If you think that the female spy is a 20th century phenomenon, be it Matterhari, Mrs.

Zigzag or Eve Pellastry, think again. Accounts of numerous 17th century she-intergences

have lain undiscovered in archives for centuries, and these remarkable women were much more than

the honey trap accomplices of a Stuart era George Smiley. Take Susan Hyde, for example,

the Minister of the Earl of Claringdon, who met a sorry end in Lambeth Prison.

A very melancholy account of a cruel usage of one Mrs. Hyde, a relation of the chancellors

who had been seized upon suspicion of illicit correspondence, and their nothing was found

upon her, yet they used her so ill, and terrified her so much that she lost her senses

and expired in a few days in that condition.

I'm Mrs. Analybskum, and in this edition of Not Just The Tudors, I'm joined by Dr. Nadine

Ackman, author of Invisible Agents, Women and Espionage in 17th century Britain, to talk

about her fascinating quest to unearth the plots and conspiracies involving women spies

who have been forgotten by history.

Dr. Nadine Ackman is a reader in early modern English literature at Leiden University.

She's a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and she's currently putting the finishing touches

to her biography of Elizabeth Stuart Queen of Bohemia, which is due out soon with OUP.

And she's also already published Elizabeth Stuart's complete correspondence, which is

a monumental work of scholarship.

And in reading and transcribing and deciphering hundreds, maybe thousands of these letters,

Nadine historian turned spy mistress, discovered a female spy, and that led her deep into

the shadowy world of espionage.

And so her last book, the critically claimed Invisible Agents, Women and Espionage in 17th

...