This ambitious and important book is a richly detailed survey of the ideas and activities in the Britishthe early-modern 'secret state' and its agencies:spies, informers and intelligencers, from the late sixteenth to mid-seventeenth-centuries (c1550-1667). The book investigates the meanings this early-modern secret state acquired to express itself by exploring itsespionage actions, the moral conundrums,and the philosophical background of secret governmentin the era. It considers in detail the rich culture and language of plots, conspiracies, and intrigues and italso exposes how the intelligence activities of the Three Kingdoms began to be situated within early-modern government from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the rule of Oliver Cromwell. It introduces the reader to some of the personalities who were caught up in this contemporary intelligence and espionage world from the intelligencers Francis Walsingham, Robert Cecil, Thomas Scot and John Thurloe, to the life stories ofmen and women who became secret agents and spies. It includes espionage activities not just in England, but also in Ireland and Scotland, and it especiallyinvestigates intelligence and espionage duringthe critical periods of the British Civil Wars and the important developments which took place under Oliver Cromwell and the English Republic in the 1650s. The book will particularly appeal to academic historians, students, teachers, and members of the general public who are fascinated by the secret affairs of intelligence and espionage.