The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I

Renaissance

Hardcover

1st

Non-Fiction

397

30

2018-06-26 18:11:28

In 1586, an English brewer put encoded letters into waterproof tubes, dropped them in casks of ale, and delivered the casks to the moated manor where Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned. One letter, written by Mary\u2019s Catholic supporters, contained a plot to liberate her and kill Queen Elizabeth. Mary replied encouragingly, but the brewer was actually working for Elizabeth\u2019s spies. The secret agents who labored to prove Mary\u2019s guilt and bring about her execution are the stars of this meticulous chronicle. Alford, a historian, tracks the careers of the men whose \u201cvigilance and suspicion\u201d and \u201cdetermined suppression\u201d of Elizabeth\u2019s enemies were, he suggests, what enabled the Queen to escape assassination and her country to avoid invasion by French and Spanish forces intent on returning England to Catholicism. Elizabeth\u2019s spies routinely used the rack for interrogations; torture was then, as now, justified as a means of protecting \u201cthe security of the state.\u201d \u2666

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

9781608190096

United States

2012-02-01

2012

1

English

~$20.30

2025-12-24

2018-06-26 18:11:28