, here tomorrow, and you will have chances both today and tomorrow to win your very own copy!
Birth of a Spymaster: Francis
Walsingham and Tudor Espionage
Spies have
intrigued us ever since we started telling stories. I imagine that even cavemen
told tales of those who infiltrated rival tribes to ferret out secrets and
report back on potentially damaging plans. The clandestine act of obtaining
information for a cause, while risking one’s life, carries with it an
undeniable glamour and adrenaline rush that many of us find irresistible.
The Chinese
and the Mongols used spies; feudal Japan relied on ninjas to gather valuable
information. In Elizabethan England, Francis Walsingham is credited with giving
rise to the modern notion of intelligence gathering, creating a vast
organization dedicated to protecting the queen. Walsingham’s targets were
Catholic agitators, such as Jesuit priests, assassins and other recusants who
might subvert or otherwise damage the established order. Whether or not it was
right to hunt down those who opposed a particular religious view was beside the
point. So iconic has Elizabeth become in our eyes, so gloriously do we view her
realm, in comparison to the brutal suppressions of Spain, that protecting her
seems like the right, indeed, the only,
thing to do. While Elizabeth herself was known to dislike Walsingham’s
methodology— which included torture— dubbing him her "Moor" because
of his complexion or preference for dark clothes or perhaps his infamously
somber personality, she contended with his brusque manner. She understood that
he was the right man for a nasty job, unparalleled in his competence and
fervor, his penetrating insight into foreign affairs, and his devotion to her
safety. To him, she was England—the heart and soul of the Protestant movement.
She faced a formidable foe in the Catholic king of Spain and legions of dedicated
counter-reformation fanatics whom Philip unleashed. Papal dispensation
guaranteed passage to Heaven to whoever managed to murder the queen of England.
Walsingham was determined that no Catholic on his watch would ever win that
prize.
Since time began, there have been men willing to die for
a cause; we only need to look at our world today to see that. Some also put themselves at the service of a
charismatic leader; and Elizabeth was indeed that. She promised tolerance in an
intolerant age; she wanted peace and prosperity for her subjects, above all
else. While the latter days of her reign were plagued by upheavals and a savage
persecution, she had been literally yanked into that stance by the advent of
the Armada and the very real threat of another on the horizon. Walsingham drew
upon Elizabeth’s charisma and the threat posed by the Counter Reformation to
conscript men of both noble and ordinary birth, who decided they had to do
something to safeguard their way of life.
, we meet Francis
Walsingham before he becomes Elizabeth’s trusted spymaster. Here, he is still a
hireling of the princess’s secret protector, William Cecil, but he’s already
converted to the reformed faith upheld by Elizabeth and her brother, King
Edward. Dark and enigmatic, Walsingham
abducts Brendan Prescott, the book’s lead character, who as a squire to the
Dudley family, is drawn into Cecil’s burgeoning spy network in order to uncover
a conspiracy against the princess. Walsingham trails Brendan; lurking in shadows,
he is a panther with a knife, disapproving of the callow youth whom Cecil has
seen fit to hire. Is he friend or foe? Will he help or hinder Brendan’s
mission? It is the beginning of the grand era of Tudor espionage and of Brendan’s, and his rival Walsingham’s, service to an embattled future queen.
Thank you
so much for spending this time with me. To learn more about me and my books, as
well as access special features, please visit me at: http://www.cwgortner.com. Happy reading!
The Tudor Secret is the first book in Gortner’s The Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles series.
You can visit the author online at www.cwgortner.com or his blog at http://historicalboys.blogspot.com/.
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