Dr. John Dee

As foreign secretary, Walsingham could pursue no independent policy; he was rather in the position of what today would be the permanent under-secretary of the combined home and foreign departments, and he had to work under the direction of the council, and particularly of Cecil and the queen.

By 1573, Walsingham was running his spy network from England, bringing Dr. Dee there as well. Dr. Dee reported a method of writing ciphers and secret codes for “magical” purposes, to William Cecil, who asked him to find a way to adapt it for secret communications, which he did and this was passed to Walsingham to be used by his secret agents. This was the beginning of hiding intelligence work as being “occult” or “magical stories”.