For a few hours Elizabeth contemplates forgiving Essex. ibid.
The Gunpowder Plot: Cecil’s job to stop it. ibid.
James has a reputation for being obsessed with the occult, for promiscuity and extravagance. Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents III
The priest behind the kidnap plot is hunted down by Cecil’s men. ibid.
A year into his reign King James begins to reveal the scale of his ambition. ibid.
Cecil’s doubts about union are shared by the English parliament. ibid.
A splinter cell in the Catholic underground: it contains five young men, among them a mercenary Guy Fawkes. John Gerard has just set in motion the gunpowder plot. ibid.
Cecil can connect Percy to the men he thinks are behind the plot. ibid.
Some people refer to him as Henry VIII’s pet dog. Thomas Cromwell was much more than that. Realising that the king faced serious threats from Catholics both at home and abroad he created a formidable web of informants, spies and double agents that gathered information across the land warning him of impending plots and treason. What he started was the foundation of a new secret service. History’s Ultimate Spies s1e1: Cromwell, Yesterday 2017
Assert Henry’s new authority over the people of England and get everyone – clergy, nobility and commoners alike – to submit to the new religion or die. ibid.
He oversaw the dissolution of more than 800 monasteries. ibid.
Queen Elizabeth I reigned in turbulent times. And her right hand man and chief minister, Francis Walsingham, had one mission: to keep her alive. Facing plots to replace or kill the Protestant Queen, Walsingham built up a complex network of spies and informants across England and Europe. History’s Ultimate Spies s1e2: Walsingham
Walsingham even established a spy school to provide formal training for recruits. ibid.
Robert Cecil was one of England’s most feared spy chiefs. He was also a man of contradictions. But perhaps his greatest achievement was foiling the largest terrorist plot ever conceived: The infamous Gunpowder Plot. History’s Ultimate Spies s1e3: Robert Cecil
Intercepting and deciphering coded documents to paying informants and above all using double agents. ibid.
Cardinal Richelieu was a ruthlessly ambitious man who created an unrivalled intelligence network to protect King Louis XIII of France. A passionate Catholic, Richelieu mistrusted the Protestant Huguenots who were plotting to overthrow the King, and he established an ex network of spies, informers and double agents. History’s Ultimate Spies s1e4: Cardinal Richelieu
A remarkable rise to power. ibid.
‘Cabinet Noir was Richelieu’s masterstroke.’ ibid.
Zofia Potocka and Mata Hari were two of the most infamous honey-traps in the history of espionage. Beautiful and seductive in equal measure, they used their charms to entrap legions of men … They then sold their secrets to the highest bidders. History’s Ultimate Spies s1e5: Zofia Potocka
Zofia Potocka was born in Sofia in 1760 and raised in Constantinople … Zofia then moves on to Paris, meeting and becoming friendly with Marie Antoinette … engineered by the Polish ambassador to gain access to people of real power and influence … ibid.
By the turn of the 19th century Zofia had travelled across most of Europe … ‘She was in the intelligence gathering business.’ ibid.
She died in Berlin in 1822 aged 62. ibid.
Half a century after Potocka’s death a young girl called Margaretha Zelle was born in Holland in 1876. Like Zofia, at an early age Mata Hari as she became known decided sexuality was her ticket to a better life. ibid.
Elizabeth van Lew was one of the most daring and important women spies in the American Civil War, and one of the bravest women in American history … a spymaster behind enemy lines. History’s Ultimate Spies s1e6: Elizabeth van Lew
She had a Quaker education which instilled in her a strong belief that slavery was wrong and should be abolished. ibid.
‘A one-woman campaign basically to free every slave she can.’ ibid. Ross Andrews
She established a highly effective intelligence network. ibid.