8 Most Notorious Spies in History:
- Sir Francis Walsingham – Sir Francis Walsingham was the spymaster of Queen Elizabeth between 1573 and 1590, and he played a significant role in the Tudor intelligence gathering. He was acting under the authority of the Queen, who feared a great deal a possible Catholic uprising. Walsingham was in charge of recruiting informers, cryptographers, and even seal-breakers that were there to protect the interests of the crown. All his work resulted in a strategic advantage the minute the Spanish Armada attacked England in 1588, and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587. Walsingham is also known as the great-grandfather of MI5, the British government’s domestic counter-intelligence organization. The rose that Walsingham pressed into his wax seals can be seen now as a reference to MI5’s coat of arms.
- Belle Boyd – Maria Isabella Boyd, who was also known as “Belle”, was a notorious Confederate spy that conducted her activity throughout the American Civil War. She was first recruited as an asset that belonged to the Confederation, right after she was involved in a violent altercation with a Union soldier. The man, who was apparently intoxicated, offended Boyd and her mother. As a response, Boyd shot him dead. Boyd managed to escape arrest for the offense and started a very fruitful career in espionage.
- Mata Hari – Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Holland. Her alias, Mata Hari, helped her to style herself as an exotic dancer of royal Indonesian heritage. During World War One, she became an on-stage sensation, as she was extremely renowned for her racy live performances. However, Hari’s fabricated upbringing wasn’t the only thing that was mysterious about her, as she was one of the greatest spies that ever existed. While she was acting as an elite courtesan, she took all kinds of highly influential lovers from all over the globe. And, as you might have guessed, Hari extracted and sold as much information as possible to the Germans during World War One. Even so, Hari had an influence and proficiency that remained somehow contentious. Some people still argue that she had some methods that were, in fact, ineffective. Others believe that her efforts led to as many as 50,000 deaths, as she had tons of military advantages gained by her work.
- Fritz Joubert Duquesne – He was born and raised in South Africa, and he witnessed all kinds of atrocities made at the hands of the British Army during the Boer War, which also included the detaining of his own mother and sister in a concentration camp. He was fiercely anti-British, and he was later recruited as a German spy during World War One. He played the role of a scientist, which helped him gain access to British vessels and extract important information. Duquesne is considered to have detonated bombs on different British ships during his time as a spy and might have been responsible for the sinking of the HMS Hampshire back in 1916, during which Britain’s Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, was murdered.
