Abstract for the Diplomats, Agents, Adventurers and Spies 1500–1700 conference, 17–19 September 2008, Canterbury, UK.
Samuli Kaislaniemi
University of Helsinki
In a letter to Thomas Wilson of 25 March 1608, Richard Cocks commented, “this wch I write yow I haue hearde from others, and soe I canot say it is trew, only I leave it to yor better consideration”. For some five years Cocks, a merchant trading in Bayonne on the Spanish border of France, had been writing Wilson letters informing him of local events and news pertaining to Spain. Cocks was one of the many continental sources of Wilson, who in turn was one of the secretaries of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and who ran part of Salisbury’s intelligence network. Cocks’s comment reflects the amateur nature of this intelligence network: many intelligencers were simply expatriate Englishmen recruited to report on their local events and news touching English interests. While some were paid for their pains, others hoped for the more weighty currency of favours from those higher up the social ranks. All were involved in the process of sending letters “vnder Couart” to England and forwarding “packets” to and from other intelligencers, as well as to and from English ambassadors – in Cocks’s case, the one in Madrid.
In this paper I investigate the role of Richard Cocks in the intelligence network created by Thomas Wilson. I will discuss the network of intelligencers that Cocks was a part of, the routes and methods of conveyance of the letters sent to England, the contents of the letters, and the abstracts created from the letters for Salisbury by his secretaries. Finally, I will look at how this intelligence network functioned as a network of patronage and helped forward the careers of (some of) those involved.