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Summary
Summary
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 (5)
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
Guardian Review
The age of Elizabeth I, often celebrated as a period of glorious national achievement, was one of intense insecurity. Beset by enemies at home and abroad, the queen knew her hold on the crown was precarious. The Catholic powers of Europe regarded her as a heretic and a bastard. Pope Pius V tried to depose her. Philip II of Spain attempted armed invasion. The loyalty of English Catholics was always in doubt. In response government ministers created a network of spies, informers and agents provocateurs, whose activities form the subject of Alford's absorbing book. Like Elizabeth I's agents, today's security services use surveillance, intercept communications, infiltrate training camps, bribe informers and make pre-emptive arrests. Whether they also forge messages, employ agents provocateurs and engage in entrapment, we don't know, but it would be surprising if they didn't; methods of espionage have been remarkably constant over the centuries, and Alford reminds us that most governments will stop at little if national security is at stake. - Keith Thomas The age of Elizabeth I, often celebrated as a period of glorious national achievement, was one of intense insecurity. Beset by enemies at home and abroad, the queen knew her hold on the crown was precarious. The Catholic powers of Europe regarded her as a heretic and a bastard. Pope Pius V tried to depose her. Philip II of Spain attempted armed invasion. - Keith Thomas.
Kirkus Review
Alford (History/Cambridge Univ.; Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I, 2008, etc.) is an expert on all things Elizabethan, and his intimate knowledge of the queen's ministers and the period's political history guarantees the accuracy and thoroughness of this rip-roaring story. The religious makeup of 16th-century England had bounced from Protestant to Catholic and back again with each succeeding offspring of Henry VIII. Her country's future relied upon Elizabeth's strength. The lack of a successor and England's isolation and defenselessness produced obsessive vigilance on the part of Lord High Treasurer William Cecil (Baron Burghley) and Principal Secretary Francis Walsingham. As the author notes, the more obsessive the vigilance, the greater the danger perceived. That there was a real threat in the 1580s is without doubt. Philip II of Spain, Mary Queen of Scots, exiled Catholics and priests in France all worked unceasingly to usurp, overthrow or murder Elizabeth. Mary, first cousin to the queen, had the strongest claim to the succession. Her Catholic supporters in France plotted unceasingly during her two-decade imprisonment. The threat from Philip took some years to materialize, but England's interference in the struggle of the Low Countries against Spanish rule pushed him to join the Pope's Great Enterprise against Elizabeth. The third threat, posed by priests trained at the English seminary in France, was more insidious. Over the course of 40 years, Elizabeth's hounds identified nearly 500 priests active in England; 116 of those met the gruesome fate of being hanged or drawn and quartered. Tracing the devious machinations of rebels and intelligence agents alike, Alford makes brilliant use of the intercepted letters, illegal publications and incendiary pamphlets found in the Elizabethan archives. A great spy novel--except that it's all true.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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.
Table of Contents
| 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 |