Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham | |
---|---|
Secretary of State | |
In office 1573–1590 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth I |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1532[a] probably Chislehurst, Kent, England |
Died | 6 April 1590 (aged c. 58) London, England |
Spouses |
|
Children | 2, including Frances |
Parent |
|
Education | King's College, Cambridge |
Occupation | Statesman and spymaster |
Sir Francis Walsingham (c. 1532 – 6 April 1590) was
Born to a well-connected family of
Walsingham rose from relative obscurity to become one of the small coterie who directed the
Origins and early life
Francis Walsingham was born around 1532, probably at
Francis's mother was
Of Francis's five siblings, Mary married Sir Walter Mildmay, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer for over 20 years, and Elizabeth married the parliamentarian Peter Wentworth.[8]
Francis Walsingham matriculated at King's College, Cambridge, in 1548 with many other Protestants but as an undergraduate of high social status did not sit for a degree.[4][9] From 1550 or 1551, he travelled in continental Europe, returning to England by 1552 to enrol at Gray's Inn, one of the qualifying bodies for English lawyers.[10]
Upon the death in 1553 of Henry VIII's successor,
Rise to power
Mary I died in November 1558 and was succeeded by her Protestant half-sister
In the following years, Walsingham became active in soliciting support for the
In 1570, the Queen chose Walsingham to support the Huguenots in their negotiations with
The Huguenots and other European Protestant interests supported the nascent revolt in the Spanish Netherlands, which were provinces of Habsburg Spain. When Catholic opposition to this course in France resulted in the death of Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny and the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, Walsingham's house in Paris became a temporary sanctuary for Protestant refugees, including Philip Sidney.[31] Ursula, who was pregnant, escaped to England with their four-year-old daughter. She gave birth to a second girl, Mary, in January 1573 while Walsingham was still in France.[32] He returned to England in April 1573,[33] having established himself as a competent official whom the Queen and Cecil could trust.[34] He cultivated contacts throughout Europe, and a century later his dispatches would be published as The Complete Ambassador.[35]
In the December following his return, Walsingham was appointed to the Privy Council of England and was made joint principal secretary (the position which later became "Secretary of State") with Sir Thomas Smith. Smith retired in 1576, leaving Walsingham in effective control of the privy seal, though he was not formally invested as Lord Privy Seal.[36] Walsingham acquired a Surrey county seat in Parliament from 1572 that he retained until his death, but he was not a major parliamentarian.[37] He was knighted on 1 December 1577,[38] and held the sinecure posts of Recorder of Colchester, custos rotulorum of Hampshire, and High Steward of Salisbury, Ipswich and Winchester.[39] He was appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Garter from 22 April 1578 until succeeded by Sir Amias Paulet in June 1587, when he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in addition to principal secretary.[40]
Secretary of State
The duties of the principal secretary were not defined formally,[41] but as he handled all royal correspondence and determined the agenda of council meetings, he could wield great influence in all matters of policy and in every field of government, both foreign and domestic.[42] During his term of office, Walsingham supported the use of England's maritime power to open new trade routes and explore the New World, and was at the heart of international affairs. He was involved directly with English policy towards Spain, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland and France, and embarked on several diplomatic missions to neighbouring European states.[35]
Closely linked to the mercantile community, he actively supported trade promotion schemes and invested in the
Walsingham advocated direct intervention in the Netherlands in support of the Protestant revolt against Spain, on the grounds that although wars of conquest were unjust, wars in defence of religious liberty and freedom were not.[48] Cecil was more circumspect and advised a policy of mediation, a policy that Elizabeth endorsed.[49] Walsingham was sent on a special embassy to the Netherlands in 1578, to sound out a potential peace deal and gather military intelligence.[50]
