Simon Fernandes time and piracy was an offence punishable by hanging, but in practice Fernandes was engaged in exactly the sort of behaviour to which Queen Elizabeth I of England was inclined to turn a blind eye. However, the Portuguese ambassador Francisco Giraldi vigorously protested Fernandes's activities to the Queen's ministers, after the alleged murder of seven Portuguese sailors, and in 1577 the 39-year-old Fernandes was arrested in Cardiff and taken to London to face trial. However, far from being hanged for his crimes, Fernandes was released, apparently with the connivance of Queen Elizabeth's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, who appears to have
The Unfortunate Traveller corrected and augmented" edition of the text appeared later in the same year by the same publisher. No new editions appeared through the handpress era. In "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", Sir Jack Wilton (standing in for real-life Elizabethan spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham) was the "M" of the late 16th century. He led a group of special operatives called Prospero's Men shortly after the reign of "Good Queen Gloriana" of England. The Unfortunate Traveller The Unfortunate Traveller: or, the Life of Jack Wilton (published "The Unfortunate Traueller: or, The Life of Jacke Wilton") is a picaresque novel by Thomas Nashe