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
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