Charles IX died in 1574 and the Duke of Anjou inherited the French throne as Henry III.[51] Between 1578 and 1581 the Queen resurrected attempts to negotiate a marriage with Henry III's youngest brother, the Duke of Alençon, who had put himself forward as a protector of the Huguenots and a potential leader of the Dutch.[52] Walsingham was sent to France in mid-1581 to discuss an Anglo-French alliance, but the French wanted the marriage agreed first and Walsingham was under instruction to obtain a treaty before committing to the marriage. He returned to England without an agreement.[53] Personally, Walsingham opposed the marriage, perhaps to the point of encouraging public opposition.[54] Alençon was a Catholic and as his elder brother, Henry III, was childless, he was heir presumptive to the French throne. Elizabeth was past the age of childbearing and had no clear successor. If she died while married to him, her realms could fall under French control.[55] By comparing the match of Elizabeth and Alençon with the match of the Protestant Henry of Navarre and the Catholic Margaret of Valois, which occurred in the week before the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, the "most horrible spectacle" he had ever witnessed, Walsingham raised the spectre of religious riots in England in the event of the marriage proceeding.[56] Elizabeth put up with his blunt, often unwelcome, advice,[57] and acknowledged his strong beliefs in a letter,[58] in which she called him "her Moor [who] cannot change his colour".[59][c]
These were years of tension in policy towards France, with Walsingham sceptical of the unpredictable Henry III and distrustful of the English ambassador in Paris, Edward Stafford.[35] Stafford, who was compromised by his gambling debts, was in the pay of the Spanish and passed vital information to Spain.[62] Walsingham may have been aware of Stafford's duplicity, as he fed the ambassador false information, presumably in the hope of fooling or confusing the Spanish.[63]
The pro-English Regent of Scotland James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, whom Walsingham had supported, was overthrown in 1578.[64] After the collapse of the Raid of Ruthven, another initiative to secure a pro-English government in Scotland,[65] Walsingham reluctantly visited the Scottish court in August 1583, knowing that his diplomatic mission was unlikely to succeed.[66] James VI dismissed Walsingham's advice on domestic policy saying he was an "absolute King" in Scotland.[67] Walsingham replied with a discourse on the topic that "young princes were many times carried into great errors upon an opinion of the absoluteness of their royal authority and do not consider, that when they transgress the bounds and limits of the law, they leave to be kings and become tyrants."[68] According to James Melville of Halhill, James VI intended to give Walsingham a valuable diamond ring as a parting gift, but James Stewart, Earl of Arran, who Walsingham had ignored, substituted a ring of crystal.[69] A mutual defence pact was eventually agreed in the Treaty of Berwick of 1586.[70]
Walsingham's cousin Edward Denny fought in Ireland during the rebellion of the Earl of Desmond and was one of the English settlers granted land in Munster confiscated from Desmond.[71] Walsingham's stepson Christopher Carleill commanded the garrisons at Coleraine and Carrickfergus.[72] Walsingham thought Irish farmland was underdeveloped and hoped that plantation would improve the productivity of estates.[73] Tensions between the native Irish and the English settlers had lasting effects on the history of Ireland.[74]
Walsingham's younger daughter Mary died aged seven in July 1580;[75] his elder daughter, Frances, married Sir Philip Sidney on 21 September 1583, despite the Queen's initial objections to the match (for unknown reasons) earlier in the year.[76] As part of the marriage agreement, Walsingham agreed to pay £1,500 of Sidney's debts and gave his daughter and son-in-law the use of his manor at Barn Elms in Surrey. A granddaughter born in November 1585 was named Elizabeth after the Queen, who was one of two godparents along with Sidney's uncle, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.[77] The following year, Sidney was killed fighting the Spanish in the Netherlands and Walsingham was faced with paying off more of Sidney's extensive debts.[78] His widowed daughter gave birth, in a difficult delivery, to a second child shortly afterward, but the baby, a girl, was stillborn.[79]
Espionage
Walsingham was driven by Protestant zeal to counter Catholicism,
In May 1582, letters from the Spanish ambassador in England,
Entrapment of Mary, Queen of Scots
After the assassination in mid-1584 of
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",[108] 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."[109] Mary was found guilty and the warrant for her execution was drafted,[110] but Elizabeth hesitated to sign it, despite pressure from Walsingham.[111] Walsingham wrote to Paulet urging him to find "some way to shorten the life" of Mary to relieve Elizabeth of the burden,[112] 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."[113] Walsingham made arrangements for Mary's execution; Elizabeth signed the warrant on 1 February 1587 and entrusted it to 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.[114] 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.[115] Davison was eventually released in October 1588, on the orders of Cecil and Walsingham.[116]
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.
