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 printed at London by James Young in 1652, 4to; a second edition appeared in 1655, and was reprinted in 1810, 12mo. In 1694 it was issued with Sir Robert Naunton's "Fragmenta Regalia" in 1722 an edition was published substituting "Instructions for Youth" for the first part of the title, and giving different renderings of various passages from classical authors (reprinted 1728). Edward Walsingham Edward Walsingham (died 1663) was an English royalist author, known for his verse of the First English Civil War and "Arcana Aulica", often wrongly attributed to Sir Francis Walsingham. According to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon,