‘Intelligence, Espionage & Cromwell’s Protectorate’ a talk by Alan Marshall

03-11-21 - 03-11-21,
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Admission: ££5 Adults, £4 Students/Friends of the Museum

Location: Via Zoom

One of the main issues for the Cromwellian regime of the 1650s was its persistent worries over its own security and this meant the gathering of secret intelligence and the use of spies and informers.

So, this talk will seek to explore the Cromwellian ‘secret state’ in action and it will ask just how the regime went about organising its notorious espionage networks and its covert foreign policy business. It will examine how it used spies and informers, and whether the information it gathered by such a means was ever really as valuable as it seemed to believe. Lastly it will explore how the reputation of Cromwell and John Thurloe fits into this image of the Cromwellian ‘secret state’.

Alan Marshall is Professor of Early Modern History at Bath Spa University. He has written and researched extensively on Cromwell, his military career and intelligence & espionage during the Early Modern period. His new book 'Arcana imperii': a history of espionage in early-modern Britain, 1598-1715' is due out later this year.

This is part of a four part lecture series on the Civil War period. Discounted combined tickets for all four talks can be purchased at: the Cromwell Lecture Series (click on this title for the link).

The other talks are:

Wednesday 10 November at 7.30pm - Dr Rebecca Warren on ‘God’s Architect: Cromwell’s construction of a Godly Church’

Wednesday 17 November at 7.30pm - Dr Linda Porter on ‘The Tenderest Sight: Cromwell & Charles I’s children’

Wednesday 24 November at 7.30pm - Professor Ronald Hutton on ‘Oliver Cromwell: Saint or Serpent?’

PLEASE NOTE: This talk will be held online via Zoom. Joining details will be sent out 48 hours before the talk. The talks are recorded and will be available on a private channel for ticket holders to view afterwards if they miss the 'live' talk or wish to watch it again.

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