![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Spies, spies and damned spies
Aug. 19th, 2009 01:09 pmnext up in the 2009 books is
20. Her Majesty's Spymaster - Stephen Budiansky
This is the story of Sir Francis Walsingham who was Queen Elizabeth I's secretary and who turned out to be expert in running espionage schemes in a time where there were a legion or two of plots against England, mainly by the Catholic countries of Spain and France. This was Spain's glory era where they were the Empire of the World. Elizabeth, by the Catholics' standards, had no legitimate claim to the throne of England and though Protestantism was growing in strength, Spain and to a lesser extent, France, had much more influence in much of the world and had the backing of Rome, naturally. Walsingham used an extensive network of spies and couriers for letters, used information and threw out misinformation to stymie the enemies. His years of efforts uncovered multiple plots both to free the captive Mary Queen of Scots and to assassinate Elizabeth herself. This network also helped him keep ahead of the Spanish attack.
I really found this interesting, so much detail and research but it was very well written too, not dry and labourous to get through. The author also threw in little phrases that were quite funny and not something you often see in historical books like this, like... talking about Englishmen traveling in Italy and then an aside saying there were *always* Englishmen traveling in Italy. a "seamy fraternity of priest-takers", ... his use of descritive language makes it a lot more interesting a read. There's lots of facts and quotes from many letters and documents, not too much supposition but then that era was fairly well documented. I didn't really know much about Walsingham and his relationships to the Queen and Burghley (Sir William Cecil, her long time advisor) before i read the book but i sure do now. There's lots about the Queen herself as well. it doesn't seem to be exaggerated or pumped up for dramatic effect, Very good read altogether.
20. Her Majesty's Spymaster - Stephen Budiansky
This is the story of Sir Francis Walsingham who was Queen Elizabeth I's secretary and who turned out to be expert in running espionage schemes in a time where there were a legion or two of plots against England, mainly by the Catholic countries of Spain and France. This was Spain's glory era where they were the Empire of the World. Elizabeth, by the Catholics' standards, had no legitimate claim to the throne of England and though Protestantism was growing in strength, Spain and to a lesser extent, France, had much more influence in much of the world and had the backing of Rome, naturally. Walsingham used an extensive network of spies and couriers for letters, used information and threw out misinformation to stymie the enemies. His years of efforts uncovered multiple plots both to free the captive Mary Queen of Scots and to assassinate Elizabeth herself. This network also helped him keep ahead of the Spanish attack.
I really found this interesting, so much detail and research but it was very well written too, not dry and labourous to get through. The author also threw in little phrases that were quite funny and not something you often see in historical books like this, like... talking about Englishmen traveling in Italy and then an aside saying there were *always* Englishmen traveling in Italy. a "seamy fraternity of priest-takers", ... his use of descritive language makes it a lot more interesting a read. There's lots of facts and quotes from many letters and documents, not too much supposition but then that era was fairly well documented. I didn't really know much about Walsingham and his relationships to the Queen and Burghley (Sir William Cecil, her long time advisor) before i read the book but i sure do now. There's lots about the Queen herself as well. it doesn't seem to be exaggerated or pumped up for dramatic effect, Very good read altogether.
