This is why Anne might later have felt she had to explain herself.Īkkerman shows how complex the operations of gender were. ![]() It was rumored at the time that this escape might have served a scheme to replace the future Charles II with his brother and so establish a Catholic succession. Similarly, Akkerman reads Anne, Lady Halkett's “true account” less as an apology for marrying someone who was already married, which Halkett doesn't seem especially apologetic about, and more as an apology for her spying activities-especially her role in helping James, Duke of York, the future James II, dress as a woman and escape. She tracks down the original of Elizabeth Carey, Lady Mordaunt's “spiritual diary,” presumed lost, and by doing so identifies passages missing from an otherwise perfect nineteenth-century transcription she then draws on these newly discovered passages to support her argument that Lady Mordaunt carefully shaped her account of herself “to come to terms with the sinful life she led as a she-intelligencer” (179). Filled with arresting discoveries, it is above all a model of assessing received wisdom critically and returning to the archive to look anew at material letters and the secrets they still keep.įor example, Akkerman scrutinizes how Elizabeth Murray's story has usually been told, and then carefully unpicks that narrative. The book introduces players who will be new to many readers but also provides fresh perspectives on figures as familiar as Aphra Behn, Anne Halkett, and Charles I. ![]() In contrast, Parliamentary spies were on the Council of State's payroll, sometimes as nurses. As Akkerman shows, Royalists were more willing to rely on women than Parliamentarians, and Royalist spies tended to be of relatively high status, so they were on equal footing with their handlers. ![]() This richly illustrated, scrupulously researched book offers case studies of six Royalist spies, as well as a chapter on women who worked on the parliamentary side.
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