Despite his service and his title, records suggest Walsingham did not have great wealth (he wrote that he'd be leaving great debt behind upon his death) suggesting that his loyalty was not mercenary. As he was on the winning side, Walsingham remained a life-long servant of the Queen, dying in 1590. Although he was a diplomat for most of his professional life, Walsingham is credited with thwarting any attempts on the Queen’s life and is credited with pushing the Queen towards the execution of Mary Stewart. Walsingham began his operations by keeping tabs on the foreign spies in London: Elizabeth and her Catholic rival Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland both saw themselves as Queen of England, and Walsingham, as a Protestant sided, with Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. Case in point, here, is Sir Francis Walsingham - a graduate of law whose studies and travels abroad ended up placing him as Queen Elizabeth I’s right hand man for information. The first contender on our list demonstrates that while we may see spying as a firmly twentieth century occupation, espionage has in fact been in the arsenal of almost every government in some form or another throughout history. If, however, you're something of a code-breaker, then perhaps this list may serve as guidance for future operations… If a career full of acknowledgements and praise is what you are after, then the life of a secret agent is most definitely not for you. But of course, perhaps best spies altogether are the ones we've never heard of, and who may in fact be right under our noses as we speak. With the list running from Tudor England to the present day, we've narrowed our story of spies to just 10 of the most prominent, well-recorded spies. Some tragically lost their lives in the line of duty, yet many went undetected or managed to escape to greener pastures, away from the long arm of the law. The years cited in our rankings indicate the length of time these spies were active in the field, varying from a couple of years to almost a lifetime. Our top ten list is a look through history at some of the world’s best spies and the impact they had on the world around them. While we may see the life of a spy as a gun-carrying, jet-setting one, the reality for most - it seems - is somewhat more mundane: reading what you’re not supposed to, passing confidential information to people outside the loop, and generally remaining as unremarkable as possible in order to get away seamlessly with subterfuge. As long as there has been politics and a struggle for power, there have been those employed to know what’s happening behind the scenes at every event. The illicit notion of 'espionage' may be something associated with Cold War antics and twentieth century conflict, but professional eavesdropping has likely been taking place for as long as humans learned the invaluable art of deception.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |