Mary Queen of Scots sent a coded reply, on this day in 1586, to a letter she had received from Anthony Babington a week earlier. In her reply she ordered Babington and his co-conspirators to assassinate her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Unfortunately for her, Francis Walsingham had uncovered the plot and was intercepting and deciphering the letters. This sealed Mary’s fate and she was executed on 8th February the following year.
Sir Anthony Standen travelled as master of horse with Lord Darnley when he went to Edinburgh to marry Mary. Anthony received the first of his knighthoods when he was knighted by Mary after saving her life. Darnley had assassinated her secretary, David Riccio, and Anthony stepped in to save Mary. He was knighted again by Queen Elizabeth after his intelligence work which helped defeat the Spanish Armada.
Mary’s reign unravelled in Edinburgh after she asked Earl Bothwell to murder Darnley and then married Bothwell. Sir Anthony fled to Paris, where he secured employment with the English Ambassador, Sir Henry Norris, and subsequently his successor, Francis Walsingham.
Sir Anthony’s career in espionage began in Paris, and it seems likely to me that he would have been employed looking out for associates of Mary, given his knowledge of Mary’s court. In writing The Spy who Sank the Armada I have followed the known milestones of Sir Anthony’s life and imagined the reasons why he did certain things and the methods he used. The science of deciphering is included.
I haven’t read it yet, but S.J. Parris (Stephanie Merrit) covers the Babington plot in her novel Execution. This is the latest of her novels featuring Giordano Bruno, which is quite a coincidence because the second book in my Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, Fire and Earth, also features Giordano Bruno. I wonder where our paths will cross next? Hopefully at a literary awards ceremony.