Walsingham, Francis ___ 1532c-1590 ___ British ___ diplomat

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Walsingam studied at King's College, Cambridge, and trained to be a lawyer. During Queen Mary's reign, he took refuge abroad, as did many other Protestants. He returned to England after the accession of Elizabeth I, and, with the help of Sir William Cecil, entered the House of Commons. Elizabeth appointed him ambassador to France, between 1570 and 1573, during which time he negotiated the Treaty of Blois. In 1573, he was admitted to the Privy Council and became secretary of state, a position he held until his death in 1590. As Queen Elizabeth's principal secretary he was particularly adept as a linguist and at organising spies (useful for Elizabeth's foreign policy, and for uncovering Catholic plots). Walsingham married three times and his only daughter married thrice also, successively the poet Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Essex, a renowned courtier. Walsingham's diary, noted down by a secretary not by Walsingham himself, is only a brief record of his movements, but is valuable nonetheless since he held such high office during Elizabeth's reign. It was published by the Camden Society in the 19th century.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1570-1583 ___ political travel royalty France

WEB TEXT LINKS
about and some extracts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
The National Archives

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Camden Miscellany VI
English Diaries
 

May 2005, August 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.