Customer Reviews

Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage

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In the 16th century England was at a crossroads. She couldn't possibly hope to match the sheer man power or size of the fleets at sea and hope to dominant world affairs. England would always end up playing catch up with Spain, France and other European powers with better resources. Intelligence and spying seemed to offer the key to help the islands in the Atlantic to dominate the world of politics. Queen Elizabeth turned to people like Sir Francis Walsingham.

Walsingham may not have invented spying or been the ultimate spymaster but he honed it to a fine art as did others in Queen Elizabeth's court. This was the time when monarchy was absolute rule after all and anything hinting at dissent was met swiftly and usually resulted in death. Author Stephen Budiansky has made this period fascinating by grafting a breezy style to this story. While people think they know a lot about the Elizabethan era in England, usually it's bits and pieces gleaned from studying Shakespeare or a course in college on the history of England during this time. The spying and doublecrosses that went on during this era are largely unknown to the average reader and, as a result, this may prove enlightening and entertaining.

This isn't written for academics. Like a lot of history books written for popular consumption this book escapes the dry, stilted text that makes you feel like you're buried in undergraduate classes again and it does bring to light an era largely forgotten by others and it makes it exciting. Based on what I know of the period, Budiansky does a good job with his scholarship and manages to make history---gasp!---entertaining as well as enlightening.

Having just read the review by the esteemed Lisa Jardine (her "Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance" is a great book)for the Washington Post, I felt compelled to respond.

She's rather harsh with it I think. I don't think Budiansky's history is any less accurate just because he is writing to an audience wider than us nerdy historians. It's just a lot less technical. I'm sure she misses all the footnotes and endnotes that we tend to live for, but I think that his narrative style gives his subject life and makes it a lot more fun to read than most history that is written for historians.

I think this book is a great introduction into the world of Elizabethan politics and espionage. Budiansky's work should not be compared to one such as Conyers Read's (still a great historian if a bit outdated), for they have completely different audiences for which they are writing. That said, perhaps Jardine was trying to say as much when she cited "Shakespeare in Love", but I think that's an unfair comparison... Budiansky takes FAR fewer liberties with fact.

So, if you are a non-historian, a casual reader, or if you're looking for a book for your undergraduate students, I recommend this book. If you are a history junky, and/or trying to find an authoritative work on Walsingham for graduate studies, you'll probably only want to use this book as a quick summary (it's an easy/fast read) of the carreer of Mr. Secretary Walsingham, if at all. There are certainly more authoritative books out there, but few as entertaining to read. And shouldn't history be fun to read?

In a time of an abosolute monarch, the court revolves around people who specialize in providing that monarch with what she wants. Walsingham obviously supplied Elizabeth with what she wanted. Using techniques that sound like they come from a James Bond novel, he was able to set up an intelligence network that gave the queen proof of the actions of traitors, vital information about the Spanish Armada, and more. He did this without the nicieties of Miranda warnings, or search warrents, his men opened the mail and copyed letters (especially bad for Mary Queen of Scots).

Mr. Budiansky's writing style is open and easy. It reads fast, not like a history book. There are no footnotes (but there are some notes at the back of the book), there's not even an index (sorely missed if you want to look up something like where does he talk about Dudley).

I'm not so sure that Walsingham's spy networks fit into today's world quite as easily as he believes. Then again during World War II with the 'Man Who Wasn't There,' and other activities, maybe it was pretty close.

Stephen Budiansky's "Her Majesty's Spymaster" is a very readable popular history of Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's personal secretary and informal chief of intelligence. Written in a breathless novelistic style, Budiansky captures the atmospherics and endless intigues of the Tudor period in a way designed to capture the interest of the average person without background in the era. He succeeds in making the religious struggles and dynastic wars of this distant period accessible to the modern reader.

Walsingham was unusual in his time in that he served in a high position in government without having come from the nobility. His rise from what would now be termed a middle class upbringing was based on education, talent, and good service. Walsingham turned out to be a superbly capable spymaster who could get and keep secrets and protect the fortunes of his Queen and country. Walsingham was especially effective in managing the English rivalry with France, including the dangerous problem of the status of Mary Queen of Scots, and the running conflict with Spain.

Budiansky is less than effective in making the case that Walsingham gave birth to modern espionage. Walsingham learned his craft from his mentor and predecessor, Lord Burghley, and his success was due less to inventing new methods of espionage than to making fewer mistakes than his contemporaries in executing already widely-known tactics and techniques.

This book is recommended to the casual reader looking for an introduction to the intrigues of the Elizabeath period. The close student of the history of the period will find no information that has not been covered in more detail elsewhere.

