Just Finished Reading: Elizabeth’s Spy Master – Francis Walsingham and the Secret War that saved England by Robert Hutchinson

Elizabeth 1st lived through turbulent times. She was a Protestant monarch surrounded by Catholic enemies both foreign and domestic. To keep these forces in check and to preserve her throne she relied heavily on the skills of Sir Francis Walsingham who was, in effect, the father of the British Secret Service. During his time in Elizabeth’s employ he uncovered and defeated numerous plots on her life and masterminded the execution of her greatest domestic rival, Mary Queen of Scots. He also provided vital intelligence that helped the British navy defeat the Spanish Armada and save England from direct invasion.

The Elizabethan era interests me a great deal. It is not only the beginning of England becoming a truly world player but, I think, reminiscent of our present political situation rife with the clash of religions and threats to public order. The response of the English establishment was shocking when looked back on but is, I suspect, what some people would like to see enacted here and now with intrusive surveillance, wholesale arrests and judicial torture. Of course it is arguable that such techniques worked back in the 16th Century and helped protect us both from a bloody religious upheaval or invasion by a foreign power (followed by a bloody religious backlash) but such excesses could not be countenanced today without an overwhelming threat to national security. Fortunately no such threat presently exists.

The paranoia of the period was immense with the feeling that all Catholics were potential enemies of the State. After the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth for her supposed heresy he urged all of the faithful living in England to renounce their allegiance to the crown. I for one – especially as a catholic (however nominal) – would not have liked to live through such a time which was one of grinding oppression. The brutality meted out to Catholics was shocking and almost universally undeserved. The results of this religious power struggle should be an example to us all of the dangerous road we tread were different religious factions are vilified as dangerous to civilisation.

Although I found this book a little dry in places and a little long winded in others it did provide me with another aspect of an historical period that I am becoming more fascinated with. I have other books to come covering the reign of Elizabeth both in fiction and non-fiction. I think it’s an interesting time in my countries history that deserves more of my attention.