The Queen's Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I (54 page)

All the elements of a godly Protestant belief were there: the sufficiency of Christ for salvation, with no mention of the Virgin Mary or the saints; the impermanence and corruption of the
world; a yearning for the gift of faith, and for the stoical death which would be proof of election. There was even a nagging thorn of doubt, ‘assuring myself’ managing to convey both the certainty and the fear of being uncertain which coexisted in the Protestant mind. In his will, we finally have the chance to hear Walsingham in prayer.

Having committed his soul to the keeping of his redeemer, Walsingham had little time for his body. He asked to be buried ‘without any such extraordinary ceremonies as usually appertain to a man serving in my place’, citing the greatness of his debts. Walsingham was troubled about the ‘mean state’ in which he would be leaving Dame Ursula. A later inquest into his estates listed the manor of Bradford in Wiltshire as well as farms and orchards in Barnes, including twelve acres of arable which by then had passed to Robert Beale. Even with Barn Elms and the lands which he had sold before his death, this wasn’t much to show for twenty years as an ambassador, principal secretary and the queen’s chief of security.

In keeping with his wishes, Walsingham was buried quietly on the evening of 7 April in the north aisle of old St Paul’s, within sound of the preachers and booksellers who clustered around Paul’s Walk. Ursula and Frances chose to place him in the same grave as Philip Sidney. There was no effigy, nor even a tomb: merely a wooden tablet with an inscription in two languages. A summary of his career in Latin praised Walsingham’s role in making peace, serving the state and protecting his country from danger, while an English epitaph reflected more specifically on his work as a spymaster:

 In foreign countries their intents he knew,

Such was his zeal to do his country good,

When dangers would by enemies ensue,

As well as they themselves he understood. 

The initial letters of each line spelled out ‘Sir Francis Walsingham’ as an acrostic. The memorial was recorded in the early seventeenth century but destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Sidney’s modern admirers have erected a slate plaque to his memory in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, but of Walsingham there is no mention.

In the absence of a state funeral, it was left to the poet Thomas Watson to reflect on Walsingham’s passing. Watson had probably worked for the crown as an intelligencer before settling down to a literary career. He had also recently served a term in Newgate prison for manslaughter, the price of intervening in a brawl to save the life of Christopher Marlowe. Watson’s verses to mark Walsingham’s death were crammed with classical allusions. England became Arcadia, while courtiers and statesmen were recast as characters from Virgil’s
Eclogues
. Queen Elizabeth appeared as Diana, the ‘glory of her sex and kind’. Watson recalled Walsingham as ‘a sound pillar of our common wealth’. His death had deprived Diana of the protection which she had enjoyed for so long:

Now in the fields each corn hang down his head,

Since he is gone, that weeded all our corn:

And sprouting vines wither till you be dead,

Since he is dead, that shielded you from storm. 

Rooting out the weeds from the commonwealth, and shielding his queen from harm: a tribute that would have satisfied even Walsingham.
³⁰

NOTES

1
Walsingham’s portrait: NPG 1807. De Critz: TNA SP 15/27, fol. 132, 187, 246; Mary Edmond, ‘John de Critz’ in
Oxford DNB
. Curiosities: Richard L. Williams, ‘The Visual Arts’, in Susan Doran and Norman Jones (eds),
The Elizabethan World
(Abingdon, 2010), 583–4.

2
Walsingham’s privy council memorandum: transcribed in Conyers Read,
Mr Secretary Walsingham and the Policy of Queen Elizabeth
(Oxford, 1925), III, 73–5. Treaty of Joinville: TNA SP 78/13, fol. 163v. Crichton: TNA SP 12/173, fol. 4–12; Read,
Walsingham
, II, 177, 373–8, 386, 398–9. Spanish embargo: Humphrey Mote,
The Primrose of London with her Valiant Adventure on the Spanish Coast
(1585), STC 18211, sig. A3r; James McDermott,
England and the Spanish Armada: The Necessary Quarrel
(New Haven and London, 2005), 152–3. Amends and satisfaction: Carey to Walsingham 25 June 1585, in Julian S. Corbett (ed.),
Papers relating to the Navy during the Spanish War 1585–1587
(London, 1898), 33–6.

