Review: Killing Beauties by Pete Langman

Synopsis: England, 1655. Following the brutal civil wars the country swelters under a cloud of paranoia, suspicion and the burgeoning threat of rebellion. With the fragile peace being won by Cromwell’s ever-efficient Secretary of State John Thurloe, the exiled king Charles Stuart sends two spies on a dangerous mission to wrest back the initiative. These spies are different, however: they are women. Their task? To turn Parliament’s spymaster into their unwitting  accomplice.  Killing Beauties is a dark tale of subterfuge, jealousy and betrayal.

Some Background:

The setting for this historical novel is England, 1655. It is the time of what was known as "the Protectorate" when England was governed not by the monarchy, but by Parliament under Oliver Cromwell (r. 1653 - 1658) and then his son Richard, (r. 1658 - 1659). King Charles I had been executed in 1649 at the culmination of the civil war that had raged throughout England, Scotland and Ireland since 1642; and his son and successor, Charles II, was languishing in The Hague (the Netherlands). With him in exile were many nobles and political heavyweights, including one Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.

Whilst in exile, Charles and his councillors were in constant contact with supporters in England. The use of spies, letter locking, concealed messages, secret signals was on constant use by both parties. Many spies were exposed, imprisoned, tortured and often executed.  Most spies were men.

Espionage in 17th Century England:

The rise of espionage or spying services could be traced to the Catholic and Protestant conflicts of the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe. In England, there was both a fear of a Catholic invasion and attempt to take the English throne as well as a desire to shape events in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands. Under the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), one of the first official spymasters in English history arose in the figure of Francis Walsingham, who was also the Secretary of State for Elizabeth I. Another key person was William Cecil.

After the English Civil war in the 1650s, Oliver Cromwell realized there needed to be greater control of the postal service, which became the primary way in which many plots were orchestrated. Thus, the Post Office, under John Thurloe, increased letter surveillance to help uncover plots against Cromwell. This development by Thurloe also included the earliest known usage of mathematicians as dedicated, state-sponsored code breakers, where Thurloe employed mathematicians from Oxford, such as John Wallis, to decipher conspiracies.

While the state increased its efforts in trying to infiltrate various groups, including Catholics and potential conspirators, the state attempted to mislead in some news so as to help disrupt potential threats and ability to organize for hostile groups - this was a form of "fake news" - instigated by the state to control the flow of information. The press, at times, could be used as a coded messaging system to conspirators. Writer and poet John Dryden later noted: “Plots, true or false, are necessary things, To raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings”.

One of the most common the methods used was letters.  These innocuous pieces of correspondence could be filled with ciphers or codes that were written invisible ink.  The ones delivered through official postal channels contained either false or largely superficial information.

Women were able to gather information unnoticed because they were not believed to be politically active. In fact, playwrights, nurses, ladies-in-waiting, nuns, postmistresses, and women in other professions and positions operated as spies during this period. This means that they secretly obtained information from the enemy either out of political or religious convictions, or to obtain money or power. Their secret communications were couched in innocent domestic terms, but were encoded with references to high politics and dangerous enterprises. Unlike men, these women were not restricted by codes of chivalry and honour. Sometimes they worked alone, but there is substantial evidence to suggest involvement in secret spy networks.  While male spies would be hanged if caught, female spies would be punished with a short stay in the Tower of London.

The Sealed Knot:

The Sealed Knot was a secret organisation dedicated to the restoration of the Monarchy. The group was commissioned by King Charles II between November 1653 and February 1654 from his exile in Paris for the purpose of coordinating underground Royalist activity in England and preparing for a general uprising against the Protectorate. Strangely enough, Edward Hyde was not one of the original founding members.

The Sealed Knot made ten attempts between 1652 and 1659 to bring about the Restoration. Major uprisings were ultimately ineffective, partly because of an abundance of caution, but not least due to the treachery of Sir Richard Willis (a double agent), who was feeding information to Cromwell's spymaster John Thurloe from at least 1656, for reasons which remain unknown. In 1659 Willis was denounced to the future King Charles II by Thurloe’s secretary, Samuel Morland, who accused him of plotting, with Thurloe and Cromwell, to lure Charles and his brothers to return to England under false pretences (to meet followers in Sussex) and then assassinate them (see: The Life of John Thurloe, Esq).

Dramatis Personae:

Susan Hyde: Was the sister of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.  She worked for the Sealed Knot, the Royalist secret society determined to put the Stuarts back on the throne. She went by the name of Mrs Edwards, and sometimes Mistress St Barbe, Mistress Simburbe or Mr Gotherintone. When the Royalists lost the war, they did not give up the fight. Hyde's sister ran the London end of operations, communicating with the Stuart court in exile via an apothecary-clearing house in the Old Bailey.

