» Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England

Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great history, passable biography, makes sense out of Shakespeare
Comment: I walked away with the feeling that the author intended to write a history of Queen Elizabeth's intelligence operations, but the publisher forced him to make it a biography. This book is an excellent history of internal and external politics of England during Elizabeth's reign. As a biography, it's only OK; not bad, but not great. As an adjunct to Shakespeare, it is brilliant.

I never really understood the events surrounding the detention of Mary Queen of Scots and the Spanish Armada until reading this. Now it all makes perfect sense. Vignettes about the implications of over-aggressive operations against religiously based insurgents are rife. Read with a broad veiw of current events, this book is very relevant.

As a bio, it's kind of flat. Walsingham was a character, and very good at what he did even if not appreciated by Elizabeth. He was a passionate intelligence professional, and ran some brilliant, if ethically dubious, operations. I think the material about Walsingham really got lost in the history.

As an adjunct to Shakespeare, this is excellent. This book reviews what would have been recent history and current events at the time Shakespeare began writing. The tone and references from Shakespeare make a lot more sense after wrapping myself around the life and times of Walsingham. The treachery and conspiracy culture that permeated Elizabeth's court is described in detail, and especially in "Measure For Measure" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona", the reader can better appreciate the complexity and risks of court life.

I really enjoyed and learned a lot from this book, and recommend it to any student of that period's history, intelligence history, or Shakespeare.

E.M. Van Court

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Elizabeth's Spymaster
Comment: A little dry in style, but with good information, and a good bibliography. I enjoyed reading it.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Rather disappointing
Comment: I have always been fascinated by the work of Sir Francis Walsingham so I bought this book in eager anticipation - and was terribly disappointed. It is basically a mix of generalist Elizabethan history and rather boring details of Sir Francis' expenses. The one operation about which we have lots of information is his campaign against Mary Queen of Scots and this is covered in some detail in the book but we are told no more than is revealed in a lot of other books about Mary, her imprisonment and trial. I was hoping to find out exactly how Sir Francis got started in the spying business and how he built up his spy ring. Although the author implies that, as a neighbour of Lord Burlegh's he was introduced into the world of Tudor politics and espionage, this is never explained fully.
Perhaps the irony is that Sir Francis was so good at what he did that we will never be able to find out how he did it!

---