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
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,