Francis Walsingham The Murder of Christopher Marlowe" (1992), which was used as a source by Anthony Burgess for his novel "A Dead Man in Deptford" (1993). The 1998 film "Elizabeth" gives considerable, although sometimes historically inaccurate, prominence to Walsingham (portrayed by Geoffrey Rush). It fictionalizes him as irreligious and sexually ambiguous, merges chronologically distant events, and inaccurately suggests that he murdered Mary of Guise. Rush reprised the role in the 2007 sequel, "". Both Stephen Murray in the 1970 BBC series "Elizabeth R" and Patrick Malahide in the 2005 Channel Four miniseries "Elizabeth I" play him as a dour official. Francis Walsingham
Thomas Walsingham (literary patron) with Poley present, purportedly in a dispute over an unpaid debt. Poley later became an important, secret intermediary in clandestine arrangements for installing Elizabeth's putative successor, King James. Francis Walsingham made use of his young relative as early as October 1580, when he appointed him as one of the trusted couriers between the English court and the queen's ambassador in France. In August 1581 Thomas accompanied Sir Francis to Paris on a delicate diplomatic mission connected with the proposed marriage between Elizabeth and the French king's brother, Francis, Duke of Anjou. In 1596 he was appointed Justice of the Peace