The watchers : a secret history of the reign of Elizabeth I / Stephen Alford.

Title:

Secret history of the reign of Elizabeth I

Author:

Alford, Stephen, 1970-

ISBN:

9781608190096

1608190099

Edition:

1st U.S. ed.

Publication Info:

New York : Bloomsbury Press, 2012.

Description:

xvii, 397 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm.

Personal Subject:

Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603-Relations with statesmen.

Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603-Adversaries.

Subject(s):

Espionage, British -- History -- 16th century.

Conspiracies -- Great Britain -- History -- 16th century.

Holds: Copies (not including on-order items):

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Library	Material Type	Call Number	Shelf Location	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Penrose Library	Book	942.055 A389W	Nonfiction	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

In a Europe aflame with wars of religion and dynastic conflicts, Elizabeth I came to the throne of a realm encircled by menace. To the great Catholic powers of France and Spain, England was a heretic pariah state, a canker to be cut away for the health of the greater body of Christendom. Elizabeth's government, defending God's true Church of England and its leader, the queen, could stop at nothing to defend itself.

Headed by the brilliant, enigmatic, and widely feared Sir Francis Walsingham, the Elizabethan state deployed every dark art: spies, double agents, cryptography, and torture. Delving deeply into sixteenth-century archives, Stephen Alford offers a groundbreaking, chillingly vivid depiction of Elizabethan espionage, literally recovering it from the shadows. In his company we follow Her Majesty's agents through the streets of London and Rome, and into the dank cells of the Tower. We see the world as they saw it-ever unsure who could be trusted or when the fatal knock on their own door might come. The Watchers is a riveting exploration of loyalty, faith, betrayal, and deception with the highest possible stakes, in a world poised between the Middle Ages and modernity.

Author Notes

Stephen Alford is a fellow in history at King's College, Cambridge, and the author of the acclaimed Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I, The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis, 1558-1569, and Kingship and Politics in the Reign of Edward VI . He writes for the Times Literary Supplement and other periodicals.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Alford, a fellow in history at Cambridge University, has delved deeply into 16th-century archives to unearth a history of the dark underside to the Elizabethan golden age-a page-turning tale of assassination plots, torture, and espionage. When Elizabeth I ascended to the throne in 1558, Protestants saw her as the rightful heir; Catholics regarded her as the godless Henry VIII's bastard daughter who had usurped the throne from its legitimate occupant, Mary, Queen of Scots. Thus, throughout Elizabeth's reign, she was targeted by foes both within and outside the kingdom, from the 471 English priests working to return England to the Church's fold, to the power-grabbing rulers of France and Spain. A perfect storm of Elizabeth's childlessness, Europe's religious wars, and the assassinations of Protestant leaders elsewhere, intensified the anxieties of Elizabeth's ministers. Her spies thus resorted to deception, interrogation, and even doctoring evidence to destroy both real and perceived threats to the queen's safety-including Mary Stuart, who was executed for treason in 1587. Her execution "jolted" the Elizabethan world "on its axis." While the government's extensive spy network maintained a precarious peace during Elizabeth's reign, Alford vividly makes the point that its effectiveness actually undermined the monarchy, with repercussions that extended well into the next century. B& illus., maps. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

The biographer of the Virgin Queen's de facto prime minister (Burghley, 2008) enters the vortex of Elizabethan espionage, which readers of the era will find irresistible. Building his account directly from documents compiled by Elizabeth's spymaster, Francis Walsingham, Alford shrewdly analyzes their contents and their writers' motives. Depicting Walsingham repeatedly confronting the conundrum of assessing the trustworthiness of agents, Alford delves into characters connected with conspiracies against Elizabeth. To detect plots, Walsingham infiltrated spies among English Catholics, spies whose loyalty could change and whose variable talents for deception and betrayal become visible in Alford's accounts. Setting actions amid the anxieties in which Elizabeth's councilors operated--fears of her death, of Spanish invasion, of the succession claim by Mary, Queen of Scots--Alford affords an explanation of their fight with Catholicism and fine human-interest dramas about the spies with which they waged it. Some of the latter warrant lengthy detailing (like Anthony Munday, who later worked with Shakespeare), while others flit furtively through Alford's narratives. Embedding them in the skein of Elizabethan London, Alford perceptively portrays the intelligence system of a queen perpetually popular with history buffs.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Literature regarding Elizabethan espionage often focuses a very bright spotlight on the riveting figure of Queen Elizabeth's "spymaster," Sir Francis Walsingham. However, Alford (history, Kings Coll., Univ. of Cambridge; Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I), who already has several Tudor histories under his belt, has given readers a more holistic view of the intelligence-gathering personnel and processes employed by the Elizabethan state in its understandable, yet merciless, quest for security. Weaving together the stories of conspirators such as Francis Throckmorton, well known to today's readers on the subject, with those of far less documented agents such as Charles Sledd, Alford has written an exhilarating and well-researched history. He has also produced a thought-provoking volume that may lead the reader to ponder the dangerous interplay of national defense and repression. VERDICT This title should appeal to those interested in the roots of modern espionage, the government of Elizabeth I, Tudor history, or European political/religious history. Even readers more familiar with the key players in the dramatic Elizabethan security apparatus may enjoy this refreshing take on the subject.-Tessa Minchew, Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Clarkston (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Illustrations	p. xi
Dates and Calendars	p. xiv
Principal Characters	p. xvi
A Secret History	p. 1
Part 1 Spying Out the Land
1 Ten Days in November	p. 25
2 The Lion's Mouth	p. 40
3 English Roman Lives	p. 56
4 'Judas his parts'	p. 69
5 Paris and London	p. 81
6 Hunting Edmund Campion	p. 93
7 Out of the Shadows	p. 108
Part 2 Enemies of the State
8 'Sundry wicked plots and means'	p. 125
9 The Secret Lives of William Parry	p. 139
10 'The enemy sleeps not'	p. 152
11 'A very unadvised enterprise'	p. 167
12 Dangerous Fruits	p. 179
13 Alias Cornelys	p. 193
14 Sleights of Hand	p. 210
15 Framing the Labyrinth	p. 223
Part 3 Politics and Money
16 An Axe and an Armada	p. 243
17 'Good and painful long services'	p. 258
18 Platforms and Passports	p. 270
19 The Fall and Rise of Thomas Phelippes	p. 285
20 Politics and Prognostications	p. 298
21 Ends and Beginnings	p. 315
Chronology	p. 327
References and Abbreviations	p. 331
Notes	p. 333
Select Bibliography	p. 365
Acknowledgements	p. 378
Index	p. 381

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