Francis Walsingham Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( 1532 – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Walsingham attended Cambridge University and travelled in continental Europe before embarking on a career in law at the age of twenty. A committed Protestant, during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I of England he joined other expatriates in exile in Switzerland and northern Italy until Mary's death and the accession of her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth. Walsingham rose
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