Regency Spies: Secret Histories of Britain's Rebels and Revolutionaries

by Sue Wilkes

An Age of Revolutions:
Sue Wilkes uncovers the hidden histories of Regency spies and the men they hunted. Eavesdrop on the secret meetings of Britain’s underground political societies of the 1790s and early 1800s. Discover the true stories behind the riots, rebellions, and treason trials in late Georgian Britain.

Regency Spies explores the plots, intrigues and perils of those thrilling times:

• Wolfe Tone’s ambitious plan to free Ireland from British rule

• Luddites incite arson and machine-breaking in Britain’s industrial heartlands

• The doomed Pentrich uprising of 1817

• The race to stop the 1820 plot to murder cabinet ministers and seize control of the capital

Genres: History, Research, Regency

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2015

About the author

Sue Wilkes has lived in Cheshire with her family since 1981. She grew up in Salford, just as many of the great relics of the Industrial Revolution were being demolished. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were Lancashire miners. Her great-grandmother was a mill-worker, and her grandmother was a weaver at a mill.
Sue is a regular contributor to print and online magazines in the UK and USA. She is a fact-checker for a UK history magazine. Sue is married, with two children, and is a member of the Society of Authors.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

About internal spying, mostly double agents and agent provocateurs in the labour, reform, and Irish Home Rule struggles around the Regency (1790s to 1820). Nothing much on French espionage going either way. Suffers from the lack of existing sources, really. Solid intro to the subject.

[Abigail Bok · Rating 3 out of 5]

In fact I read only about half of this book, the part that refers to the chronological period of my research (up to ca. 1800). I’m a little torn about my rating because, as the author concedes at the start, the primary data available for a study of spies in Georgian England is patchy at best, so a deeper study might not be possible. In the end I gave the book a middling rating because I felt it did not materially add to what has been widely discussed in other books—the spy stories Wilkes focuses on are quite well known. I picked up a few details, but had already discovered in other secondary studies most of what is discussed here.

Wilkes takes an anecdotal approach to the subject of Georgian spies (only the back half of the book is set in Regency times). This results in an engaging read (the “Spy Nosy” tale is always good for a laugh, especially among English majors), but I was looking for something a bit more analytically rigorous—some examination of how the spies’ intelligence influenced policymaking or debates in Parliament, perhaps? Were there leaks to the press? What about British spies overseas, or foreign spies on British shores?

This book might be a useful introduction for someone who has not previously approached the subject, though a reader without a solid grounding in the period might find the airy references to aspects of British history and politics a bit baffling. I’m afraid it felt like a light snack to me, and left me hungry for more.

[Michelle Higgs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sue Wilkes’s new book Regency Spies has all the elements of a Hollywood thriller: espionage and agents provocateurs, secrets and lies, betrayals and treason. But her book doesn’t deal with spying in the First or Second World Wars, or even the Cold War. Instead, we are transported to the not-so-genteel real world when Jane Austen lived.

Meticulously researched and skilfully woven into an accessible narrative, Sue Wilkes sets the scene by explaining the background to the civil unrest and the prevalence of secret societies in Britain and Ireland in the Regency period. While some of these groups genuinely wanted to emulate the French and bring about a revolution, others simply wanted to improve their working conditions, increase their wages and get the vote. The government, however, saw little difference between the two and anyone who was a member of a secret society or who attended overtly political meetings was at risk of arrest, transportation or even execution.

This fascinating book covers a tumultuous period in history from the mutinies in the Royal Navy and Wolfe Tone’s plan to free Ireland from British rule through to the Luddites, the Peterloo massacre and the Cato Street conspiracy. The chapters on the north of England are particularly strong. With so much going on and with so many different people involved, the story could easily have become confusing and muddled. However, Regency Spies is reader-friendly because of the appendices that list the names of delegates, conspirators, suspect persons, codenames of spies, and notable people within the government. There is also an excellent index and the text is well referenced.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confusion confounded

At times in this book one wonders whether there were more spies than genuine conspirators. Some of them definitely acted as agents provocateurs, and there were real grievances against the government which needed addressing. From this end of history one cannot help but feel sorry for those conspirators demanding the reform of Parliament and the extension of the franchise.

[Katherine Cowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you read a Jane Austen novel, there are traces of the Napoloenic Wars--for example, the role of local militias and the military characters--but the politics of the time are not addressed outright. In the same way, there are traces of politics. However, the economics are often front and center, at least for the gentry characters. This nonfiction book takes the same time period and looks at the fear caused by the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars--the fear that the people would rise up and topple those with power and wealth, the fear of a French invasion, the fear of a Catholic takeover in Ireland, the fear that the status quo would be disrupted. As a result, the Home Office and the Alien Office employed spies to track and report on rebels and revolutionaries. This was a fascinating look at what is a rather short period of time, that gives both a big picture as well as lots of specific stories about individuals.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good info - wish more information was forth coming about certain females mentioned in the book.

For instance,

p.50 Luckily for [Hamilton] Rowan, the flow of information traveled both ways. The United Irishmen had their own spies in government quarters. Rowan's wife had a friend on the Privy Council, who warned her about incriminating documents, and she successfully organized a daring escape for her husband.


What was Rowan's wife's name, what did she do?? She was OBVIOUSLY CRITICAL yet, she's not even a footnote in the footnotes, just a mere mention, one sentence, a passing side swipe.

[John Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of confusion here, but basically the government overreacted in some of the concerns. Spies seemed dirty for the times, but in the end revolutions, protests et al problems came from the mistakes and assumptions that all would follow the leaders.
In the end it reminded me of a line from Fawlty Towers when a Germans asked another "However did they win?" Everything seems to covered the Corn Laws, Luddites, even the Naval Mutinies at Nore and Spithead.
Interesting but a bit tedious.

[Bookworm10001 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it, but acknowledge, as the author does that primary source information is limited, for obvious reasons. The author writes clearly and engagingly and I learnt so much new information about what Britain was like during that period. Will definitely be reading more of her books.

[Anne Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining writing style, well researched, and neatly edited this is an excellent resource for those interested in the era or subject.

For my full review: http://wp.me/p2FybJ-bJs