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 (MP) when King Charles I decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He was made vice-admiral of Kent in 1627. In April 1640, Walsingham was re-elected MP for Rochester for the Short Parliament and again in November 1640 for the Long Parliament when he sat until 1653, surviving Pride's Purge. He sold the family property of Scadbury in around 1655. Walsingham died in 1669 and was buried at Chislehurst on 10 April 1669. Walsingham married twice, his first wife being Elizabeth Manwood, daughter of Sir Peter Manwood. Thomas Walsingham (MP) Sir Thomas Walsingham (c. 1589 - April 1669) was an