Product Description

Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster had established the most extensive spy network the world had ever seen, placing secret agents throughout Europe, especially in the Catholic courts of Spain, Italy, and France, to ferret out Catholic plots against Elizabeth. He took an active part in the persecution of Catholics and, with the backing of William Cecil, entered Parliament in 1563. Joining the Privy Council in 1573, he was knighted in 1577. The ousted Catholics championed Mary Queen Scots. Fearful of an uprising, Elizabeth offered Mary sanctuary against the Scottish reformers and then betrayed and imprisoned her. She then plotted with Walsingham to compromise Mary. Through his talented spies Walsingham built a case against Mary through her letters - which are suspected now to have been forged by Walsingham himself - and which eventually brought about a death warrant for Mary from Elizabeth. He later discovered information about the attack of the Spanish Armada - which was sent by an outraged King Philip of Spain who accused Elizabeth of regicide. Yet in later years, Elizabeth all but ignored her spymaster. Walsingham, distrusted for being too powerful and having information that might.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123345 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

How clever am I
Very disapointing. Difficult to read. More about the author showing off the depth of his knowledge than producing an absorbing book. Good for studying a history degree. For the general, interested reader, forget it.

Walsingham
Very disappointing. I was really looking forward to reading this book but, in the end, struggled to finish it. I found the English difficult to read and as mentioned by a previous reader, found the plethora of names confusing. A wasted opportunity.

Off with his head
What a pity this book fails to deliver.

Waited ages for a book on this subject and was disapointed by it. The author, over eggs the name droping, often with no explaination to the 'not so well informed'. Not that's its an academics book, but sometimes too much information, is too much information!

That said, it's not all bad an worthy of at least 3 stars.