In foreign intelligence, Walsingham's extensive network of "intelligencers", who passed on general news as well as secrets, spanned Europe and the Mediterranean.[125] 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.[126] 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,[125] and building and inserting contacts among Catholic exiles.[127] Among his spies may have been the playwright Christopher Marlowe;[128] Marlowe was in France in the mid-1580s and was acquainted with Walsingham's kinsman Thomas Walsingham.[129]
Death and legacy
From 1571 onwards, Walsingham complained of ill health and often retired to his country estate for periods of recuperation.
In his will, dated 12 December 1589, Walsingham complained of "the greatness of my debts and the mean state [I] shall leave my wife and heirs in",
Protestants lauded Walsingham as "a sound pillar of our commonwealth and chief patron of virtue, learning and chivalry".
Portrayal in fiction
Fictional portrayals of Walsingham tend to follow Catholic interpretations, depicting him as sinister and Machiavellian.[154] He features in conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Christopher Marlowe,[35] whom he predeceased. Charles Nicholl examined (and rejected) such theories in The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (1992), which was used as a source by Anthony Burgess for his novel A Dead Man in Deptford (1993).[155]
The 1998 film
Explanatory notes
- ^ Occasionally, the year of his birth is erroneously given as 1536, but he is named in his father's will of 1 March 1534.[1]
- ^ Discourse Touching the Pretended Match Between the Duke of Norfolk and the Queen of Scots: some biographers[22] think he was the writer, but others[23] do not.
- ^ The nickname "Moor" perhaps derived from his complexion[60] or his preference for plain black clothes.[61]
- ^ 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[89] accept Bossy's identification, but critics of Bossy[90] think his case is circumstantial.
- ^ William Camden wrote, "the Papists accused him as a cunning workman in complotting his business and alluring men into dangers, whilst he diligently searched out their hidden practices against religion, his prince and country."[150]
Citations
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 295
- ^ Cooper, p. 5; Hutchinson, p. 295
- ^ Hasler
- ^ a b c Hutchinson, p. 28
- ^ Cooper, p. 7; Hutchinson, p. 26; Wilson, p. 6
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 26; Wilson, pp. 7–12
- ^ Cooper, p. 12; Hutchinson, p. 296; Wilson, pp. 5–6
- ^ Cooper, p. 42; Hutchinson, pp. 30, 296; Wilson, pp. 12–13
- ^ "Walsingham, Francis (WLSN548F)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, pp. 19–20; Hutchinson, p. 28; Wilson, pp. 17–18
- ^ Cooper, pp. 26–28
- ^ Cooper, p. 27; Hutchinson, p. 29; Wilson, p. 31
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 39; Wilson, p. 35
- ^ Cooper, p. 42; Wilson, p. 39
- ^ Wilson, p. 39
- ^ Cooper, p. 45; Hutchinson, p. 30
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 45; Hutchinson, pp. 30–31
- ^ Cooper, p. 46; Hutchinson, p. 31
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 31
- ^ Hutchinson p. 34; Wilson, pp. 41–49
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 39–42; Wilson, pp. 61–72
- ^ e.g. Hutchinson, p. 39 and Conyers Read quoted in Adams et al.
- ^ e.g. Wilson, p. 66
- ^ Cooper, pp. 57–58; Hutchinson, p. 42; Wilson, pp. 68–69
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 43–44
- ^ Cooper, pp. 65–71; Hutchinson, pp. 46–47; Wilson, pp. 75–76
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 48
- ^ Cooper, p. 112; Hutchinson, p. 48
- ^ Wilson, p. 76
- ^ Cooper, p. 74
- ^ Cooper, pp. 77–79; Hutchinson, pp. 48–50
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 33, 51
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 53
- ^ Wilson, pp. 83–84
- ^ a b c d e f g Adams et al.
