Sir Francis Walsingham and Mid-Elizabethan Political Culture

This thesis addresses Sir Francis Walsingham’s place in and thinking about mid-Elizabethan political culture. Often seen as the dour Puritan among Elizabeth’s advisers, this thesis aims to recalibrate opinions of Walsingham, in light of his conscious and sophisticated engagement with the currents of political thought and action through which he moved. Chapter 1 explores Walsingham’s early life and education, between his birth (c. 1532) and his appointment as special envoy to France in 1570, aiming to more thoroughly analyse and contextualise the impact this had on his later life. Chapter 2 examines Walsingham’s self-conscious construction of his role as adviser to Elizabeth through his correspondence with her, engaging particularly with his vocabulary and rhetorical strategies, including humanist-classical ideas of counsel. This chapter also analyses his longer political writings on the issues of Elizabeth’s projected marriage to the duke of Alençon and English intervention in the Low Countries, comparing Walsingham’s techniques and expression to the developing language of the “art of the state”. Chapter 3 and 4 explore Walsingham’s patronage in the Church of England and in English government in Ireland, to uncover the motivations and priorities that governed his interventions in these areas. Chapter 5 traces Walsingham’s career-long preoccupation with Scotland, as the principal example of his tendency to offer advice to foreign rulers, examining his contacts with key figures north of the border, the advice he offered directly and indirectly to James VI, and the language he used to describe Anglo-Scottish relations, and analysing his motivations and intentions for these unprecedented interventions.