{"product_id":"the-watchers-a-secret-history-of-the-reign-of-elizabeth-i-9781608190096","title":"The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn a Europe aflame with wars of religion and dynastic conflicts  Elizabeth I came to the throne of a realm encircled by menace. To the great Catholic powers of France and Spain  England was a heretic pariah state  a canker to be cut away for the health of the greater body of Christendom. Elizabeths government  defending Gods true Church of England and its leader  the queen  could stop at nothing to defend itself.  Headed by the brilliant  enigmatic  and widely feared Sir Francis Walsingham  the Elizabethan state deployed every dark art: spies  double agents  cryptography  and torture. Delving deeply into sixteenth-century archives  Stephen Alford offers a groundbreaking  chillingly vivid depiction of Elizabethan espionage  literally recovering it from the shadows. In his company we follow Her Majestys agents through the streets of London and Rome  and into the dank cells of the Tower. We see the world as they saw it-ever unsure who could be trusted or when the fatal knock on their own door might come. The Watchers is a riveting exploration of loyalty  faith  betrayal  and deception with the highest possible stakes  in a world poised between the Middle Ages and modernity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647973744693,"sku":"ByrdShop_1608190099","price":33.53,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781608190096.jpg?v=1781700274","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-watchers-a-secret-history-of-the-reign-of-elizabeth-i-9781608190096","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}