In September 1656 a London apothecary, Anthony Hinton, was arrested on suspicion of using his premises beside the Old Bailey as a clearing house for letters on their way to exiled Royalists on the Continent. Interrogated by Cromwell’s own intelligence officers, Hinton quickly confessed his guilt and gave up the names of a number of spies with ties to the Sealed Knot, one of the Royalist secret societies operating in England during the Commonwealth. His list included Susan Hyde, the sister of Sir Edward Hyde, one of Charles II’s closest advisers. Hinton claimed that she had been sending useful information to fellow Royalists for more than four years, using a variety of ciphers and codenames.

Hinton’s claims were true. Hyde’s last letter, written in September 1656, warned Charles II that there was a leak in the network. She suspected that a double agent was at work. So there was: Sir Robert Honywood, master of the household to Charles II’s aunt Elizabeth of Bohemia, was spying for Cromwell. But it was Hinton’s evidence that was Hyde’s undoing. Some weeks after his confession (see: the State Papers of John Thurloe by John Thurloe),  three officers arrived at the house in Wiltshire where she was staying. despite her status as a gentlewoman, they ransacked her chamber, searched her for incriminating papers and carted her off to be examined in London, where she was so frightened by her interrogators that she had a mental breakdown. She died in prison at Lambeth a few days later and was soon forgotten. Even her brother, the great chronicler of the Civil Wars, made no mention in his writings of her contribution to the war effort. Broken and overlooked, she disappeared from history. Her brother Edward, the royalist exile and historian of the Great Rebellion, made no mention of her in his History or Memoirs.

John Thurloe: was a secretary to the council of state in Protectorate England and spymaster for Oliver Cromwell. Upon Oliver Cromwell's assuming the protectorship in December 1653 Thurloe became Secretary of State under him. In February 1654 he was made one of the masters of the upper bench of the society of Lincoln's–inn. In August 1655. he "had the care and charge of the postage, both foreign and inland, committed to him by the protector", Cromwell. 

Thurloe was efficient and thorough in carrying out his duties. He was able to keep Cromwell fully informed of the plans of foreign governments through his system of "intelligencers" and agents, and through detailed correspondence with ambassadors abroad. Among those in his employ were the Dutch diplomat and historian Lieuwe van Aitzema, the mathematician John Wallis, who established a code-breaking department, and diplomat and mathematician Samuel Morland, who served as Thurloe's assistant. 

Always apparently one step ahead of his enemies, Thurloe established a formidable reputation as a spymaster, particularly after his agents  (including Henry Manning, who would later be unmasked and executed) infiltrated Charles II's court in exile and he secured the services of the Royalist Sir Richard Willys as an informant. Thurloe's service broke the Sealed Knot, a secret society of Royalists and uncovered various other plots against the Protectorate. (see also: Codes & Cyphers of Thuloe's Agents).

Diana Jennings: was a shadier character, described as a coney-catcher (thief or con-woman).  I could find nothing on this elusive woman or her activities as an agent for the Sealed Knot, which is not surprising since much of the work of these women went undocumented.

My Review:

I really enjoyed this.  Whilst predominately a work of fiction, there is a strong sense of in-depth research that has gone into the story, which only makes the reader want to discover more (which I did).

The two main characters of Susan and Diana were polar opposites.  Susan is complex, serious and dedicated to the task ahead, even though she knows it could very well end in her death. Whilst Diana on the other hand, seems reckless, adventurous, daring, and willing to take a gamble and gain a reputation in the meantime.  I was pleased to see a mention of Jane Whorwood, an intelligencer for Charles I. The character of Molly did not really do much for me as I felt she was just a page filler whilst Diana was "off screen" so to speak.

I loved the use of actual historical details in the espionage component - letter locking, invisible ink, codes and cyphers, and the use of disguises and some questionable cross-dressing on the part of Diana.  The creation of a "Sisterhood" that was the sole domain of the female intelligencers was done quite well - I am sure that there were some in existance which those in key roles (like Diana and Susan) communicating with various other groups (ie: the Sealed Knot).

However, it was the character of John Thurloe that intrigued me the most to the point that it was with him that my empathy sat - he comes across as vulnerable, tortured, even somewhat likeable, an anti-hero if you will.  Thurloe is deserving of his own novel I think.

All in all, this was for me a good read and I happily went off discovering more.

further reading:

Royalist Agents, Conspirators and Spies: Their Role in the British Civil Wars, 1640-1660 by Geoffrey Smith

Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain by Nadine Akkerman

Royalist Conspiracy in England 1649-60 by David Underdown

Cromwell's master spy; a study of John Thurloe. by Daisy Lucie Hobman

see also: Letter Locking Dictionary