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Sir Francis Walsingham ( 1532 – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Walsingham attended Cambridge University and travelled in continental Europe before embarking on a career in law at the age of twenty. A committed Protestant, during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I of England he joined other expatriates in exile in Switzerland and northern Italy until Mary's death and the accession of her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth. Walsingham rose from relative obscurity to become one of the small coterie who directed the Elizabethan state, overseeing foreign, domestic and religious policy. He served as English ambassador to France in the early 1570s and witnessed the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. As principal secretary, he supported exploration, colonization, the use of England's maritime strength and the plantation of Ireland. He worked to bring Scotland and England together. Overall, his foreign policy demonstrated a new understanding of the role of England as a maritime, Protestant power in an increasingly global economy. He oversaw operations that penetrated Spanish military preparation, gathered intelligence from across Europe, disrupted a range of plots against Elizabeth and secured the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. ==Early years== Francis Walsingham was born in or about 1532, probably at Foots Cray, near Chislehurst, Kent.〔Cooper, p. 5; Hutchinson, p. 295〕 His parents were William and Joyce Walsingham. William was a successful, well-connected and wealthy London lawyer who died in 1534 and Joyce was the daughter of courtier Sir Edmund Denny and the sister of Sir Anthony Denny, who was the principal gentleman of King Henry VIII's privy chamber.〔Hutchinson, p. 26; Wilson, pp. 7–12〕 William Walsingham served as a member of the commission that was appointed to investigate the estates of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1530,〔Hutchinson, p. 28〕 and his elder brother, Sir Edmund Walsingham, was Lieutenant of the Tower of London.〔Cooper, p. 7; Hutchinson, p. 26; Wilson, p. 6〕 After William's death, Joyce married the courtier Sir John Carey in 1538.〔 Carey's brother William was the husband of Mary Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's elder sister.〔Cooper, p. 12; Hutchinson, p. 296; Wilson, pp. 5–6〕 Of Francis Walsingham's five sisters, Mary married Sir Walter Mildmay, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer for over 20 years, and Elizabeth married the parliamentarian Peter Wentworth.〔Cooper, p. 42; Hutchinson, pp. 30, 296; Wilson, pp. 12–13〕 Francis Walsingham matriculated at King's College, Cambridge, in 1548 with many other Protestants but as an undergraduate of high social status did not sit for a degree.〔 From 1550 or 1551, he travelled in continental Europe, returning to England by 1552 to enrol at Gray's Inn, one of the qualifying bodies for English lawyers.〔Adams ''et al.''; Cooper, pp. 19–20; Hutchinson, p. 28; Wilson, pp. 17–18〕 Upon the death in 1553 of Henry VIII's successor, Edward VI, Edward's Catholic half-sister Mary I became queen. Many wealthy Protestants, such as John Foxe and John Cheke, fled England, and Walsingham was among them. He continued his studies in law at the universities of Basel and Padua,〔Cooper, pp. 26–28〕 where he was elected to the governing body by his fellow students in 1555.〔Cooper, p. 27; Hutchinson, p. 29; Wilson, p. 31〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Francis Walsingham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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