The 16th and 17th centuries were a crucial time for spy craft.

This was an era of political intrigue and diplomatic subterfuge.

It was a time when spies and counterspires conspirators and intelligences pitted their

wit against each other.

Because of the great need for espionage, over the hundred years from 1560 we see in England the evolution

of spying from lone genius amateur to the creation of an institutional

intelligence unit but how did they do it?

Much of the work of spying in the early modern period involved handling letters.

For beside words of mouth, the only way to transmit information over distance was by letter.

Therefore everything from ink to script, letter lock to seal became a potential

weak chink in a letter's mail.

So how did a spy operate?

What skills and techniques did he or she have to master?

And how could it all be revealed?

To delve into the practicalities of espionage,

I am joined by the historian's equivalent of Q,

Professor Nadeen Ackman and Pete Langman.

Nadeen Ackman, who has joined us on the podcast before to discuss 17th century female spies

and Elizabeth Stewart Queen of Bohemia is the award-winning author of Invisible Agents,

Biographer of Elizabeth Stewart and professor in early modern literature and

culture at Leiden University.

Pete Langman is an editor, academic and OED

...