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
Francis Harvey (MP for Colchester) the widow of Thomas Darcy of Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex. He had one daughter. Francis Harvey (MP for Colchester) Francis Harvey was an English politician. He was born in 1534, the second son of John Harvey of Ickworth, Suffolk by Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Pope of Mildenhall, Suffolk. In 1571 and 1584–1587, he was the Member of Parliament for Colchester, Essex as the nominee of Sir Francis Walsingham. In 1589, he was elected MP for Knaresborough and in 1593 MP for Chippenham. He married, firstly, Mary, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Neville of Holt, Leicestershire and the widow of Sir John