Robert Barret and the Making of an Early Modern Occasional Spy

Abstract

This article examines letters written by the soldier‐author Robert Barret in 1581 describing his travels in France and Italy, while a runaway apprentice during the 1570s, that led him to the English College in Rome. Barret's letters constitute a valuable, hitherto overlooked source of first‐hand information about British and Irish Catholics in continental Europe, complementing better‐known sources by Anthony Munday and Charles Sledd. Barret latterly recast his travels as an intelligence‐gathering opportunity in which he collected detailed information both on Catholic exiles (including Thomas Stukeley, Bishop Thomas Goldwell, and Cardinal William Allen) and on putative plans to invade England. The letters provide an exemplary record of the – not uncommon – experiences of someone compelled by circumstances to adopt the role of an occasional spy. This article not only analyses the value of the letters’ contents but discusses broader questions concerning the pliable, shifting nature of early modern intelligence and intelligence‐gatherers.