Editing Francis Walsingham (section)

==Espionage==
Walsingham was driven by Protestant zeal to counter Catholicism,<ref>Hutchinson, p. 61</ref> and sanctioned the use of torture against Catholic priests and suspected conspirators.<ref>Cooper, pp. 190–191; Hutchinson, pp. 72–74</ref> [[Edmund Campion]] was among those tortured and found guilty on the basis of extracted evidence; he was [[hanged, drawn and quartered]] at [[Tyburn]] in 1581.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 71–72</ref> Walsingham could never forget the atrocities against Protestants he had witnessed in France during the Bartholomew's Day massacre and believed a similar slaughter would occur in England in the event of a Catholic resurgence.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 51–52; Wilson, p. 154</ref> Walsingham's brother-in-law [[Robert Beale (diplomat)|Robert Beale]], who was in Paris with Walsingham at the time of the massacre, encapsulated Walsingham's view: "I think it time and more than time for us to awake out of our dead sleep, and take heed lest like mischief as has already overwhelmed the brethren and neighbours in France and Flanders embrace us which be left in such sort as we shall not be able to escape."<ref>Cooper, p. 80</ref> Walsingham tracked down Catholic priests in England and supposed conspirators by employing informers,<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 80–82</ref> and intercepting correspondence.<ref>Hutchinson, p. 98</ref> Walsingham's staff in England included the [[cryptography|cryptographer]] [[Thomas Phelippes]], who was an expert in forgery and deciphering letters, and Arthur Gregory, who was skilled at breaking and repairing [[Seal (emblem)|seals]] without detection.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 98–99</ref>

In May 1582, letters from the Spanish ambassador in England, [[Bernardino de Mendoza]], to contacts in Scotland were found on a messenger by Sir [[John Forster (soldier)|John Forster]], who forwarded them to Walsingham. The letters indicated a conspiracy among the Catholic powers to invade England and displace Elizabeth with Mary, Queen of Scots.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 101–103</ref> By April 1583, Walsingham had a spy, identified as [[Giordano Bruno]] by historian [[John Bossy]],{{efn|Walsingham's spy signed his reports "Henry Fagot". In 1991, Professor John Bossy of the University of York argued in his work ''Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair'' that Fagot was Bruno. Some biographers<ref>e.g. Hutchinson, p. 103 and Wilson, pp. 168–169</ref> accept Bossy's identification, but critics of Bossy<ref>e.g. {{cite journal|last=Greengrass |first= M.|year=1993|title=''Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair'' by John Bossy|journal=Journal of Ecclesiastical History|volume=44|issue=4|page=756|doi=10.1017/S0022046900013981|s2cid= 162359864|postscript=none}}; {{cite journal|last=Gleason |first= Elizabeth G.|year=1993|title=''Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair'' by John Bossy|journal=Journal of Modern History|volume=65|issue=4|pages=816–818|jstor=2124544|doi=10.1086/244728}}</ref> think his case is circumstantial.}} deployed in the French embassy in London. Walsingham's contact reported that [[Francis Throckmorton]], a nephew of Walsingham's old friend [[Nicholas Throckmorton]], had visited the ambassador, [[Michel de Castelnau]].<ref>Hutchinson, p. 104</ref> In November 1583, after six months of surveillance, Walsingham had Throckmorton arrested and then tortured to secure a confession<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 73–74, 105; Wilson, pp. 173–175</ref>—an admission of guilt that clearly implicated Mendoza.<ref>Hutchinson, p. 106; Wilson, p. 175</ref> The [[Throckmorton plot]] called for an invasion of England along with a domestic uprising to liberate Mary, Queen of Scots, and depose Elizabeth.<ref>Cooper, pp. 158–161; Hutchinson, pp. 105–106</ref> Throckmorton was executed in 1584 and Mendoza was expelled from England.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 103–104; Wilson, pp. 176–177</ref> Walsingham is often mentioned - negatively - in coded letters from Mary, Queen of Scots, to the French ambassador.<ref>George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, Satoshi Tomokiyo, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01611194.2022.2160677 'Deciphering Mary Stuart’s lost letters from 1578-1584', ''Cryptologia'' (8 Feb 2023)] {{doi|10.1080/01611194.2022.2160677}}</ref>

