From the acclaimed author of The Watchers the untold story of Robert Cecil - the ultimate
Tudor spy-master 'Alford triumphs... in recreating the historical moment. By immersing
himself in Cecil's vast archive he draws the reader deep into his working environment
capturing the closeness of his study and the chaos of the court... this is turn-of-century
England as it really was - dangerous gritty on a knife edge' - The Times *Shortlisted for
the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2025* Robert Cecil statesman and
spymaster lived through an astonishingly threatening period in English history. Queen
Elizabeth had no clear successor and enemies both external and internal threatened to destroy
England as a Protestant state most spectacularly with the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder
Plot. Cecil stood at the heart of the Tudor and then Stuart state a vital figure in managing
the succession from Elizabeth I to James I & VI warding off military and religious threats and
steering the decisions of two very different but equally wilful and hard-to-manage monarchs.
The promising son of Queen Elizabeth's chief minister Lord Burghley for Cecil there was no
choice but politics and he became supremely skilled in the arts of power making many rivals
and enemies. All His Spies is a wonderfully engaging and original work of history. Many
readers are familiar with the great events of this tumultuous time but All His Spies shows how
easily these dramas could have turned out very differently. Cecil's sureness of purpose his
espionage network and good luck all conspired to keep England uninvaded and to create a new
'British' monarchy which has endured to the present day.
