Francis Walsingham

See also: Walsingham (homonymy)

Sir Francis Walsingham (approx. 1530 with Chislehurst (Kent) - April 6th 1590) is known like the “Master spy” of Elisabeth I {{Re}} of England. Admiror of Machiavel, it is known for his effectiveness as a spy and a his capacity to cause intrigues and false intrigues for the cause of the safety of the English Crown.

Francis Walsingham was born in a Protestant family from the minor nobility from the south from England. It made its studies with the King' S College of the Université of Cambridge of 1548 to 1550. The accession with the throne of Marie I {{Re}}, sovereign catholic, pushed it to flee on the continent. It resumed studies of right to Padoue, then visited Switzerland of 1556 to 1558, tying many contacts with the Huguenot S French-speaking people.

When Elisabeth Ière succeeded Marie Ière, it supported actively the policy of William Cecil, which was worth to him to be named with the House of Commons (1559). The queen sent it in France to tie diplomatic bonds with this kingdom, but the Massacre of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre weakened Franco-English alliance.

It in spite of was very named Secretary of State since 1576, then ordered knight the following year. It then made profitable its competences of diplomat while being devoted to an activity of intense against-espionage. It ventilated several plots against Elizabeth:

with the end of the year 1583, it made stop the catholic activists Throckmorton (decapitated in 1584) and Babington, which it made acknowledge under torture, and obtained the expulsion of England of the ambassador of Spain, Bernardino de Mendoza, which subsidized the factious ones;
starting from this date, it put under monitoring the queen of Scotland Marie Stuart, but in spite of remarkable a analyzes cryptological of one of its agents, Thomas Phelippes, which exposed the correspondence of this sovereign, Walsingham had to force the events to obtain a proof of the culpability of the queen.
Since 1587, the information provided by one of its agents in Spain, Anthony Standen, enabled him to inform the queen of the imminence of a Spanish invasion with the formation of a fleet of invasion, the Invincible Armada. The raid of Francis Drake on the arsenal of Cadiz, then the military preparation in England reflect in failure this operation.

Among the many indicators and henchmen that Walsingham paid on its revenues, one counts the poet Christopher Marlowe.

It had a girl, Frances. More concerned of policy than of its personal fortune, he died by leaving considerable debts. The marriage of his/her daughter with the count of Essex preserved his widow of misery however.

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