===Entrapment of Mary, Queen of Scots===
After the assassination in mid-1584 of [[William the Silent]], the leader of the Dutch revolt against Spain, English military intervention in the Low Countries was agreed in the [[Treaty of Nonsuch|Treaties of Nonsuch]] of 1585.<ref>Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 291</ref> The murder of William the Silent also reinforced fears for Queen Elizabeth's safety.<ref>Cooper, p. 194; Hutchinson, pp. 107, 116; Wilson, pp. 179–180</ref> Walsingham helped create the [[Bond of Association]], the signatories of which promised to hunt down and kill anyone who conspired against Elizabeth. The [[Safety of the Queen, etc. Act 1584|Act for the Surety of the Queen's Person]], passed by Parliament in March 1585, set up a legal process for trying any claimant to the throne implicated in plots against the Queen.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 117–118</ref> The following month Mary, Queen of Scots, was placed in the strict custody of Sir [[Amias Paulet]], a friend of Walsingham.<ref>Hutchinson, p. 118</ref> At Christmas, she was moved to a moated manor house at [[Chartley Castle|Chartley]].<ref>Cooper, p. 207; Fraser, p. 479; Hutchinson, p. 120</ref> Walsingham instructed Paulet to open, read and pass to Mary unsealed any letters that she received, and to block any potential route for clandestine correspondence.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 118–119</ref> In a successful attempt to entrap her, Walsingham arranged a single exception: a covert means for Mary's letters to be smuggled in and out of Chartley in a beer keg. Mary was misled into thinking these secret letters were secure, while in reality they were deciphered and read by Walsingham's agents.<ref>Adams et al.; Cooper, pp. 209–211; Fraser, pp. 482–483; Hutchinson, p. 121; Wilson, p. 210</ref> In July 1586, [[Anthony Babington]] wrote to Mary about an impending plot to free her and kill Elizabeth.<ref>Adams et al.; Cooper, pp. 216–217; Fraser, p. 487; Hutchinson, pp. 127–129; Wilson, pp. 210–211</ref> Mary's reply was clearly encouraging and sanctioned [[Babington plot|Babington's plans]].<ref>Adams et al.; Cooper, pp. 217–218; Fraser, p. 488; Hutchinson, pp. 130–133; Wilson, p. 211</ref> Walsingham had Babington and his associates rounded up; fourteen were executed in September 1586.<ref>Cooper, pp. 219–221; Hutchinson, pp. 144–145</ref> In October, Mary was put on trial under the Act for the Surety of the Queen's Person in front of 36 commissioners, including Walsingham.<ref>Fraser, pp. 509–517; Hutchinson, pp. 153–163</ref>

During the presentation of evidence against her, Mary broke down and pointed accusingly at Walsingham saying, "all of this is the work of Monsieur de Walsingham for my destruction",<ref>Hutchinson, p. 164</ref> to which he replied, "God is my witness that as a private person I have done nothing unworthy of an honest man, and as Secretary of State, nothing unbefitting my duty."<ref>Fraser, p. 513; Hutchinson, p. 165</ref> Mary was found guilty and the warrant for her execution was drafted,<ref>Hutchinson, p. 169</ref> but Elizabeth hesitated to sign it, despite pressure from Walsingham.<ref>Hutchinson, p. 172</ref> Walsingham wrote to Paulet urging him to find "some way to shorten the life" of Mary to relieve Elizabeth of the burden,<ref>Hutchinson, p. 181</ref> to which Paulet replied indignantly, "God forbid that I should make so foul a shipwreck of my conscience, or leave so great a blot to my poor posterity, to shed blood without law or warrant."<ref>Fraser, p. 529; Hutchinson, p. 182</ref> Walsingham made arrangements for Mary's execution; Elizabeth signed the warrant on 1 February 1587 and entrusted it to [[William Davison (diplomat)|William Davison]], who had been appointed as junior Secretary of State in late September 1586. Davison passed the warrant to Cecil and a privy council convened by Cecil without Elizabeth's knowledge agreed to carry out the sentence as soon as was practical. Within a week, Mary was beheaded.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 183–194; Wilson, pp. 221–222</ref> On hearing of the execution, Elizabeth claimed not to have sanctioned the action and that she had not meant Davison to part with the warrant. Davison was arrested and imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]]. Walsingham's share of Elizabeth's displeasure was small because he was absent from court, at home ill, in the weeks just before and after the execution.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 196–202; Wilson, pp. 223–228</ref> Davison was eventually released in October 1588, on the orders of Cecil and Walsingham.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 201, 328; Wilson, p. 226</ref>

