Intelligence and Espionage in the Reign of Charles II, 1660-1685 by Alan Marshall (review)

BOOK REVIEWS117 Intelligence and Espionage in the Reign of Charles II, 1660—1685. By Alan Marshall. [Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History.] (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 1994. Pp. xvi, 334. $5995.) Alan Marshall breaks new ground in this first substantive analysis of intelligence -gathering and espionage during the reign ofCharles II. Nearly a quarter of the book is devoted to the role of the secretaries of state as the principal officials responsible for this work Marshall gives particularly high marks to Joseph Williamson, whom he ranks widi Francis Walsingham andJohn Thurloe as die forefathers of the English intelligence system. Yet diat system failed to check the blatant use of spurious allegations during the investigation of the Popish Plot, and WUliamson, who appears to have been skeptical ofthe charges, failed to take a pubUc stand and expose their falsity. Thus at one of the most critical moments of the reign, die inteUigence system faUed, perhaps in part because it could not evaluate die anti-CathoUc charges, but also because of a faUure of nerve on Williamson's part. MarshaU is perhaps too forgiving in his treatment of WUliamson. Marshall provides intriguing analyses of die government's use of the post office to obtain intelligence by monitoring the maus, and of the recruitment, support, and use of spies and informers. Charles' regime typically employed eighteen to twenty-two spies, some of whom were volunteers whUe others were coerced into serving or recruited by oüier spies. The government compensated the spies at wUdly varying rates, but in general the remuneration was not substantial. MarshaU devotes much of his study to biographical summaries of the spies and their work, providing rich detail about botii domestic and foreign intelligence-gadiering. Much of die evidence MarshaU employs is difficult for historians to assess, as indeed it was for contemporaries, and honest disagreements are inevitable. Marshall rightly argues that it was in the spy's self-interest to be truthful in his reports. The greatest strengtii of this study is MarshaU's astute analysis of die government's espionage activities and personnel, but the book is plagued by serious problems, includingfactual and bibUographical errors. Some involve such elementary facts as the number of "actual risings"; MarshaU erroneously includes Dublin in 1663, when in fact die government arrested conspirators before they could rebel, and he inexplicably omits the substantive Scottish rebeUion in 1679 diat required an army from England to suppress. An odierwise fascinating chapter on assassination faUs even to mention die most spectacular assassination ofthe reign, namely, diat ofJames Sharp, Archbishop of St. Andrews, in 1679. Marshall virtuaUy ignores what may have been die most significant poUtical murder of the reign—that of Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex. (Marshall at first dismisses the possibUity of murder in a footnote, but later decides, in another footnote, that Essex might have been murdered.) The Swiss town of Vevey, where Ludlow and ouier exües took up residence, 118BOOK REVIEWS erroneously appears as "Vervay" and "Vevay." Some of Marshall's characters are inadequately identified: Mr. Knowles is Hanserd KnoUys; Mr. Thorne is George Thorne; Mr. Lawrence is Richard Lawrence; all were nonconformist ministers. Marshall is so intent on tarring me with the brush of whiggery that he retitled one of my books to give it a whiggish flavor! I was astonished to read that "in [my] view die agendawas already set and that it aU must inevitably end in 1776 and another, but more long-lasting, 'glorious revolution' " (p. 13). In fact, I would argue strenuously against such an interpretation. The errors, misrepresentations, and critical omissions mar a book that otherwise has much to offer. Richard L. Greaves Florida State University The Church ofEngland c. 1689-c. 1833: From Toleration to Tractarianism. Edited by John Walsh, Colin Haydon, and Stephen Taylor. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1993. Pp. xii, 372. $6995.) Ecclesiastical historians have devoted Uttie scholarly attention to die Church of England during the Hanoverian era. To date, Norman Sykes's 1934 publication , Church and State in England in the Eighteenth Century, remains die only comprehensive monographic study of eighteenth-century Anglicanism. Presenting die most current research and historiography on this neglected theme, John Walsh, Colin Haydon...