Free Ancient and Medieval Traitors - Back-stabbers, turncoats and conspirators (True Crime) by Gordon Kerr

ALSINGHAM AND  E LIZABETH  C LASH

    It was never in dispute that Queen Elizabeth held her adviser Walsingham in high regard, but there gradually came a time when the two strong characters began to clash with one another. On one hand, there was the fiercely determined Walsingham, fixed in his opinion that he knew best and that Elizabeth would be wise to adhere to his every word of counsel. The queen on the other hand, felt that her adviser was forcing her to make decisions without allowing her to have any input herself. The queen clearly did not think much of Walsingham’s character but was well aware that his master minding of the now well-established secret service in England, had helped her to combat her enemies for the duration of her reign.
    As time went on, the pair continued to clash. Firstly there was an issue with some intelligence that Walsingham had received from abroad. He discovered that under the auspices of Felipe II, Spain was preparing to invade England. The motives for this were tied up with the continuing religious disagreements between Catholic Spain and Protestant England. The queen could not agree with Walsingham’s advice to fight the advancing Spanish forces, and decided on using peaceful methods to come to some sort of agreement with Spain. Unfortunately for Walsingham he would never have as much backing as the queen and he grew increasingly frustrated that his advice was constantly being ignored. Walsingham did himself no favours by allowing his relationship with other members of the privy council to deteriorate. He found himself disagreeing with the Earl of Leicester and gradually became estranged by him, which left him isolated and alone.
    He was undoubtedly devoted to protecting England and clearly believed that he had the queen’s best interests at heart with every decision he made on her behalf. In 1581 he was sent to France to forge an Anglo-French alliance in order to unite the two countries against the increasing power of Spain. Elizabeth was encouraged to take François, Duke of Anjou, in marriage, but stubbornly refused any such union as she believed that it would undermine her authority as a female ruler. Again Walsingham felt exasperated that the queen would not heed his useful advice, and he continued to immerse himself in the work of his secret service. Regrettably for Elizabeth, her status as a ruler was never safe and she was now faced with a threat from Scotland in the form of Mary Queen of Scots. The queen of Scotland held a genuine claim to the throne of England, but this was reliant upon the demise of childless Elizabeth. She was implicated in a number of plots against the queen of England but Elizabeth was not keen on executing her enemy as she was royalty just like herself. Instead she chose to imprison her in the Tower of London for a number of years and believed that this would put an end to Mary’s plotting against her.

    W ALSINGHAM’S  F ALL FROM  G RACE

    At this time Walsingham became increasingly paranoid about the threat that Scotland posed to Queen Elizabeth. He became convinced that it was not only Mary Queen of Scots who was conspiring against Elizabeth, but was also persuaded that James VI of Scotland was also in on the plotting. As a consequence, he desired to implicate Mary Queen of Scots heavily in the Babington plot, led by Anthony Babington, which sought to take the life of their ruler. A series of letters were reportedly sent disguised in bottles between the Queen of Scots and the main conspirator, Babington. Walsingham’s superior secret service quickly got wind of this plot and set about to bring the conspirators to justice.
    There is much dispute regarding whether or not Mary actually had any involvement in this plot, and many believed that Walsingham had fabricated the evidence to render her guilty of committing treason against the Queen of England. Elizabeth did not know what to do. On one hand she felt that she was being pushed into executing