The New Student's Reference Work/Walsingham, Sir Francis

Walsingham (wŏl′sĭng-ăm), Sir Francis, an English statesman, was born at Chiselhurst, Kent, in 1536. He studied at Cambridge. He was distinguished among Queen Elizabeth's ministers for acuteness and for knowledge of public affairs. He was sent on an embassy to France in 1570, to the Netherlands in 1578, to France again in 1581 and to Scotland in 1583. He was secretary of state to Elizabeth, and managed foreign affairs by a system of spies, having it is said, had nearly 60 agents in his service. In this way he got possession of the correspondence of Mary, Queen of Scots, which was used to prove her guilty of conspiring against the life of Queen Elizabeth and he was one of the commissioners at her trial. He died on April 6, 1590.