingham, a man who rose to power in the court of Elizabeth I, at a time of great threatened instability from enemies both within the country and from the outside.
      Although unwell for much of his life, he spent all his energies in the protection of his country and his queen by building up a vast network of spies to keep an eye on people on the continent and people within the country who were colluding with the interests of the Spanish and the Catholic cause.
      Not all of his actions were particularly praiseworthy--looking at the way he forced confessions from enemies of the State, but he did not end up enriched from his service as many other people did and he behaved with bravery when it would have been safer not to.
    • 2/5
      Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Queen Elizabeth I and ran a network of informers across Europe to support him. He used the intelligence he received to thwart a number of threats to Elizabeth and to bolster England's position as a junior member of the great nations of Europe. As a Protestant queen Elizabeth was under almost constant threat of attack - personal, political, military, religious - from Catholic regimes on mainland Europe, none more ardent than Philip II of Spain. Undoubtedly, Walsingham was a key player in keeping Elizabeth safe and in power, and in developing England's international reach, primarily into Ireland and America. Walsingham was at the heart of the English response to the Spanish Armada.The problem is that so little is known about Walsingham that biography is almost impossible. All his personal papers were destroyed after his death by his wife, so all that remains are the State papers related to his work as Principal Secretary. Clearly, for a man working in the shadows of intelligence, these papers may not have always told the whole or true story. This reduces this book to an overview of the history of Elizabeth's reign focusing on those events in which Walsingham would or should have contributed. However, for much of the time he seems to be completely absent from the narrative, and often when he is present our view of him is obscured by lots of 'mights' and 'probables' and 'shoulds'.A good overview of the key political issues of Elizabeth's reign, but does not get close to Walsingham either as a man or as a player in this turbulent time.
    • 4/5
      When the Elizabethan era is mentioned, I immediately think of Shakespeare and the Spanish Armada. Religion doesn't immediately come to mind. Yet religious matters occupied much of the public career of Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's principal secretary for nearly two decades. Walsingham, a dedicated Protestant, was vigilant to protect queen and country from Catholic invasion. He developed a network of informers, some of whom were double agents, to stay a step ahead of Catholic plots to kill Elizabeth and put a Catholic monarch in her place.I was interested in the descriptions of the multitude of documents that Walsingham produced – correspondence, position papers, and reports. Walsingham couldn't have succeeded in his role without the ability to process a great deal of information and organize it in a useful system.I had never given much thought to the cost of government in Elizabethan England. Financing the nation's defense was a problem. Public figures like Walsingham were expected to fund their own work, and the demands of Walsingham's office often exceeded his income.Although Walsingham wasn't a particularly likeable man, his life makes for interesting reading. He either influenced or was influenced by many historic events, including the Reformation communities in Switzerland, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France, the death of Mary, Queen of Scots, the settling of the Roanoke Colony, and the defense against the Spanish Armada. While there are lots of names, dates, and places mentioned in the book, the big picture of Walshingham's life doesn't get lost in the details. Recommended for readers with an interest in the Elizabethan era.This review is based on an electronic advanced reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

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    The Queen's Agent - John Cooper

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