===Spanish Armada===
[[File:Elizabeth I (Armada Portrait).jpg|alt=Portrait of Elizabeth I with view of English ships on left and destroyed Spanish ships on right|thumb|Famous portrait of Elizabeth I after the defeat of the Spanish Armada]]

From 1586, Walsingham received many dispatches from his agents in mercantile communities and foreign courts detailing Spanish preparations for an invasion of England.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 205–208, 215, 217; Wilson, pp. 231–233</ref> Walsingham's recruitment of [[Anthony Standen (spy)|Anthony Standen]], a friend of the Tuscan ambassador to Madrid, was an exceptional intelligence triumph and Standen's dispatches were deeply revealing.<ref>Cooper, p. 297; Hutchinson, pp. 217–218; Wilson, pp. 233–234</ref> Walsingham worked to prepare England for a potential war with Spain, in particular by supervising the substantial rebuilding of [[Dover Harbour]],<ref>Cooper, pp. 301–303</ref> and encouraging a more aggressive strategy. On Walsingham's instructions, the English ambassador in Turkey, [[William Harborne]], attempted unsuccessfully to persuade the Ottoman Sultan to attack Spanish possessions in the Mediterranean in the hope of distracting Spanish forces.<ref>Cooper, pp. 176–177; Hutchinson, pp. 203–205</ref> Walsingham supported [[Francis Drake]]'s [[Singeing the King of Spain's Beard|raid of Cadiz in 1587]], which wrought havoc with Spanish logistics.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 210–212</ref> The [[Spanish Armada]] sailed for England in July 1588. Walsingham received regular dispatches from the English naval forces,<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 231–233</ref> and raised his own troop of 260 men as part of the land defences.<ref>Wilson, p. 237</ref> On 18 August 1588, after the dispersal of the armada, naval commander [[Lord Henry Seymour (naval commander)|Lord Henry Seymour]] wrote to Walsingham, "you have fought more with your pen than many have in our English navy fought with their enemies".<ref>Quoted in Cooper, p. 317</ref>

In foreign intelligence, Walsingham's extensive network of "intelligencers", who passed on general news as well as secrets, spanned Europe and the Mediterranean.<ref name=network>Cooper, p. 175; Hutchinson, p. 89</ref> While foreign intelligence was a normal part of the principal secretary's activities, Walsingham brought to it flair and ambition, and large sums of his own money.<ref>Wilson, pp. 94, 100–101, 142</ref> He cast his net more widely than others had done previously: expanding and exploiting links across the continent as well as in [[Constantinople]] and [[Algiers]],<ref name=network/> and building and inserting contacts among Catholic exiles.<ref>Hutchinson, pp. 84–87; Wilson, p. 142</ref> Among his spies may have been the playwright [[Christopher Marlowe]];<ref>Cooper, p. 179; Hutchinson, p. 111</ref> Marlowe was in France in the mid-1580s and was acquainted with Walsingham's kinsman [[Thomas Walsingham (literary patron)|Thomas Walsingham]].<ref>Cooper, p. 179</ref>