3
Treaty of Nonsuch: R. B. Wernham,
Before the Armada: The Growth of English Foreign Policy 1485–1588
(London, 1966), 371. Protector rather than sovereign: TNA SP 84/2, fol. 95r; Read,
Walsingham
, III, 106 n. 2.

4
Leicester as governor-general: Wernham,
Before the Armada
, 376–9. True-hearted Swiss: Walsingham to Leicester 28 Mar. 1586, quoted in Read,
Walsingham
, III, 143.

5
Drake’s expedition 1585–6: Carleill to Walsingham 4–11 Oct. 1585, in Corbett,
Spanish War
, 39–49; Edward Wynter to Walsingham 24 Oct. 1585, in ibid., 49–51; ‘Statement of the Queen’s account’, in ibid., 94–5; Harry Kelsey,
Sir Francis Drake: The Queen’s Pirate
(New Haven and London, 1998), chapter 9. Beacon fires: Buchanan Sharp,
In Contempt of All Authority: Rural Artisans and Riot in the West of England, 1586–1660
(Berkeley, 1980), 16.

6
Santa Cruz and Parma: De Lamar Jensen, ‘The Spanish Armada: The Worst-Kept Secret in Europe’,
SCJ
19 (1988), 621–41; McDermott,
Necessary Quarrel
, 162–3. Standen: Read,
Walsingham
, III, 288–92, where a detailed case is made for the identification of Pompeo Pellegrini with Antony Standen.

7
Philip’s sense of mission: Geoffrey Parker, ‘The Place of Tudor England in the Messianic Vision of Philip II of Spain’,
TRHS
6th series, 12 (2002), 167–221. Peace negotiations: Read,
Walsingham
, III, 260–79. Since England was England: Howard to Walsingham 27 Jan. 1588, in John Knox Laughton (ed.),
State Papers relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada
(London, 1894–5), I, 48–50.

8
Burghley’s disgrace: Stephen Alford,
Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I
(New Haven and London, 2008), 291–5. For queen and country: Drake to Walsingham 2 Apr. 1587, in Corbett,
Spanish War
, 102–4. Cadiz and Sagres: Drake to Walsingham 27 Apr. 1587, in ibid., 107–9; Drake to Leicester 27 Apr. 1587, in Simon Adams (ed.), ‘The Armada Correspondence in Cotton MSS Otho E VII and E IX’, in Michael Duffy (ed.),
The Naval Miscellany VI
(Aldershot, 2003), 52–3; Drake to Walsingham 17 May 1587, in Corbett,
Spanish War
, 131–4; Kelsey,
Queen’s Pirate
, chapter 10.

9
Defences: John Summerson, ‘The Defence of the Realm under Elizabeth I’, in H. M. Colvin (ed.),
The History of the King’s Works
(London, 1982), IV, part II, 402–14; Martin Biddle, H. M. Colvin and John Summerson, ‘The Defences in Detail’, in Colvin,
King’s Works
, 468–70 (Dorset coast), 471 (Harwich and Ipswich), 480–1 (Upnor), 518–27 (Portsmouth; see also TNA SP 12/168, fol. 20–1), 531–2 (Carisbrooke), 590–3 (Scilly) and 598–601 (Falmouth).

10
Their surest defence:
APC
XVI (1588), 203; McDermott,
Necessary Quarrel
, 176–81. Dover harbour: BL Harley 6035, fol. 3r–v, 7r, 27v; Martin Biddle and John Summerson, ‘Dover Harbour’, in Colvin,
King’s Works
, 755–64; Eric H. Ash,
Power, Knowledge and Expertise in Elizabethan England
(Baltimore and London, 2004), chapter 2, ‘Expert Mediation and the Rebuilding of Dover Harbor’; Paul Ive,
The Practise of Fortification
(1589), STC 1708.5; Stephen Johnston, ‘Thomas Digges’ in
Oxford DNB
.

