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
Spymaster (comics) and escaped. Spymaster was assigned by renegade S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to assassinate Tony Stark, but failed. He was employed by Madame Masque to steal a prototype energizer link, and abducted Bethany Cabe. Spymaster would come into conflict with Iron Man several more times, and on one occasion with the masked hero Daredevil. At one point Spymaster apparently succeeded in assassinating Tony Stark, but in reality it was a Life Model Decoy. He also succeeded in stealing many of Stark's Iron Man designs, giving them over to Stark's rival Justin Hammer, sparking the Armor Wars event. Stark believes that Spymaster may have