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
Edward Walsingham or the Life of ... Sir Henry Gage". Another work left in manuscript was "Hector Britannicus", on Sir John Digby (1605–1645), brother to Sir Kenelm Digby. These works have been described as hagiography, with the subjects having in common Catholicism, culture and a noble background and character. In 1651 he sent as a present to Ormonde his "Arcana Aulica, or Walsingham's Manual of Prudential Maxims for the Statesman and the Courtier." This work has been generally attributed to Sir Francis Walsingham, and other conjectures have been made as to its authorship. Its original was an anonymous French work, "Traité de