Gilbert Gifford

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gilbert Gifford (* 1560 in Staffordshire , † November 1590 in Paris ) was an English spy . He worked for Sir Francis Walsingham and was involved in the Babington conspiracy .

Life

Gilbert Gifford was born in Staffordshire in 1560 to the Catholic John Gifford. In 1577 he began his training as a priest at the English College in Douai under Cardinal Allen . Relatives with the surname "Gifford" are his cousin William Gilbert, Professor of Divinity at the seminary in Reims and his brother George Gifford , who offered the Duc of Guise for 800 crowns to murder Queen Elizabeth.

Two years later he switched to the English College in Rome. After his expulsion from Rome, Cardinal Allen gave him a second chance in 1582, now no longer in Douai, but in Reims . He moved back and forth between England and France and Italy several times and was ordained a deacon in 1585.

It was around this time that he befriended John Savage, who was implicated in the conspiracy to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and enthrone Mary Queen of Scotland . In October 1585 Gifford left Reims again to meet in Paris Thomas Morgan , another participant in the Babington conspiracy and agent of Mary Queen of Scots and Charles Paget . In December 1585 he was arrested in England, where he was interrogated in London by Sir Francis Walsingham , the head of the Royal Secret Service. Probably during the interrogation or earlier, Gifford must have agreed to work as a double agent for the royal side. He soon won the trust of Mary Queen of Scots (Queen Mary) and took on the role of smuggling letters from and to her hidden in beer kegs. These letters were secretly delivered to Francis Walsingham and resulted in the arrest and execution of Anthony Babington and the other conspirators, as well as the execution of Mary.

Gifford, known as No. 4 in London, used various aliases such as Colerdin, Pietro or Cornelys. He left England to travel to Paris around 1586/87. He was ordained a priest in March 1587. He was arrested in a cathouse in December 1587 and died in Paris prison in November 1590.

literature

  • Charles Cotton: The Bardon Papers. A Collection of Contemporary Documents (MS. Eg. 2124) Relating to the Trial of Mary Queen of Scots, 1586, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 1908.
  • Austin K. Gray: Some Observations on Christopher Marlowe, Government Agent. PMLA, 1928.
  • Ethel Seaton: Robert Poley's Ciphers, The Review of English Studies. 1931.
  • RB Wernham: Christopher Marlowe at Flushing in 1592, The English Historical Review. 1976.
  • John Bossy : The Character of Elizabethan Catholicism. by Past and Present, 1962 The Past and Present Society.
  • Sidney Lee :  Gifford, Gilbert . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 21:  Garnett - Gloucester. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London, 1890, pp 302 - 303 (English).
  • John Hungerford Pollen:  Mary Queen of Scots . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.

Web links

Bibliography and Notes

  1. ↑ Alison Plowden: Gifford, Gilbert (1560-1590). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
personal data
SURNAME Gifford, Gilbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Colerdin (alias); Pietro (alias); Cornelys (alias)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English double agent
DATE OF BIRTH 1560
PLACE OF BIRTH Staffordshire
DATE OF DEATH November 1590
Place of death Paris