Secrets and lies: Spies of the Stuart era played a dangerous game in the shadows of an unstable Europe

Stuart monarchs were repeatedly challenged by dangerous threats—a gunpowder plot, a civil war and political revolution. As a result, by the restoration of Charles II in 1660, the English government had come to rely on a shadowy trade of secrets for gathering domestic and international intelligence.

source https://phys.org/news/2024-11-secrets-spies-stuart-era-played.html