Intelligence and Espionage in the English Republic c. 1600-60

277 Pages·2023·2.546 MB·English

by  Alan Marshall

Intelligence and espionage in the English
Republic c. 1600–60
Politics, culture and society in early modern Britain
General Editors
Alastair Bellany, Alexandra Gajda, Peter Lake,
Anthony Milton, Jason Peacey, Abigail Swingen
This important series publishes volumes that take a fresh and challenging
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approaches to this period of dramatic conflict and change that fundamentally
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sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century history, including the history of
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politics-culture-and-society-in-early-modern-britain
Intelligence and espionage
in the English Republic
c. 1600–60
Alan Marshall
manchester university press
Copyright © Alan Marshall 2023
The right of Alan Marshall to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 1889 9 hardback
First published 2023
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Cover image: Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, The Hired
Assassins, 1852. © Wallace Collection, London,
UK/Bridgeman Images.
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For my father, John Richard Marshall

Contents

Acknowledgements page viii
List of abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
Part I The background
1 Themes and issues 11
2 The secretary of state 43
3 The Civil Wars 97
Part II Republican espionage
4 Thomas Scot and the English Republic 139
5 John Thurloe and the Cromwellian regime 177
Afterword 225
Bibliography 231
Index 258
Acknowledgements

For their support for the research on this book, I owe debts to a number of
individuals, organisations, and institutions. Some of the original research
work was supported by a grant from the British Academy and a Scoluoudi
Research Award and I am grateful for their assistance.
I also wish to thank staff at the following libraries and record offices
that I visited in the course of the research for this book, who were always
most helpful in answering questions and in providing access to the relevant
manuscript material in their care: Archivo General de Simancas (AGS); Bath
Spa University Library; Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies; the Bodleian
Library; the British Library; Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; the
East Sussex Record Office; Parliamentary Archives, Westminster; Institute
of Historical Research, University of London; Lambeth Palace Library,
London; the London Metropolitan Archives; the National Archives, Kew;
the National Library of Scotland; the Society of Antiquaries of London;
the Surrey History Centre, Woking; Trinity College, Dublin; the Vatican
Archives, Rome.
On a personal level there are, of course, many who have given of their
time and interest to provide comments and assistance, or have merely
heard, or even read bits of this work, and made comments that have always
benefitted its creation. In particular, amongst many others, I should like to
thank: Nadine Akkerman; Elaine Chalus; Stuart Handley; Sarah Hackett;
Tania Hajjar; Cliff Williamson; Terence Rodgers; Janet Clare; John Morrill,
David L. Smith; David Coast; Paul Lay; Stuart Orme; Alison Hems; David
Scott; Matthias Pohlig; Rachel Goodyear for her copy editing; and the stu-
dents who over the years undertook the ‘Secret Service’ module at Bath Spa
University. My special thanks to Meredith Carroll and the editors and staff
at Manchester University Press who have gone above and beyond to see an
awkward manuscript through the Press.
I am also eternally grateful for the advice, help, encouragement, and
support of Claire Tylee, who makes it all worthwhile.
List of abbreviations
Abbreviations

Abbott, Cromwell Wilbur C. Abbott, The Writings and Speeches
of Oliver Cromwell (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 4 vols, 1937–47).
Aylmer, King’s Servants Gerald E. Aylmer, The King’s Servants: The
Civil Service of Charles I, 1625–42 (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961).
Aylmer, State’s Servants G. E. Aylmer, The State’s Servants, The Civil
Service of the English Republic, 1649–1660
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973).
BL British Library, London
Bod. Lib. Bodleian Library, Oxford
Burton, Diary John T. Rutt (ed.), Diary of Thomas Burton
member in the parliaments of Oliver and
Richard Cromwell &c (London: H. Colburn,
4 vols, 1828).
Clarendon, History William D. Macray (ed.), The History of the
Rebellion and Civil Wars in England begun in
the year 1641 by Edward Earl of Clarendon,
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 6 vols, 1958).
Clarendon State Papers State Papers Collected by Edward Earl of
Clarendon (Oxford: Clarendon, 3 vols,
1767–86).
Cal Cl SP Frederick J. Routledge et al. (ed.), Calendar
of the Clarendon State Papers preserved in
the Bodleian Library (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 5 vols, 1869–1970).
Clarke Papers Charles H. Firth (ed.), The Clarke Papers:
Selections from the Papers of William Clarke
(London: Camden Society, 5 vols., 1891).
CJ Journal of the House of Commons (12 vols.,
1802–30).