This is the remarkable story of the man who invented the craft of intelligence almost four hundred and fifty years ago. Walsingham's methods would have been suitable for any intelligence organization in the Cold War. In fact, he might have performed better than some of the actual intelligence people of our own time. The book is told in an easy to read style, with contex explained for the times in which Walsingham lived and worked. The book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the Elizabethian era and/or the history of espionoge.

After buying this book following a positive newspaper review, I was very disappointed. I was expecting a discussion of Francis Walsingham, with some historical background and supporting commentary on Elizabeth I and her times. Instead, the book is a commentary on the times of Elizabeth I and associated historical events that just happens to mention Francis Walsingham. If you're looking for a broad view of the times and events leading up to Walsingham's more well-known exploits, this book may interest you. Even then, the writing is not very compelling, and I struggled to get to the end, finding the author's writing style very dry and uninvolving - I may even go so far as to say this is a boring book. In sum, your money could be better spent elsewhere.

Her Majesty's Spymaster covers the career and life of Sir Frances Walsingham, who served under Queen Elizabeth I as Principal Secretary and Privy Councilor. He was essentially the head of intelligence for England, running a vast network of spies and informants through both diplomatic and less savory contacts.

Budiansky's book is an excellent introduction to the subject of Walsingham. He begins with Walsingham's experience of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre as Ambassador to France. A short recounting of Walsingham's earlier life then follows (I would have liked a little more here). The last three main sections deal first with Walsingham's role as Secretary (and his establishment of his networks), then Walsingham's campaign against Mary, Queen of Scots, and finally the war between Spain and England that culminated with the destruction of the Armada.

Budiansky's writing is crisp, readable, and interesting. His book is a great introduction for anyone coming to the subject, as names and places are explained, and there are enough facts inserted without the reader becoming bogged down in detail. There are a number of insights into Elizabethan governance and daily life that allow greater understanding and room for further curiosity. Someone who already has knowledge of Elizabethan history might want something deeper or a little more specialized, but for a layperson this is an excellent book that will teach and entertain.

After such a promising title, I was disappointed to make it more than half-way through this book and still have little mention of the title character and no information that seems pertinent to the supposed theme of the book. It is possible that toward the end Budiansky decided to actually make a point with his narrative, but between his abysmal sentence structure and his *sesquipedalian* use of gratuitously long words that broke up the even flow of reading, I personally was unmotivated to find out.

A short, yet comprehensive study of Sir Francis Walsingham. A brilliant spy master. He coordinated espionage activities against Spain and France and internal enemies (both real and unfortunately imagined) of Queen Elizabeth I.

This history shows black operations and black propaganda, influence operations, the acquisition of foreign intelligence, the recruitment of agents, covert action, mail intercept, etc. It's about the figurative "puppet master" - the Privy Councillor - that affected and influenced the course of history. He influenced the events surrounding Elizabeth's contest for power with Mary Queen of Scotts, etc.

As a bonus, you will also learn about how the Spanish King Phillip managed his correspondence and managed his Empire.

The study of an intelligence and political master in the context of Elizabethan England, the times of the Spanish Armada's attack on England, etc.

An excellent book that I highly recommend for the serious student.

The book begins with an extraordinary description of an even more extraordinary event: the St. Bartholomew massacre. Ostensibly to create peace between Catholics and Protestants, the Catholic King of France's sister was wed to the Protestant Prince of Navarre, and thousands of Protestants came to Paris for the celebration. Several days of revelry ensued and, on St. Bartholomew's day (well, actually night), the city gates were locked shut. When they once again re-opened, thousands of Protestants had been massacred and the Seine was filled with corpses. Unbelievable, but true.

Elizabeth was Queen of England at the time, and England was also suffering from the ugly clash of Protestant and Catholic interests. Mary Queen of Scots was hoping to take the crown and restore Catholicism to England, and France and Spain had their eyes on England, too. What I did not know was that, at that time, England was a third rate military power, highly vulnerable to the schemes of superpower Catholic Spain and longtime enemy France.

This book is the story of how England navigated through these treacherous shoals and currents using information obtained, by hook and by crook, by the brillliant, shrewd and Machiavellian Frances Walshingham, not only a Privy Counsellor and "Secretary" (read: minister of almost everything) to the Queen, but also her spymaster -- head of the most successful and cunning government intelligence organization of the 16th Century.

The book chronicles these sub-rosa goings-on, which included double agents and double crosses galore, in the context of the politics of the English Court and the age. It is interesting and informative, but sometimes hard to follow, because many different characters are often introduced in a short space, and there is no index to turn to if you wish to find out when acharacter was first mentioned and in what context. A cast of characters at the beginning of the book is marginally helpful, and a timeline at the end is also useful, because sometimes the text hops from time to time, creating confusion about the order of events.

I'd recently read "Will in the World" (an excellent Shakespeare biography), and this book helped make that one much more meaningful.