She-Intelligencers: women and espionage in the British civil wars

Abstract

For the first time the role played by women in the espionage networks of both sides in the Civil Wars is being recovered through the pioneering research conducted by Nadine Akkerman, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Professor Akkerman tells publisher, Mike Gibbs, how she uncovered the extent and importance of these women – known at the time as “She-Intelligencers” – the techniques they used and the risks that they took.