Age of charlemagne mercia guide free#

Arrested as a Catholic priest, Anthony Tyrell chose to defect rather than to die his reward for turning informer was a Church of England living on the Essex marshes. Berden claimed to be inspired by вЂњthe safety of my native countryвЂќ, but he also enriched himself with bribes from Catholic gentlemen desperate to protect their families at home.

Age of charlemagne mercia guide free#

Nicholas BerdenвЂ™s credibility in Catholic circles left him free to circulate among English exiles in Rome and Paris, and whatever he learned was passed on to Walsingham. Some were godly Protestants, like Walsingham himself, but others were motivated by power or the chance for profit. The state papers in the National Archives and the British Library introduce some remarkable characters who worked in the Elizabethan secret service. Researching my book The QueenвЂ™s Agent, I was struck by WalsinghamвЂ™s ability to recruit agents from deep within the Catholic community. When he joined the privy council as secretary to the queen the following year, Walsingham had the chance to put his Protestantism into action. The burning of Protestant preachers and laypeople forever linked Catholicism with persecution in WalsinghamвЂ™s eyes, a world view terrifyingly confirmed when he witnessed the St BartholomewвЂ™s Day massacres as ambassador to Paris in 1572. Unlike his future colleague William Cecil, he chose exile in Switzerland and Italy rather than accept the old religion restored by Queen Mary in 1553. WalsinghamвЂ™s faith was quickened by his studies at KingвЂ™s College Cambridge and GrayвЂ™s Inn during the radical years of Edward VIвЂ™s Reformation. His uncle Sir Anthony Denny was close to Henry VIII during the 1540s, keeping Protestant hope alive at court when the kingвЂ™s own enthusiasm had waned. His lawyer father had died when he was an infant, leaving Francis in the care of his motherвЂ™s family. WalsinghamвЂ™s psychology was deeply rooted in his Protestant belief. Encouraged by their spiritual leader, Cardinal William Allen, they began to plot as well as pray for revolution. But a smaller number of political radicals were not prepared to wait until all memory of the old faith had faded away. The majority wanted simply to be left alone to practise their religion in private.

They turned instead to missionary priests ordained in Douai, Rheims and Rome. Broad as it was, the Elizabethan church settlement still excluded those who believed in the real presence of Christ in the mass, or who could not accept the queen as supreme governor of the church.Д«y the mid-1570s, Catholic recusants (from the Latin for вЂto refuseвЂ™) were cutting themselves off from English parish life. But public displays of loyalty were organised in the knowledge that her rule was less secure than it appeared. No previous monarch had inspired the bonfires and bell-ringing which marked the anniversary of ElizabethвЂ™s accession day each 17 November. Why was Elizabeth in danger? We think of the Virgin Queen, the magnificent вЂcult of ElizabethвЂ™ at the royal court and popular celebrations in the towns and countryside. Time after time, that meant convincing Elizabeth to take action when all her political instincts told her to delay. It seems an odd thing to say, until we realise that вЂsecurityвЂ™ in Elizabethan English meant overconfidence or carelessness вЂ“ what we would call a false sense of security.ДЄppointed principal secretary to the queen, Walsingham saw it as his God-given role to protect her from harm. One of his earliest surviving letters, written when he was working as an agent of ElizabethвЂ™s chief advisor William Cecil, warned that вЂњthere is nothing more dangerous than securityвЂќ. His advice to the queen sounded a constant alarm, to wake up to the Catholic threat at home and abroad. As Queen ElizabethвЂ™s security chief, Walsingham was haunted by the fear that England would succumb to the tyranny of Rome.