- ^ Cooper, pp. 87–88
- ^ Adams et al.; Wilson, p. 156
- ^ Adams et al.; Hutchinson, p. 243; Wilson, p. 127
- ^ Adams et al.; Hutchinson, pp. 244, 348
- ^ Adams et al.; Hutchinson, pp. 243–244
- ^ Wilson, p. 92
- ^ Cooper, pp. 87–96; Wilson, pp. 92–96
- ^ Cooper, p. 237; Wilson, p. 241
- ^ Cooper, pp. 260, 263–265; Hutchinson, p. 246
- ^ Cooper, p. 265; Hutchinson, p. 246
- ^ Wilson, pp. 144–145
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 269; Wilson, p. 241
- ^ Cooper, pp. 103–104
- ^ Cooper, pp. 106–107
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 107; Wilson, p. 136
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 347
- ^ Cooper, pp. 115–116
- ^ Wilson, pp. 147–148
- ^ Cooper, pp. 115–121
- ^ Cooper, pp. 117–118; Wilson, pp. 135, 139
- ^ Wilson, p. 139
- ^ Wilson, pp. 98–99, 127
- ^ Wilson, p. 148
- ^ "Cecil Papers: July 1581", Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, volume 2: 1572–1582. (1888), pp. 395–404; Cooper, p. 125
- ^ a b Hutchinson, p. 244
- ^ Cooper, p. 125
- ^ Cooper, pp. 173, 307; Hutchinson, p. 224; Parker pp. 193, 221–223
- ^ Cooper, p. 174; Hutchinson, p. 225
- ^ Wilson, p. 120
- ^ Wilson, p. 121
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 239; Wilson, p. 169
- ^ Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI: A Long Apprenticeship, 1566–1585 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), pp. 231–234.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (London, 1910), pp. 603, 609; Wilson, p. 170
- ^ Thomas Thomson (ed.), James Melville: Memoirs of his own life (Edinburgh, 1827), p. 311.
- ^ Wilson, p. 207
- ^ Cooper, pp. 238, 255
- ^ Cooper, p. 238
- ^ Cooper, pp. 253–254
- ^ Cooper, p. 257
- ^ Cooper, p. 46; Hutchinson, p. 347
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 239–240; Wilson, p. 171
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 240
- ^ Adams et al.; Hutchinson, pp. 241–242; Wilson, pp. 216–217
- ^ Cooper, p. 321; Hutchinson, pp. 172, 242; Wilson, p. 217
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 61
- ^ Cooper, pp. 190–191; Hutchinson, pp. 72–74
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 71–72
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 51–52; Wilson, p. 154
- ^ Cooper, p. 80
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 80–82
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 98
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 98–99
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 101–103
- ^ e.g. Hutchinson, p. 103 and Wilson, pp. 168–169
- JSTOR 2124544.
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 104
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 73–74, 105; Wilson, pp. 173–175
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 106; Wilson, p. 175
- ^ Cooper, pp. 158–161; Hutchinson, pp. 105–106
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 103–104; Wilson, pp. 176–177
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 291
- ^ Cooper, p. 194; Hutchinson, pp. 107, 116; Wilson, pp. 179–180
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 117–118
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 118
- ^ Cooper, p. 207; Fraser, p. 479; Hutchinson, p. 120
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 118–119
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, pp. 209–211; Fraser, pp. 482–483; Hutchinson, p. 121; Wilson, p. 210
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, pp. 216–217; Fraser, p. 487; Hutchinson, pp. 127–129; Wilson, pp. 210–211
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, pp. 217–218; Fraser, p. 488; Hutchinson, pp. 130–133; Wilson, p. 211
- ^ Cooper, pp. 219–221; Hutchinson, pp. 144–145
- ^ Fraser, pp. 509–517; Hutchinson, pp. 153–163
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 164
- ^ Fraser, p. 513; Hutchinson, p. 165
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 169
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 172
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 181
- ^ Fraser, p. 529; Hutchinson, p. 182
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 183–194; Wilson, pp. 221–222
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 196–202; Wilson, pp. 223–228