11
Reaction to Cadiz: Pellegrini/Standen to Walsingham 16 July 1587, TNA SP 98/1, fol. 20–1; Stafford to Walsingham, TNA SP 78/17, fol. 249r. So great an exploit: Adams, ‘Armada Correspondence’, 55–8. Prepare in England: Drake to Walsingham 27 Apr. 1587, in Corbett,
Spanish War
, 107–9. 

12
Medina Sidonia: Garrett Mattingly,
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada
(London, 1959), 182–4. Parma’s orders: Jensen, ‘Worst-Kept Secret’, 639–40; Geoffrey Parker, ‘If the Armada had Landed’,
History
61 (1976), 358.

13
Prisoners in Bridewell: TNA SP 12/214, fol. 53, 55–65;
APC
XVI (1588), 200, 210–11. Valdés: Laughton,
Spanish Armada
, II, 27–9.

14
But a device: Howard to Walsingham 24 Jan. 1588, in Laughton,
Spanish Armada
, I, 46–8; Adams, ‘Armada Correspondence’, 45–7; Mitchell Leimon and Geoffrey Parker, ‘Treason and Plot in Elizabethan Diplomacy: The Fame of Sir Edward Stafford Reconsidered’,
EHR
111 (1996). Turkish fleet: TNA SP 78/18, fol. 243r.

15
This is the year: Howard to Burghley and Walsingham 23 Feb. 1588, in Adams, ‘Armada Correspondence’, 68–70. Liberty and freedom: Hawkins to Walsingham 1 Feb. 1588, in Laughton,
Spanish Armada
, I, 58–62. Mammering: wavering or hesitating. We cannot long stand: BL Cotton Galba D. ii, fol. 192v.

16
Signet payments: TNA SP 12/229, fol. 115.

17
Bacon and fish: Fenner to Walsingham 3 Mar. 1588, in Laughton,
Spanish Armada
, I, 90–3. Oseley: Oseley to Walsingham 23 July 1588, in ibid., I, 301–2; Read,
Walsingham
, III, 292–3; McDermott,
Necessary Quarrel
, 364 n. 11. There goeth many English: BL Harley 168, fol. 160–1; Jason E. Eldred, ‘Imperial Spain in the English Imagination, 1563–1662’ (PhD thesis, University of Virginia, 2010), 167; Bertrand T. Whitehead,
Brags and Boasts: Propaganda in the Year of the Armada
(Stroud, 1994), 65–7.

18
Ply up and down: Walsingham to Howard 9 June 1588, in Laughton,
Spanish Armada
, I, 192–3. Had understood their plot: Howard to Walsingham 13 June 1588, in ibid., I, 195–9. Isle of Wight: ibid., I, 190–2. Whole plot and design: Walsingham to Sussex 24 July 1588, in Adams, ‘Armada Correspondence’, 80–2;
APC
XVI (1588), 168, 176.

19
Catholics and the Armada:
APC
XVI (1588), 167–8, 214, 218–19; McDermott,
Necessary Quarrel
, 244–7.

20
Some great shot: Howard to Walsingham 21 July 1588, in Laughton,
Spanish Armada
, I, 288–9. Privy council orders:
APC
XVI (1588), 166–7, 174, 176, 183, 186–7, 191. Crescent formation: Mattingly,
Defeat of the Spanish Armada
, 236–7. Fireships: McDermott,
Necessary Quarrel
, 266–8.

21
Public prayers:
APC
XVI (1588), 172; Whitehead,
Brags and Boasts
, 82–4, 94–5; David Cressy, ‘The Spanish Armada: Celebration, Myth and Memory’, in Jeff Doyle and Bruce Moore (eds),
England and the Spanish Armada
(Canberra, 1990), 157–9.