‘Secret wheeles’: clandestine information, espionage, and European intelligence

Marshall, A (2020) '‘Secret wheeles’: clandestine information, espionage, and European intelligence.' In: Ebben, M.A and Sicking, L, eds. Beyond ambassadors: consuls, missionaries and spies in premodern diplomacy. Brill, Leiden. ISBN 9789004438842

Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004438989_010

Abstract

This chapter will seek to explore a few of the roles played by professional secret intelligence gathering and espionage agents and ‘non-state’ actors in the Europe of the mid-17th century. It will consider the nature of espionage and its language and structures. In particular it will reconsider the espionage games played by Richard and Ignatius White. These men were brothers, and members of a large exiled Irish family, and they were also members of the Irish exile community in Europe, and they took on an espionage role within the transnational intelligence networks of the diplomatic world of the late 1650s and early 1660s. Indeed by operating across state borders in the service of Spain, France, and England, the White brothers deliver a valuable example of how such ‘non-state’ (or at the least very loosely attached) actors could operate in what Alain Hugon has fittingly called Europe’s “monde du secret,” and how such people also became included in the state policy and diplomacy of their day.

Item Type: Book Chapter or Section
Note:

Part of the 'Rulers and Elites: Comparative Studies in Governance' series.

Keywords: spies, intelligence, European history, 1600-1700, Ireland, Cromwellian Britain, France, Spain, Low Countries, Fronde
Subjects: D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
D History General and Old World > DC France
D History General and Old World > DH Netherlands (The Low Countries)
D History General and Old World > DJ Netherlands (Holland)
D History General and Old World > DP Spain
U Military Science > U Military Science (General)
Divisions: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Research Centres and Groups: History and Heritage Research Centre
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004438989_010
Related URLs:
Date Deposited: 17 May 2018 15:41
Last Modified: 16 May 2022 14:36
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/11073
Request a change to this item or report an issue Request a change to this item or report an issue
Update item (repository staff only) Update item (repository staff only)