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 201, 328; Wilson, p. 226
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 205–208, 215, 217; Wilson, pp. 231–233
- ^ Cooper, p. 297; Hutchinson, pp. 217–218; Wilson, pp. 233–234
- ^ Cooper, pp. 301–303
- ^ Cooper, pp. 176–177; Hutchinson, pp. 203–205
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 210–212
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 231–233
- ^ Wilson, p. 237
- ^ Quoted in Cooper, p. 317
- ^ a b Cooper, p. 175; Hutchinson, p. 89
- ^ Wilson, pp. 94, 100–101, 142
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 84–87; Wilson, p. 142
- ^ Cooper, p. 179; Hutchinson, p. 111
- ^ Cooper, p. 179
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 248
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 248–251
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 250
- ^ Adams et al.; Wilson, p. 128
- ^ Cooper, pp. 71, 107; Hutchinson, p. 251
- ^ Cooper, p. 71
- ^ Adams et al.; Hutchinson, p. 253; Wilson, p. 239
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 254
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 324; Hutchinson, p. 254
- ^ a b Hutchinson, p. 253
- ^ a b Hutchinson, p. 257
- ^ Cooper, p. 310; Hutchinson, pp. 47–48, 101, 264; Wilson, pp. 101, 188
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 61, 348
- ^ Cooper, p. 310
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 265–266
- ^ Thomas Watson quoted in Hutchinson, p. 261
- ^ Wilson, p. 242
- ISBN 978-0-521-14139-0.
- ^ Thomas Watson. "Thomas Watson: An Eglogue upon the Death of Sir Francis Walsingham". Spenserians.cath.vt.edu. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
- ^ Hutchinson, p. 63
- ^ Quoted in Hutchinson, p. 260
- ^ Cooper, pp. 130–131
- ^ Hutchinson, pp. 261–264
- ^ Adams et al.; Cooper, p. 44
- ^ Cooper, p. 189; Wilson, p. 93
- ^ Rozett, pp. 72–74
- ^ Adams et al.; Spielvogel, p. 409
- ^ Spielvogel, p. 409
- ^ Latham, pp. 203, 240
References
- Adams, Simon; Bryson, Alan; Leimon, Mitchell (2004). "Walsingham, Sir Francis (c. 1532–1590)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online ed. May 2009, (subscription required)
- Cooper, John (2011). The Queen's Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-21826-4.
- ISBN 0-297-17773-7.
- Hasler, P. W. (1981). "Walsingham, Francis (c. 1532–90), of Scadbury and Foots Cray, Kent; Barn Elms, Surr. and Seething Lane, London", History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558–1603.
- ISBN 978-0-297-84613-0.
- Latham, Bethany (2011). Elizabeth I in Film and Television: A Study of the Major Portrayals. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3718-4.
- Parker, Geoffrey (2000). The Grand Strategy of Philip II. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08273-9.
- Rozett, Martha Tuck (2003). Constructing a World: Shakespeare's England and the New Historical Fiction. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-5551-3.
- ISBN 978-1-111-34213-5.
- Wilson, Derek (2007). Sir Francis Walsingham: A Courtier in an Age of Terror. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0-7867-2087-3.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-300-04993-5.
- Budiansky, Stephen (2005). Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-03426-0.
- Haynes, Alan (2004). Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster & Statesman. Stroud, Glos.: Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-3122-1.
- Hutchinson, John (1892). Sir Francis Walsingham". Men of Kent and Kentishmen. Canterbury: Cross & Jackman. pp. 140–141.
- Lee, Sidney (1899). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 59. pp. 231–240. .
- Pollard, Albert Frederick (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). pp. 293–295.
- .
- Read, Conyers (1925). Mr Secretary Walsingham and the Policy of Queen Elizabeth. Oxford: Clarendon Press (an exhaustive three-volume biography that is still valuable despite its age). Via the Internet Archive: Volume 1 (subscription required), Volume 2 (subscription required), and Volume 3 (subscription required).
External links
- Media related to Sir Francis Walsingham at Wikimedia Commons
- Quotations related to Francis Walsingham at Wikiquote